Travellers Checks
 

Headed to Grand Cayman in March. I plan on taking credit cards &amp; cash. Are there any benefits to, also taking travellers checks? If so, please expain why.<BR>Thanks

Hello,<BR>We take credit cards and traveler's checks only because we don't care to use banks or ATM's.<BR>But I'd definitely go with ATM's before I'd take much cash. <BR>Nothing ruins a vacation faster than losing your $$$. There are plenty of ATM's available. <BR>GC is very safe, but you never know...

Just me personally, but I'd stick with mostly using the credit card. They accept US dollars all over, but you will get change back in Cayman dollars, except in Georgetown where all the cruise ships dock. To me its just easier, instead of trying to figure that $1.00 to .80 difference. I wouldn't even bother with travelers checks.

I also use mostly credit cards when in Grand Cayman.

We were burned a few years ago when we only took cash and credit cards. We didn't have an ATM card at the time. We had used our credit card a few times...no problems...when it came time to settle the resort hotel bill. We gave the check out person our VISA credit card and it was rejected....so, we gave her a second VISA credit card (different bank)....it was also rejected. We tried getting thru to VISA...extremely high call volumes...no answer as to why. Finally, my husband dug out his company American Express...and...it worked. No problem. When we got back home, I called VISA and complained...asked why...the explanation????? Well, it was Xmas and the credit card fraud throughout the caribbean was so extremely high that year that VISA simply stopped accepting ANY transactions....from ANYONE!!! Thank God we had several credit cards to choose from. From now on, we ALWAYS bring traveller's cheques. If we don't use them while travelling, I use them to buy groceries for a while upon returning. No big deal...but...if we need them out of the country....they can't be beat!!!!<BR><BR>So, decide for yourself but keep this story in mind!!!

I work for a large bank. Most likely, your bank declined these transactions because the system detected that these transactions were outside or your normal charging habits and/or that these authorizations were coming from an unusual place (another country). This practice is in place to protect consumers (and banks) from fraud and is quite common. <BR><BR>I would STRONGLY suggest that anyone planning to travel outside of the country should notify their bank that they will be traveling internationally. That way, the bank will not block the account or decline any transactions due to fraud alerts.