What About Travelers' Checks?

[Boiler Cruiser]

I have seen a lot written about the merits of carrying credit cards and limited amount of cash (although I'm not sure what "limited" would mean) when on shore tours in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

 

I have not seen much written about Travelers' Checks. Does it make sense to bring Travelers' Checks (US$) in addition to cash (Euros)?

 

Will hotels and other merchants take Travelers' Checks? How about restaurants?

 

Guidance from those of you with experience would be appreciated!

[CruiserBruce]

Travelers Cheques are not commonly used. Doesn't mean they aren't, but it seems harder and harder to find places that will take them. ATMs are the far superior place to get cash.

 

 

If you take Travelers Cheques, you will be cashing them, then changing to Euros. A bank might do this for you, but there will be fees or less favorable exchange rates. Again, ATMs get you euros cheapest, and will allow you to carry small amounts of cash, as ATMs will dispense amounts as low as 20 euros.

[aquilegia]

Travellers cheques went out of fashion in Europe some years ago. You'd be likely to spend a lot of time hunting for somewhere to change them. Get cash from ATMs and/or use credit cards in hotels etc.

[kaisatsu]

I had some visitors bring traveler's cheques here to Norway once, and they had a terrible time cashing them. The Norwegian banks generally don't issue checks at all, so the local bank branches couldn't process them. My relatives ended up having to go to the Western Union in the city center to cash them (with an extremely high commission).

 

It would have been much cheaper and easier for them to use an ATM.

[Keith1010]

I would make use of Credit Cards and ATM. You will see very little in the way of travelers cheques.

 

Keith

[GradUT]

As you have probably already gathered, traveler's checks are a thing of the past.

 

What currencies you will need will depend on your ports. On our Baltic cruise last summer, we needed Danish krone for Copenhagen, Euros for Kiel, Warnemuende, Helisinki and Tallinn, and Swedish krona for Stockholm. All of the shops we visited in St. Petersburg accepted Euro and we used that in lieu of buying rubles.

 

What works best is taking your credit card and ATM card. Be sure to let your bank know when and where you are going so they don't put a hold on your cards for possible fraudulent use. (If you don't tell them you are going to Sweden and they see someone trying to use your credit card or ATM card there, they will block it until you straighten it all out. Not something you want to waste time doing on a short port visit.)

 

Use the credit card for large purchases and get some local currency from an ATM in port if you think you'll be making small purchases.

 

There's really no need to buy currency before you go for your country of embarkation. It can cost you quite a bit to do this. Just get local currency in the airport from an ATM when you arrive. But, if it makes you nervous to travel without some local currency in hand, I've heard AAA provides this service at a reasonable cost.

Edited September 29, 2015 by GradUT

[Giantfan13]

We were also of the traveler's Check generation. Now, as has been said, another item that has seen it's time come and gone.

 

You might even have a hard time finding a bank that would issue them,

 

As all the others have said, plastic is the way to go, either charge everything and anything, or find an ATM and use that for ready cash.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[CrazyJess]

We’ve been on a Baltic Cruise this summer and haven’t seen anyone with traveler’s checks. We used credit cards - Visa and Master Card, NOT American Express. We tried American Express several times, but all of them refused to accept it. Visa and Master Card worked perfectly. We used cash to buy souvenirs from street vendors and for tips. Obviously traveler's checks are a thing of the past in Europe.

 

Jess :)

[Splinter]

I used VISA all over Norway, and American Express a few times. Never used an ATM. I ordered some Norwegian krone from my bank before I left home so I would have a little cash when I needed it. Came home with about 1/3 of it still.

[FritzG]

We had traveler's checks left over from past trips, and we decided to cash them in at the bank where we originally got them. No one in the bank had ever seen the checks before, and tellers and managers kept coming over to see them. No one was quite sure what to do with the checks. Finally the teller had to call AmEx, and the person she got seemed to be bound and determined to say they were fake. The poor teller was on the phone for nearly an hour, and because the AmEx person was in India the language barrier was creating lots of problems. He kept asking her to look at certain areas of the checks and tell him what she saw, and she had no idea what he was looking for. We felt so sorry for her. The AmEx rep finally decided they were ok, and he gave her a code to cash them.

We're wouldn't use them again. They were very convenient for cruising because we didn't have to carry large amounts of money. We'd just keep them in the safe and cash them as we needed cash. I wonder if the cruise ships even cash them anymore.

[LondonTowner]

They are so passé I didn't think you could even buy them anymore. Even if you do find somewhere to cash them they will make a charge.

 

We always ave Euros, so took them on a Baltic cruise, but mainly paid with a CC which has no charge for foreign transactions.

[Josu01]

I had some left over American Express Traveler's cheques. I took 1000 USD and 1000 € this past summer during my trip to the Baltics on the Norwegian Star (I also took my Credit card and ATM card, and one of those Travel Cards (all VISA)).

 

I wanted to see if I could get rid of my traveler's cheques, and test how difficult it would be to exchange them.

 

I cashed my AMEX TC in € as soon as I landed in Munich for my connecting flight to Copenhagen. No problem to exchange them at an airport Exchange booth, but horrible commission, 40€.

 

In Copenhagen airport, at the carrousels where you pick your luggage, there is an American Express exchange office, where I changed 500 USD into DKK. No problem, and the commission was not that bad.

 

The last 500 USD AMEX TC, I used to pay for part of my onboard account on the Norwegian Star. Zero problems to use them.

 

I have never used TC to pay for things in stores or restaurants, etc., I have always exchanged them for local currency. This can still be done at Airports and Cruise ships (at least with NCL) with no problem. I still have some more AMEX TC left, so I guess I'll have to cruise more to get rid of them... ;)

Edited October 13, 2015 by Josu01

[Giantfan13]

If anyone has them, not a bad idea to pay off your ship's account with them. After all, they really are money.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Subarctic]

The last time a check was being given to myself in Finland was in the year 1984, it was unusual even then, and therefore I can recall the year.

 

The only use for a paper token still is that we may ask inter-bank documents (bank draft) in paper from the bank when we buy a house or an apartment or something extremely valuable. These are then later verified over the phone by the both bank staff.

 

Travellers' check would just send eyes rolling. It's just barely possible some bank might still cash them, but there would be a considerable fee.