Heading to New York and Toronto in a month or so, and wondering whether to bother with travellers checks or one of those special purpose debit cards. Will be visiting lots of bars and shops so the ability to easily withdraw cash, and also pay by card would be good.

Will be taking about £900 – any advice?

i’ve been wondering the same thing for our honeymoon.

mine and mrsconsequences. not your’s and mine. just to be clear 😯

think i’m going to pop into my bank as my santander ‘zero’ credit card online info seems to suggest not getting charged for using abroad.

check your banks website or google ‘will my XXXX card work abroad’ perhaps? 🙂

Good advice – thank you. Makes up for the honeymoon snub 🙂

tbh I never carry much cash, either here or abroad. Use a card and just accept the charges are a risk reduction cost vs having it stolen/losing it etc.

Last time I went to get travellers cheques I was told “oh, no-one uses them any more, the cards are the preferred method”.

I took a card as an overflow backup, then cashed it back in when I got home. One thing to bear in mind is, certainly on the Thomas Cook card, if you leave it dormant for a period of time (18 months IIRC) they start charging you something silly like £15/month. So if you take out a card, check the small print or close it when you get home.

In hindsight, the card would’ve been good as a primary method of payment but a) you’ve no immediate way of tracking what you spend and b) I should’ve looked on MSE for the best cards before going “oh, go on then” at TC.

Historically, I’ve never had a problem cashing travellers’ cheques anywhere; even in non-touristy areas most places accepted them just like cash.

Tesco bags are all the rage I hear.

just pop it up ur poop shoot defo safe in there. i heard thats quite common in violent parts of the world

If the post office still do it their credit card use to have no overseas charges associated with it.

£900? Just take cash ffs. I live out in the Middle East and quite often role through Heathrow with £10,000 in cash…the customs guys always love it.

Joe – Member
£900? Just take cash

^ This

wondering whether to bother with travellers checks

Do they still make travellers cheques? Back in the days when they were a good idea they were useless unless they were in dollars, in which case you paid an exchange fee whether you used them or not and then had to change the unused ones back in the UK. More recently when travelling to the States I’ve just done what I’d do in the UK – take enough cash for everyday expenditure and then use credit cards or get money out of an ATM if I need cash; it usually works out costing no more than any other method and is much less hassle.

In a sock 😉

Don’t get it mixed up with your w@nk sock though, can get messy if you do!

You could wire the money to my account here in the US and then I can give you cash, assuming you can find me. 😉