Using up old travellers checks in Italy
 

Hello,

I'll travel to Italy next week and I have some travellers checks from a previous trip. I usually take money from the ATM when I travel abroad, but now it's time to get rid of the remaining checks we have. Where would be the best place to cash them? Banks? Do you have any idea of what percentage they charge to cash it?

Thanks!
Daniele

Are the checks in Euros?

If they are denominated in euros, you might be able to cahs in a bank. If they are in US dollars, just deposit them in your account here and use your ATM card to withdraw at the ATM.

Hi D,

Your TC's have an expiration date?

Are they in USD or Euro?

((I))

If they are $ TCs - just deposit them in your checking account and you won't lose a penny.

If they are € TCs - unfortunately you'll have to take them. But unless your hotel accepts them for payment, you'll have to find a bank and then pay to cash them.

Hopefully they are $ . . . . . .

Are they AmEx? If so go to an AmEx office (in Rome near the Spanish Steps).

TCs don't have expiration dates, but what's that got to do with it. It is foolish financially to have TCs laying around for years without using them.

I think they are harder to cash in Italy than some other countries, from what I've read on Fodors. I have never tried to cash one in Italy -- well, if I did it was many years ago and I've forgotten where I did it. But in almost any country you have the basic options: private exchange bureau (which usually will be around whatever the main tourist area is), banks, or Amex (if they are American Express checks). Now when I was in Poland two summers ago, you actually could not cash them even in banks, they wouldn't take them, only private exchange bureaus would (and not all of them, they would have signs if they did). Amex always takes their own.

It really varies as to best rates, in some countries where I've been, private exchange bureaux usually give better rates than banks, actually. You can always compare rates and try to get the best deal if you have a lot of them. Be sure to find out ALL fees, as well as the exchange rate to get the bottom line. Some places have a percentage fee on top of the exchange rate, some others have a single flat fee on top of the exchange rate, others incorporate it all into the exchange rate. I don't know about Italy, but I've seen commissions (and I am using that word to mean the bottom line, however it is calculated) ranging from 2 pct to 15 pct in various countries.

As others said, the advantage of getting them originally in USD is that you wouldn't have to do any of this, just stick them in your bank acct. at home and you wouldn't have any fee.

Thanks for the advice. I will check the total fares in banks and in exchange offices.

BTW, the T.C. are in euros and I am not American, but Brazilian. It is very interesting that since so many Americans participate in these forums, people always assume there are ONLY Americans. Since I'm Brazilian and our currency is neither dollars or euros, I cannot deposit them in my account.

When I get back, I'll let you know how I solved the puzzle.

Arrivederci!

Daniele

Danielle

You can send them to me and i'll take care of them for you and send you dollars. My rate is $1=1 euro, plus 10% - a bit better than you may get in Italy banks

Hi Daniele,
We took travellers cheques to Italy years ago and did manage to cash them in banks but it was difficult. Since then we have never bothered with them. In all the banks we had to queue for a while, the procedure to cash them seemed long-winded and sometimes the bank would only cash 2 cheques, not as many as we wanted. I remember once, we went to one bank and they cashed two, then we went to another bank down the street and did the whole process again, which was a pain. So you should be able to cash them but it will take time. You will also need to take your passport with you.
Kay

TCs i think are still easily cashed at train station and airport exchanges but also with sometimes steep fees (even per check) and dismal rates

but usually not a hassle like at banks it seems

I don't understand why a bank or whatever who sold you the checks in euros (and obviously exchanges currencies) will not buy back those checks and give you back the same currency you bought them in - at a fee of course but better probably than you'll get in europe

and don't European travelers coming to Brazil ever cash TCs in euros in Brazil? Seems odd say in Rio beach area they would not do so or at the airport

Hi D,

> Since I'm Brazilian and our currency is neither dollars or euros, I cannot deposit them in my account.

Your English is very good.

Still, your situation is the same as if you were in the US.

A: See if your hotel will take them without extra charge.

B: See if you can find someone in Brazil who will buy them at par.

C: Bank or exchange bureau.

((I))

Doesn't matter if we are talking US$, CAN$, Aussie$, or Brazilian Real - the concept is the same. If the TCs were in your home currency - the best thing would be to deposit them in your account.

Since they are € TCs your only way to use them w/o losing a fair bit of money is if your hotel will take them for payment. Even then they might charge you a fee. But it would most likely be less than what a bank or change bureau would charge.

Good luck -

I used to bring a few traveler's checks with me and then would use them at home, since I never found it necessary to use them.

I still bring some my plain old local currency (greenbacks, in my case) with me in case of some emergency, and also to use in airports, etc., in the States.

But I never bring TC's now.

Have you asked your hotels if they will accept TC's at face value since they are in euros? It really is NOT a stretch to believe that they will, they just don't like cashing them and giving you money back. If they will, just use them to pay your hotel bills and you probably will NOT have any charges or fees at all.

There is NO reason I can think of for a hotel to charge you a fee for accepting the euro TCs as cash, since it will not cost them anything to deposit them at full value in their bank account -- unless they have one very strange bank account. And if they normally accept credit cards for payment, taking the TC's will actually cost them less!

Most banks charge between 3€ and 7.50€ per check for depositing TC in a bank account. Exception are checks you bought yourself from them (Prove by showing receipt).

logos, I was told that was true in Germany (when I tried in Garmisch), but it certainly is NOT true in either France or Italy, where I have sent or given euro TC's a number of times to various landlords who have assured me they could deposit them directly with NO fee or charge at all. Or at least it wasn't with ANY of their banks.

Meanwhile, I'm curious. Does your bank also charge you if you deposit a regular check -- say from a friend or an investment? I guess so, since a TC in Euros IS just like a regular check so far as a bank is concerned. Do all banks charge for that?

By the way, danielef, you mentioned:

"It is very interesting that since so many Americans participate in these forums, people always assume there are ONLY Americans."

I don't think people assume that there are ONLY Americans, but I think they do assume that when people don't say otherwise, they probably ARE American. Isn't that logical? This is a website based in the US. If I went to a Brazilian based website and started talking about currency, wouldn't most people assume that I was Brazilian?

Meanwhile, what kind of TC's are they? If they are a brand where there is an office in the city you're going to, they really should be able to cash them for you at face value with no fee since they are already in euros. American Express does that (and Thomas Cook, used to, but I don't think they do TC's any more?). That is -- there is no fee if they are in local currency. If you had them in another currency and needed to not only cash them, but convert to a different currency as well, then LOOK OUT.

>charge you if you deposit a regular check
No, unless from a non EU country, US or Canadian cost about 7.50€. Some Sparkassen don't change for TCs
TCs are insurance policies and no checks. They can charge whatever they want.

NP - I've heard the same tale from more than a few businesses -- that they ARE charged to deposit TCs. Don't know how widespread the practice is - but one can't say for sure that <<there is no fee if they are in local currency>>

If they are American Express TC, you can find "Fee-Free Exchange Partners":

http://www210.americanexpress.com/tc...;us_nu=leftnav

There are Amex offices in Roma, Venezia, and Firenze. However, Amex has been closing their offices in Europe over the past few years, and these informations are not updated on their website. Your best bet is to go to one of those banks listed as "Fee-Free Exchange Partners".

Janis, my personal experience in Italy and France has been giving TCs in Euro to perhaps a total of 10 people or businesses over the past 5 or 6 years. ALL of those said there was no charge from their bank to deposit them into their bank accounts and I certainly have NO reason not to believe them, as none of those people charged me anything to do so. Just this past summer, the apartment owners in Rome, Paris, and Venice -- all told me initailly they didn't think there was a problem for them to take TCs in Euro and there would be no fee. (This was for the purpose of mailing deposits in advance.) All three of them checked with their banks and all three of them got back to me, that yes, there was no fee for them to deposit them so they all accepted them. On my arrival all three confirmed that they had not been charged anything by their banks.

How many have you PERSONALLY been told by the people you tried to give them to that they would be charged to deposit them? Or how many of those actually tried it (rather than just assuming because they had never done it, or didn't want to be bothered and would prefer cash?) Or how many TCs in Euro have you PERSONALLY used (not to exchange or cash) but used in full to pay someone? How many of those actually charged you a fee?

Yea, I've been "told" by others that it would cost, but in most or all of those cases it was not by people who actually did it or knew. That's not unlike the people here who constantly say that ATM cards used in Europe will result in the European bank charging you a fee, or your own bank adding 10%. As you well know, what we "hear" they do, and what they actually do can often be two very different things. And I strongly suspect, part of the confusion comes about because some people HAVE been charged -- but because their TCs were in dollars, not euros -- so of course there was a fee and/or exchange fee involved.

I still find it hard to understand why a bank in France or Italy WOULD charge someone to deposit a TC in their own currency into their own bank account, since there is no charge to them. If I were a business there and people wanted to use TCs, I'd surely get a new bank as there are plenty of them that won't charge for depositing them -- if they are already in Euros. But my statements above are not based on what I "think" rather what my personal experience has actually revealed.

Fortunately banks publish a list of their fees on the internet. No hearsay needed.

Ah good. So then you have a link to a European bank saying they charge their customers to deposit a TC in euros into their own account?

MANY!!! Each and every german bank posts this info by law.

Good. Care to give one -- that we can follow? I had tried to google and got nowhere. I've even gone to the official Deutschebank website and tried to search "fees for deposits" and "travelers checks" and got nowhere, so I'd appreciate seeing the actual link to the information.

That's interesting, because it would be next to impossible to find in writing on any US bank website, "we do not charge to deposit US dollar TCs in your own checking account". In fact, I'd be amazed if such information ever was printed on any US bank site.

You need to google for "Preisverzeichnis" a zillion links from different banks will show up, there you search for "Reisescheck". You fill find "Rücknahme" which means checks sold to you personally by the bank. You'll also find fees for accepting other TCs that range between free (a few banks) and 7.50€ per check.

This is a rather cheap bank (Raiffeisen):
http://www.rb-freinsheim.de/gwm5/webdbs/yc0550.nsf/(GrafikAnhaenge)/134020%20Preisverzeichnis.pdf/$File/134020%20Preisverzeichnis.pdf
1.50€ per check, but at least 5€ per transaction. The list goes on...

Around Robin Hood's Barn! Daniel, have you contacted the TC issuing agency? Where did you buy them?

As suspected, not being fluent in German doesn't help me. The only reference to "Rücknahme von Reiseschecks" on that page you linked was "__%" and "__euro". So clearly I can't follow.

But at least you do say that some (or a "few") banks don't charge to deposit them in Germany. And my experience has been that QUITE A FEW in Italy and France don't charge. . . so the option remains -- it's sure worth a try!!! And since MANY hotels in Europe do take credit cards and doing so charges them upwards of 3% -- it stands to reason that even if their bank does charge them a small fee for depositing euro TC's, they won't charge YOU, since it is still less than they'd pay for accepting a credit card. Logical???

Yeah, sounds logical...

In any case, danielef, please let us know how you DO use them. And it would be nice, even if you've already spent them to ask at your hotel/hotels if they would charge to accept TCs in Euro for payment without a fee. It would be nice to get back more actual true experiences instead of all the "I heard".