I'm gonna be going overseas in December. I've never used Travelers Checks before. What are the disadvantages/advantages of using 'em?
Depends on where you're going. If you're going to anywhere in Europe, don't bother buyng them. Just use ATMs to take out what you need. You end up paying a fair bit of money to American Express when you buy travelers' checks. And yeah, there are ATM fees to consider, but they're not going to be as high as whay you'd pay for travelers' checks.
i agree with mike. atm's are the way to go. they work just like atm's here. you may want to get about $50 worth of euros before you go. my brother went to brussels on business recently and the atm's at the airport were out of order. he had to use one of the extremely overpriced exchange counters.
Depending on how much money you are bringing and depending on how good a rate you can get on the traveler's checks, it may be worth it to go with traveler's checks. I believe ATMs would be cheaper only if you are withdrawing large sums of money at a time, and I personally don't like carrying a lot of cash. Some banks will waive the fee on traveler's checks, depending on what kind of account you have. In order to make it worth it, you might have to withdraw around $300 each time.
http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/atms_exchange_machines.htm http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/atm_conversion_fees.htm http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/travelers_checks.htm http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/travelers_checks2.htm
Even in you mainly go the ATM route, it might not be a bad idea to bring along a few hundred in traveler's checks, just in case you lose your wallet or your card.
I had problems with ATMs before.... and that was in Las Vegas when the machince decided to eat my card. I was left with less than USD40 in Las Vegas. Imagine if you lose your ATM card in Europe.....
i tried to change travellers cheques in marchi this year, bought maybe 1998 or so. they complained my signature did not look like in my passport that was 5 years old. i think that is a big annoyance .. my hand writing changes, it does not stay the same for that long. so at least don't have travellers cheques for years if you change ..
AAA used to not charge its members processing fees for travellers checks. I don't know if this is still true.
AAA might not charge, but the bank or exchange place where you cash it will certainly charge. And, in Europe at least, traveler's checks are a major hassle. In the fairly sizeable Finnish city I live in, you would have to go to a bank and wait for 15-20 minutes to cash one. Go with the ATM.
I took 2 ATM cards to Europe - one for back up if I had problems with one. Never did - easier than in the US. It does help to know a little of the language of the country your in, but I knew little French and got along OK in Paris.