MissPrism

This is from HSBC bank.
"On 30 April 2013, we stopped selling travellers cheques and from 27 June 2014 we will stop accepting all travellers cheques for encashment or for deposit regardless of where they have been purchased"

They can't be the only bank stopping them. I mention it because very occasionally on this forum, somebody will suggest taking them

bilboburgler

Thanks Miss, I'll dig in the old drawer and clear them.

irishface

Hope I haven't any more stashed in drawers or boxes. When I was getting ready to move I found quite a few stashed. Took them to the bank and got enough to cash to cover some last minute odds and ends. Thanks for the warning.

nytraveler

Yes - we are no longer in the 20th century - and Traveler's Checks are basically useless at this point.

WeisserTee

"stop accepting...for encashment"?? is that bankerese for saying we won't cash traveler's checks?

adrienne

<< "stop accepting...for encashment"?? is that bankerese for saying we won't cash traveler's checks? >>

I think it's English, English and a banking term. The British use wonderful words that you never hear in America. We should learn to use the entire richness of the language.

bilboburgler

and we try not to turn nouns into verbs

adrienne

Thank you bilbo! My hair stands on end every time I read about someone "training" to some place! Would anyone say "I'm caring to the supermarket?"

I recently used the word secateurs rather than clippers and was told that the only other person she every heard use that term was Martha Stewart! Translation - I'm affected.

bilboburgler

Clippers are what you trim the dog's hairs in the UK. Secateurs are normal in my speech, however we have our idiots. Tescos recently sold "exotic red sticks" when they meant rhubarb.

adrienne

You gotta love it! I do enjoy some exotic red sticks once in a while.

quokka

"Exotic red stick cake" surely sounds more exciting than rhubarb cake.

xyz123

Karl Malden must be turning over in his grave. But then again, how will people be able to use American Express as a mail drop without tc's unless they get an Amex card!

WeisserTee

"and we try not to turn nouns into verbs"

Have you had a chat with the folks at the OED lately?

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/28429?...nced=false#eid

Adrienne, save the condescension. I don't know what words people do and don't hear in America these days as I live in Europe and my job demands I work in three languages on a near-daily basis.

And when a business wants to get a clear message out to the public, a KISS approach is usually the better option.

IMDonehere

Last year we were in Scotland and I went to HSBC to exchange some dollars for Euros. They would not do it because I have a US HSBC account not an UK HSBC account.

HSBC-If it isn't illegal we wouldn't do it.

bilboburgler

OED, merely follows what the chattering classes do based on popularity. The influence of that big place across the pond on our children is unfortunate.

To bus, I rest my case.

xyz123

IMD...they actually were doing you a favor. It is an axiom of travel that you don't exchange a foreign currency for another foreign currency outside the country of the currency you want. In effect, they change to the US dollars to sterling, charging you a fee either via a lousy exchange rate or a currency exchange fee and then sterling to euro charging you a fee the second time or via a lousy exchange rate. Never do that.

(Often times, I've seen this done on ships from say the UK to the Republic of Ireland where many times Americans want to get euro. If the ship is British registry, they will pull this double conversion and screw you big time on the exchange rates).

Pegontheroad

I've read the term "secateurs" many times in older British mysteries. The lady of the house seems to spend a lot of time in the garden with a flower basket and her secateurs.

It has never occurred to me to use the term, but I'll do so from now on if I ever get off my duff and cut some flowers.

IMDonehere

Yes, xyz, HSBC is known for have a beneficial corporate culture. I forgot the exact reason why I wanted to exchange dollars, maybe, I left my traveler's cheques in my 1973 camera bag.

Everybody has their hand in your pocket. Those credit card companies that claim they do not charge a fee, bury it in the exchange rate. Banks that have US and foreign branches charge you a fee for getting your own money and make a couple of points on the actual exchange.

I always buy a few hundred dollars of whatever currency I need when I land. I understand that costs an extra $20, $30 but that way I do not pay the usurious fees and exchange rates at the airport or start looking for an ATM after I check in at the hotel.

If you are exchanging money, no matter who, what, when or how, you are the loser.

flanneruk

"I've read the term "secateurs" many times in older British mysteries."

The only reason you don't read it in modern British mysteries is that fiction publishers - as ever, hopelessly out of touch with their public - are convinced no-one with a garden buys books. So virtually all recent crime fiction relates to the <b> declining </b> proportion of Britons who don't garden (much as most clothes are designed for the declining proportion of Britons under 30).

In Retailer English (which in this case is close to everyday English), these things are still a bit like snow and Eskimos.

B&Q (than which no shopkeeper on earth is less twee or affected) list, just for twinbladed tools for cutting things in gardens, small enough to hold in one hand and address the growth in front of you:
- secateurs,
- pruners,
- garden scissors,
- deadheads,
- bypass pruner,
- anvil pruner,
- grass shear,

As far as I've ever heard, there's no generic term in English covering all these (single-handed "clippers" are for fingernails, double-handed for hedges) and no sense, among even the bluntest of speakers, that secateurs are only for effete quiche-eaters.

PatrickLondon

>>Tescos recently sold "exotic red sticks" when they meant rhubarb.<<

No doubt some bunch of bored teenagers are whiling away their Easter holidays sitting round trying to light a bunch of rhubarb in the hope it'll be a mystical perception-enhancing experience (or at least smell nice).....

>>and we try not to turn nouns into verbs<<

I think of nothing else when I'm hoovering.

>>no sense, among even the bluntest of speakers, that secateurs are only for effete quiche-eaters.<<

There's a reason for that, if you've ever tried taking secateurs to a quiche.