We are planning to use ATMs during our upcoming India and Nepal trip, but were wondering if it would be a good idea to have Traveller's Checks on hand just in case?

never a bad idea to have a back-up... i try to always have more than one ATM card/bank to use just in case...

trav. cks are good in an emergency, but i am not sure how easy it is to use them in india....maybe at hotels it might work..

I usually carry ATM cards (plural), a few TCs, and a few $100 bills (as new as I can get). (If I were a guy I'd wear both belt and suspenders.) I did change TCs in India, but it was back in 2001, so my info dated. I think I used a money changer, which was easy, and banks, which was a pain.

I haven't carried travelers checks in more than a decade. I always carry two ATM cards (from different accounts). Like thursdays, my "just in case" money consists of a few US$100 bills.

Thanks so much, rhkkmk, thursdaysd, and Kathie. Until now all my overseas traveling has been to Europe, where I've always used ATMs, but when my husband was in India about ten years ago he brought TCs as a back up. I'm not sure whether he actually used them, though. If we need to, perhaps we'll find a money changer (sounds so Biblical!) like thursdaysd suggests.

I used a TC in India about 5 years ago. Our hotel woul;dn't take it, and sent me to a money changer. They were happy to cash it, but the service charge and exchange rate was much, much higher than for a $100 bill.

I agree with rhkkmk, I have also used TC in India and nepal,
and I also used ATMs, Yes keeping with us Traveller's Checks are good idea,

So based on lcuy's comment I'm thinking it would be a good idea to have some US cash on us as well as TCs. I'm hoping everything with the ATMs will go smoothly and we won't need to use either, but just in case...

Look at Amexco's website and you will know immediately how convenient it is to use/cash t.c.s. It is terribly modern to deride them, but I was in W. Ireland with a group and there were no banks, no atms and nobody woudl even exchange U.S.$. I was the only one in the group who had lots of money. I was just in Greece for a month and used the Amexco site to find banks for negotiation/exchange and it worked well. I think it is flying v. low to rely entirely on electronic devices - esp when the U.S. banking system is now less strong than a robin's egg.

Dunno about the US banking system. I just have an irrational fear that one day, in the middle of nowhere, that ATM will swallow my card. A secret wad of crisp $100 bills gives me peace of mind. I haven't used traveler's cheques in twenty years. I thought they'd gone the way of the fax. T.C.'s and India seems like a recipe for, if not disaster, <i>complication</i> - and India is quite complicated enough.

I agree with all the PP. We had a couple ATM cards and some emergency cash. TCs just seemed like too much of a pain. (But a good friend of mine did use them this year in India, so it's a pain that works).

I share Dogster's fear, even though I started my international travelling in the ATM era and have used them pretty much exclusively. I always associated TC's with those old Karl Malden ads, but that's what the hubs used as a backup when he was in Kolkata a decade ago, and he thinks, like daphee, that they are a pain that works.