Travelers’ checks in euros

In the past we’ve taken fairly large quantities of American Express Travellers Cheques with us overseas for reasons of money safety. At least we got them at no cost from AAA! On a trip to Italy in September-October ’06 we learned a painful lesson regarding euro-denominated American Express Travellers Cheques. They may have been safe, but they were not treated like euros overseas.

First, no one wanted to cash them. When we tried to pay a hotel bill with them, they wanted to “up charge” us 4%. We paid a commission to buy them in the first place, and then we were expected to pay another commission just to use them.

When we were forced to go into an Italian bank to cash some of them, my husband stood in line for a long time, filled out forms and signed the checks only to have the teller refuse to cash them because we didn’t come from an E.U. country! We had to go to another bank, where they probably split the commission with the first bank.

Next time, we will try to purchase some euros directly before leaving and take a bank card with us to use at ATMs overseas. That plus using a credit card would be better than going to the trouble of obtaining euro travelers’ checks.

CAROL VORCHHEIMER
Philadelphia, PA