I read somewhere recently, perhaps on a long-lost Fodor posting, that many places in Ireland don't take traveler's checks and that people got stuck using cash, ATMs, credit cards. Does anyone have experience with this? I will be both in Dublin and in small southwestern towns and would like to be prepared.

We used travelers checks but won't next time, except a couple for backup. An ATM card probably would have saved us quite a bit in fees.<BR><BR>The hotels and especially B&amp;B's are not that common that take travelers checks. But, since we took them, I can say it wasn't hard to exchange them at any bank. Pretty much every small to medium sized village had a Bank of Ireland branch where we would just cash them in in order to replenish the kitty. We just had to pay the fees and make sure we remembered to hit the bank during business hours.

Oh, and unlike US banks, Irish banks are used to currency exchanges. Pretty much every bank had the day's exchange rates posted on a sign.

we spent 10 days in ireland in march...we did have trouble using the checks...we only used one in fact...b and b's don't want them...restaurants don't want them, and msot shops don't want them....instead we used our atm card (luckily we had left plenty of money in a credit union account, where the credit union doesn't charge any conversion fee...this worked just fine as there are tons of atms everywhere we went in the south---shannon back to shannon...<BR>credit cards were no problem either, except b and b's preferred cash, but some would take credit cards....just watch the fee for currency conversion that the card companies charge...1-4%...i found that taking 300 euros every few days worked just fine and i augmented with credit cards....<BR>the best restaurant we ate at was hal pinos in ennis....

Travelers Checks. Now theres a novelty . Do they still exist. I thought they went out with The Streets of San Francisco (Carl Malden-Don't leave home without em) Maybe its still out in reruns on cable. Just use a credit card and ATM. Maybe some cash just in case. The banks will take anything. Better rates and less hastle.

We have not taken one single TC with us in the last ten years.<BR><BR>Two different visa card and two different debit cards have not left us stranded yet.

Hi,<BR><BR> Just to add my 2 cents worth and it has nothing to do with Ireland. I have never brought TC with me to europe period but strangely enough I brought them with me to South Africa along with cash &amp; a visa card. Got the best deal &quot;ever&quot; with TC much to my surprise &amp; the people who told me not to bring it!!! You never know. But generally speaking I have never brought them before-it worked out beautifully though in SA