American Express issues?
 

Hi,

We're travelling to Athens, Santorini and Mykonos in a couple of weeks and we're trying to decide if AmEx traveller check cards are worth getting. Did anyone have any problems using AmEx there?

Thanks!

I can't say if they are difficult to use, but why do you want to pay all that money to have one when a regular credit card works well and doesn't cost you as much in fees or require you prepaying all your expenses?

Actually I may retract part of that last statement. Since I know that many places in Greece accept Visa or Mastercard but DO NOT accept American Express, I would strongly suspect that the same would apply to an American Express traveller check card.

AMEX is refused by most Greek merchants and avoided by the rest by passing on to you the 7% service fee. Take an ATM debit card with a 4-digit PIN and you'll be able to get cash from your checking account just about anyplace you go. Take a few AMEX TCs for emergencies only to exchange at a bank. If you don't need them you can redeem them when you get home for full value.

Upscale places will take the AMEX card- and may take the AMEX check card- but why pay all that extra money? The fees on this type of card are masssive.

You're much better off using your regular credit cards - but make sure you have Visa or MC as well as AMEX - and use ATMs to pull cash as needed.

Use your Visa or M/C credit card for car rentals, hotel bills, and other large bills. Otherwise, use your debit card to withdraw euros from your checking account. It is the best deal for you and it will make your hosts (vendors) very happy. ATM machines are everywhere and are easy to use (in English.)

Travelers checks are only useful as an emergency precaution and even then will be hard to use in the islands and the smaller towns.

Thanks everyone!

Great help!

The reason AMEX created these traveler check "cards" is so they can charge the merchants the same inflated rate as the regular Amex card. That's why fewer & fewer merchants accept them.

No - actually the reason they invented it is that their trav check business has been reduced to practically nothing. They invented a "card" that give them the same kind of profits as the checks used to - but sounds modern and high tech. And they market them primarily to people who don;t have real AMEX cards - the ones that used to buy all the checks.

Its the public they need the profits from - the vendor profits are incidental.

nytraveler has it right. both the visa and Amex travel cards are how the companies are trying to recoup the millions they used to make off Travelers Cheques. That whole industry is in decline and they are marketing the cards as a help to travelers when they are far from it.

Hi, cookie22n!

If you feel more comfortable carrying some travelers checks (as I do) why not look into your own local bank? Most banks will provide you with travelers checks free of charge if you are a premium customer.

Also, if you are a member of AAA/C (Auto. Assoc. of America or Canada) you can obtain travelers checks from them free of charge.

Enjoy your travels!

No, NYtraveler has it wrong. With paper travelers checks, they don't collect anything from the merchants who accepted them. With the cards they do & it's not a minimum amount. It's as high as the CC rate which is higher than any other credit card.

I deal with this daily.

Actually nytraveler is correct - W/ travelers checks they make most of their profit not from merchant's fees but from all the customers money/interest they get to carry for sometimes years at a time. I know people who have carried the same travelers checks for years "just in case". Well Amex just LOVES those people. The money just keeps rolling in. Much more profit than from the small amount from any potential one time merchant's fee.

No, you don't get it. Merchants pay NOTHING when they cash AMEX traveler's checks & still don't. The merchant has to pay the large percentage on the plastic cc type tvl checks which a customer could ALSO hold for years.

Oh, and merchants also don't pay anything for any other kind of PAPER traveler's checks either.

> actually the reason they invented it is that their trav
> check business has been reduced to practically nothing.

Wrong. The Traveller's Cheque business is still going quite strongly for at least Amex and Thomas Cook/Travelex, whether you personally like/use them or not!

Cheers,

Bill

nyttraveler and I are not saying ANYTHING about merchants paying anything. . .

The profit is from the poor schmoes who buy the TCs and travel cards in the first place! Amex has their money until it is spent. The gap between the buy date and spend date for TC's is extremely profitable . . . . .

Yes janisj, I got a long scolding from my stockbroker years ago when he discovered I had a wad of Amex TC's that I was holding on to "just in case", lol. Usually I am very good with finances but I sure felt stupid that time!

I'm quite happy to be holding on to my "just-in-case" travelers checks. It is worth whatever interest I might have earned over the last 10 years ($10?) not to have to go to the bank and buy new ones before every trip! And I have had my ATM eaten (in Cannes), so I just feel more secure having my backup checks.

Years ago I was a merchant and accepted AX CCs. My fee was 5%. I had to mail the paper receipts to AX. I also had waits of 30 days for my proceeds. Visa and Mastercard had a panoply of fees. We eventually were dealing at 3%. We also could cash the charges at a local bank immediately. The solution was simple; raise prices to cover those fees.