Travellers cheques

[LittleB]

We're going on hliday to France for a week and we haven't been abroad since we were kids. Is it a good idea to get some travellers cheques or are we better off just taking all our euros as cash?

I take some euros, and use the cash machine to withdraw more. As long as you don't use it every day for just a few euros it's not too expensive.
You can use your chip and pin debit card to pay for things without any charges, too.

when we go abroad we normally take 50/50 cash and travellers cheque.
If they get lost or stolen you're covered with chq's and haven't lost all of your money. Just keep the documents with the chq numbers on them safe

Since euros were invented I've found it expensive and difficult to get travellers cheques cashed in europe. Now we take bank cards for hole in the wall cash plus a couple of hundred euros from the bank here. And use credit cards for meals etc.

Thanks everyone, I wondered if travellers cheques were easy to cash. Think we'll take some euros and use credit cards.

i am going to spain and was wondering if anyone knows how much commission people charge to cash travellers cheques in?

They charge loads since the euro came in. Thats if you can find anywhere to cash them. All them little bureau de change shops have disappeared now. I remember I got nothing like what my cheques were worth. Take euros and your bank card to get euros out of the cashpoints. We did get a very good exchange rate on our credit card too.

what country is that in moon?

Spain.

Yes definitely with withdrawing cash it is better to get a larger amount every few days because you are getting charged for the transaction.

I have a related question. We are staying in a guest house for a week. The accommodation will be B&B at 85 euros a night but any dinners and drinks etc that we consume will be charged on top of this. So the bill which will be payable at the end will be quite a few hundred euros. How should we pay this? Would it be better to be in cash? Also not sure what the max you can withdraw at one time is? Although I suppose we could double that by both DH and I withdrawing from the joint a/c.

We always use the credit card abroad wherever possible. We've found a better exchange rate on that. Plus, if there is any fraud or anything, its not money that is coming directly out of your account.

I just use the cash machines, much safer.

You could use a prepay card whereby you load a card with cash in UK (i.e. euros) then use it like cash overseas. Safe, cheap and you can reload when you next go on hols. Look at Travelex website

will ditch the cheques then. where in spain have you travelled moon - never been before you see.

also what credit card do you have. i have a halifax one which has a 2.75% loading charge plus an extra £1.50 per each transaction. will it still be cheaper to draw out the cash say £300 a day and make this last a few days than to change travellers cheques.

I take a co-op credit card which is Visa. DH takes his NatWest one which is Mastercard. That way we always have one that someone will take. My bank card is halifax. Most big cities have normal banks with hole in the wall things. I even found a couple of Halifax branches in Barcelona.

I've been to most of Catalan and Barcelona. Up to Andorra on shopping trips (very cheap). Also, Alicante, Valencia, Gerona, Denia and down to Murcia.

We started going to spain years ago when kids were small - driving down over a couple of days and staying with Eurocamp. These days we go easyjet or similar and book accommodation on internet. Never had a bad holiday there yet, but we are choosy and do our homework before travelling.

Can't you just use the travellers cheques like cash in France the same way you in America?

When we were in florida last year and previous trips you just sign the cheques and hand it over and get the change back in cash, don't they do that in France?

We're going to France in September and I've been wondering about what we'll do for money.

the post office now do a card that is used pretty much like a visa electron you put money on here and use it to pay for meals and such while abroad - you can draw money out of hole in the wall with it. so if it has any money left on it you can just use it next time instead of losing money on exchange rates.

I would recommend you look at this American Express Travellers Cheque Card for my mind it's better than paying the charges for using your normal CHIP/PIN card in the ATMS. Post Office is also Commission free for arranging and changing back.

but are they widely accepted?

I"ve just got travellers cheques, some cash & credit cards for Spain. In my case it's cheaper to use credit card than debit card. Also get commission free money with my bank account so I'll only have to pay to get them converted. (& if I can't find anywhere then it'll be a cheap holiday ;) )

You can get a travellers cheque card from American Express now. You load it up before you go, so only incurring any exchange losses once. You can then use it like a normal Amex card (although check how widely they are accepted in France - we used ours in the US). You can also use it to withdraw cash, although there is a charge (eg $1 per transaction in US). It worked really well for us.

Cross post. Great minds think alike.