Taking money to NYC.

[igotaway]

My son is going to New York on the 27th/11
he thinks he'll take a pile of cash!

I am trying to convince him it is a stupid idea of course, so am looking at a card called Travelex, where it is a prepaid card, he doesn't want to wait at banks to cash travellers cheques either.

anyone used it?
thanks

No, we took some dollars for the first day/airport taxi etc and then used debit card - back in the day when nationwide didn't charge for this.

I visited quite regularly and took some cash and then American Express travellers cheques, a lot of shops will take them and give you the change in cash. From memory people that had the card found it hard to use!

I brought a Halifax clarity card and withdrew over there. And kept the card in the hotelsafety deposit box!

I took a travelex card to florida and it was fine to use but he'll need a dew dollars for using in the same way you'd use change over here.

Travellers cheques are not really used any more as they are seen as old hat and the American banking system generally is not as sophisticated as the UK system. Their banking system is really nothing like the UK one. It would also take a lot of time and effort to actually exchange travellers cheques for cash even if he did find an actual bank that would accept them. Also he would need photo id to present them.

If I was him I would take some cash (enough to last a couple of days) and a credit card (he would need to inform the credit card company beforehand that he will be abroad so they do not put a stop marker on the card). I would also advise him that some stores will ask him for picture ID on using a credit card to make purchases.

I would certainly show him the travelex cards website and take a pre loaded card with him.

We gave DD our Saga card! Just shows how old we are, but it is a cheap way of getting cash. You need a no transaction charge card to obtain dollars at ATMs. Or just a normal bank card with ID but tell bank in advance it will be used in NY so it is not stopped. In USA signing is normal and pins not used so much. Getting cash out works well and I would not bother with travellers cheques. I have a feeling Martin Lewis bangs on about the best cards on his web site so take a look. The Travel Ex one is ok but you are fixing the exchange rate which could be good/bad idea.

I use fairfx [similar to travelex] much more convenient and have my usual card as a back up just in case.