travelers' cheques
 

We are planning to use travelers' cheques on our upcoming trip to Athens as we will be there for 3 weeks traveling about. Will we have any difficulty exchanging US travel cheques for Euros? Where would be the best place to do this? Do most hotels, restaurants, etc. accept travelers cheques? What about American Exress cards?

Thanks for any information!

DixieDee

&quot;<i>We are planning to use travelers' cheques on our upcoming trip to Athens</i>&quot; - may I ask why?

It is VERY difficult to exchange TCs, it is VERY expensive to exchange TC's, and just a general PITB. They are really a thing of the past.

Leave all those US$ deposited in your checking account and use your ATM card to get cash as needed in Greece.

I'd recommend a search here, using topic traveller's cheques.

To summarize. NO. Do NOT use traveller's cheques. They are not the least expensive, they are not the most convenient. Most, almost all, travellers here no longer use them, except perhaps for emergency purposes.

ATMs are the way to go. They are everywhere, they are cheaper, and you don't have to plan your day aorund finding a bank somehere that will cash them. A hotel or restaurant may take them, but you will be seriously dinged on the exchange rate.

To summarize. Don't. Take ATM card, credit cards, maybe some euros to get you from airport to hotel.

I haven't been to Greece in long enough to say for sure, but most restaurants anywhere have never accepted travelers' checks. SO forget that. Why would you need them at a hotel if you have a credit card? Surely you have a credit card other than American Express, don't you? That one isn't accepted as often as Visa or MC in Europe.

Thanks to all! I suppose we will have to exchange travelers' cheques at local banks for Euros because we generally don't use ATMs (I know, we're still in the dark ages!).

DixieDee

Many banks won't exchange TC's. You might have to hunt around to find a place to cash them. You may want to consider getting an ATM card now and practising using it before your trip.

Trust us - PITA doesn't even describe using TCs. Plus they will cast you a lot more than using ATMs.

Hi D,

&gt;I know, we're still in the dark ages!&lt;

I don't care what color your age is. You are making a big mistake.

Not only will you pay more to buy the TC's, you will often pay a fee to cash them.

Charge everything you can and use ATMs for the small amount of cash you might need.

((I))

We will certainly try to charge most items, the problem being my husband uses his AMEX card almost exclusively and I've read that AMEX isn't widely accepted. He DOES NOT use an ATM and it is too late to get one as we are leaving in one week. So....we may have to incur some added charges to exchange cheques for euros. Thank you for your response!

Dee

I really hate to say this, but I will anyway.

If you are determined to use TCs in Greece and you are now ready to be aware that they are going to cost you unnecessary expense, I strongly suggest you go buy them (at AAA I suppose) in EUROS, not in US dollars.

Here's the reasoning. If you take a US dollar TC to a hotel, restaurant, shop, or even bank to cash it, you are totally at their mercy what kind of exchange rate they will give you -- totally. If you are using a Euro TC, at least they will give you face value for it. (they still might charge you a fee for cashing it -- but they'd be doing that anyway). At least if you give a hotel a 100 EURO TC to put on your bill, you will get 100 EURO credit. If you gave them a $100 US TC, god only knows how much you get get for it.

I'd much rather trust my local AAA and pay them the exchange rate than guess what someone in Greece is going to use for a rate.

When you are ready to return, use all the ones you have left to put on your hotel, rather than return with unspent ones.

I haven't been to Greece for ages, but since cashing traveler's checks is a HUGE hassle in countries like France and Italy that are probably at least a bit more advanced as far as banking goes, I predict you are going to be very sorry you made this decision. IME, you will waste valuable time hunting down places that will cash them for you. Then you will waste even more valuable vacation time standing in line at said establishments. Then you will probably pay a commission plus get a lousy rate. You will not be able to pay for hotels or restaurants with them (OK, there might be the very occasional exception). They're virtually useless, and even when they're not, very expensive.

Why can't you hightail it to your bank Monday morning (or tomorrow if your bank's open Saturdays), and ask for an ATM debit card and tell them to expedite it. They can do that in 24-48 hours in most cases. You can also get a VISA credit card in that amount of time.

I agree with St Cirq. If you have any assets at all, then a bank worthy of your business will have an ATM card for you on Tuesday, if you ask for it on Monday. Maybe even Monday afternoon.

The best place to redeem your American Express travelers' cheques is your local American Express office, where hopefully they will give you back $100 for the $100 travelers' cheques that they issued to you.

Best wishes,

Rex

Dixiedee, I'm guessing you've gotten the point. But it also sounds like your husband is pretty stubborn about the ATM. If you can't convince him, I doubt that we can.

For what it's worth, I was a big fan of TC until 2004, when I traveled with some Euro American Express TC. Money exchange places didn't want them but when they reluctantly took them, it cost a fortune.

In Paris, I spent 90 minutes waiting in line to cash TCs once.

Never again.

Forgive the question, but why won't your husband use an ATM?

A couple of points:

Many larger places will take AmEx cards.

Take a Visa as well for places that don;t. If you don;t have one go to your bank Monday and get one. they can do it on the spot.

Also get and ATM card linked to your checking account.

Never mind all the money you lose changing Trav checks is all the time and energy trying to find anyplace that will change them.

Hotels and restauants will not touch them (too much time and money to deal with them, besides the risk they're fake - that is, already reported stolen.)

Fewer and fewer bureau de changes and banks will take them - for the same reasons - and you're left looking for an AmEx office - which may be several cities away.

This simply isn't how banking is done anymore.

&quot;The best place to redeem your American Express travelers' cheques is your local American Express office, where hopefully they will give you back $100 for the $100 travelers' cheques that they issued to you.&quot;
Well at your LOCAL office yes. But how does that help you if you are in Europe? I tried to cash a $100 AMEX TC at an AMEX office in Geneva once. They'd give me $60 some dollars for it. Seems they could only cash it in Swiss francs for a 15% or so exchange rate loss, then they could exchange those Swiss francs for US dollars at a similar exchange rate. When I realized it was over a 30% loss to try to get face value for THEIR traveler's check I decided to take it home uncashed after all!

Even IF you can afford the extra cost of using TCs -- can you &quot;afford&quot; all the wasted time and hassle involved.

You <u>really</u> should take the advice. In Athens you <i>might</i> get by OK - but outside of the city you will face huge hassles.

You are leaving in a week - I don't see the big problem. My local bank and credit union will issue me an ATM card while I wait. Literally minutes. It takes longer to establish the PIN than to get the ATM card and have it activated.

Maybe you/your husband thought it takes days and days to get a card???

Ask for a 4 digit PIN

dixiedee, please listen to all these experienced travelers. Is there ANY way we can convince you to get an ATM card? Very few people will cash traveler's checks, even in euros. And if someone does cash them, you will get a lousy exchange and you will pay fees on top of that. In today's world there is no good reason to use traveler's checks except as a backup. Using the ATM is cheaper and a helluva lot more convenient than traveler's checks. Please PLEASE consider it, I promise you won't be sorry.

My bank will give me an ATM card...while I wait. Please consider the above advice, holiday time is too precious to spend looking for a bank, and losing money on poor exchange rates.

Most of the above advice is utter nonsense. I've never been in a Greek bank that wouldn't cash travelers checks at at as good a rate as you can get anywhere. An ATM withdrawal against a US bank account will sock you with a 3% currency conversion charge plus usually a hefty charge for using the ATM from the bank that owns the ATM.

Get AMEX TC's in US $ from AAA or some other source that will give them to you without the 1% fee -- they aren't hard to find. Then change them in Greece at AlphaBank, which will cash and exchange US$ Amex TCs without commission. When you can't find an Alphabank, charge things on your credit card, if possible using one of the dwindling number of cards that don't charge a &quot;foreign exchange&quot; extra fee. An ATM connected with a US bank can be used when the above methods aren't convenient, as sometimes they won't be, so it's useful to have.

But what's been said here about the advanatages of ATMs over TC's and banks in Greece rubbish.

When was that, hoopsa?