Travel Cards and Travelers Checks
 

Has anyone used an American Express or Visa Travel Funds Card? Is American Express widely accepted on the Islands or would you suggest using the old faithful Travelers Checks? After reading all the posts I'm a little nervous about carrying too much cash.
Thanks for the help!!

There is a thread on this on the Asia board regarding the AmEx travel funds card. The consensus is that the card is a bit of a rip-off because:
1. They charge you $15 for the card
2. If you use the card to access funds at an ATM, they charge $2.50 and the bank owning the ATM charges you on top of that
3. If you pay for the $ on the card using another company's credit card it may be treated as a cash advance - you will be charged a high rate of interest until it is paid off.

That being said, with ATM's all over the world (including most 3rd world countries), why would you need anything more than a credit/debit card, an ATM card and a small amount of cash? I think travelers chex are obsolete for the most part - I haven't used them myself in about 10 years.

The term "old faithful Travelers Checks" is really outdated. Surely if you've been using them lately you know that mostly nobody wants them or wants to cash them. The new "old faithful" is an ATM card.

The consensus on the Europe board seems to be:

1) travelers checks are obsolete - and very expensive to use

2) Travel funds cards are also very expensive and don;t provide any benefits over the basic credit and ATM cards you already have

No one has ever been able to explain any benefit to me - other than to the profit margins of AmEx.

Actually nytraveler, the situation in Europe is a little different than in the US. If you are getting your TC's in the US at no charge and cashing them at no charge, it isn't such a bad deal. Unlike in Europe where you either pay a conversion fee to cash them or lose money in the conversion, or pay a fee or lose money buying them in a foreign currency.

But I still don't see any advantage of them over an ATM card tied to your own checking account, even within the US.

Craig mentions ATM fees when using the AMEX Travel Card but seems to be unconcerned with ATM fees when he visits ATMs with his debit card. ATM fees are ATM fees.

Why not just use your credit cards & carry a small amount of cash daily for cabs, tips etc.?

BTW, I have never had trouble using a travelers check for a purchase in order to replenish my daily cash supply. Usually, hotels will cash them for you also.

Ah, but a savvy traveller, or a savvy shopper for that matter, knows that the best way to get cash with an ATM when on the road is to simply get some cash back when making a purchase, at least here in the U.S., I never pay ATM charges, and I use my debit card almost exclusively.

I carry my ATM card for back-up cash only and rarely use it. My ATM card is through my brokerage firm - the firm does not charge me to use it so it is cheaper than a card that charges $2.50 plus the bank ATM fee.

Wow, guess you have a weird bank. I bank at Bank of America. I find their ATMs all over the country and there is no fee at all from either end for using them. If I can't find a B of A ATM, then I can withdraw from any other ATM twice a month with no fee. After that it is a total of $1.50 for each withdrawal. Not much to worry about!

At Home I use my Debit/ATM card constantly. I hardly ever carry cash. I guess my biggest concern is with having my debit card lost or stolen while on vacation. I'm thinking it could take days...or longer to get it replaced. What then? I do dislike carrying travelers checks but thats what we have always done in the past for the safety....and actually we have never once lost them...so, am I being paranoid?

How about having a back-up credit/ATM card for emergencies?

Yep, I think your right. We were planning to have our Debit card and a Credit Card along with some cash. So getting a travel card and or checks is probably overkill. Like I said...just paranoid. Thanks for your help!!

American Express is offering a free companion air fare with the purchase of a travel card. Does anyone know if it is a rip off or not?

As you might expect, there are a lot of restrictions on the companion ticket deal. One is a 14 day advance purchase requirement with a Saturday night stay. The other is the minimum cost before taxes etc. of the purchased ticket must be $349 or $379 depending on when you go. There are also blackout dates during holidays and other times. Travel must be completed by 11/1/05. All of the fine print can be seen at http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif...8,00.asp#terms

That companion air offer sounded like a pretty good deal for a $15 investment until I read the T&C's. What an incredibly complicated process!

I agree that I see no good reason for using a travel funds card unless it's for a child.

I used to have a couple of those same companion air coupons. Every time I booked a flight and tried to use one, I found that I could get two tickets cheaper than the one I'd have to use the companion along with. As far as I'm concerned they're not worth the paper they're printed on.