# When was the last time you used a traveler's check? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 14, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102 "2018-06-14T18:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CharmaChameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@CharmaChameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CharmaChameleon)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/61 "2018-06-16T20:59:21Z")
The company I worked for issued travelers checks for all business travel until about 1990. After that it was all credit cards, sometimes even ones issued to the company. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/62 "2018-06-16T23:17:10Z")
I never leave home without them.šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/63 "2018-06-16T23:33:12Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > The point wasnā€™t that travelers checks were more convenient than cash. The point was that they were safer than cash. If travelers checks were stolen they could be replaced. Remember this was in the age before ubiquitous ATMs and credit card acceptance. You could either carry a huge wad of cash, which could easily be stolen, or you took travelers checks. No, thatā€™s definitely not the point. In the anecdote I was responding to, the poster was getting cash from a foreign bank. So any ā€˜replace if stolenā€™ protection would not be there, as he was getting foreign currency to carry around, not travelerā€™s checks. I guess heā€™d have the protection during the ā€˜plane flight - walk to foreign bankā€™ leg of the trip, but that seems like a small fraction of the trip. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/64 "2018-06-17T00:13:21Z")
all travelers checks were was an international money order or thatā€™s how they were described to me when grandpa used them on our vacations in the 80s ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/65 "2018-06-17T02:19:32Z")
Last time was around 1993. The first time I got cash from an ATM in Cairo marked the last time I would get travelerā€™s checks. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/66 "2018-06-17T03:08:55Z")
1988, Ft. Gordon, GA. I had to take them to AAFES and exchange them for cash because the junk yard where I wanted to buy an engine wouldnā€™t accept them, and military policy was no paychecks in cash, only in travellersā€™ checks, unless your direct deposit was already working. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/67 "2018-06-17T04:23:50Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > No, thatā€™s definitely not the point. In the anecdote I was responding to, the poster was getting cash from a foreign bank. So any ā€˜replace if stolenā€™ protection would not be there, as he was getting foreign currency to carry around, not travelerā€™s checks. I guess heā€™d have the protection during the ā€˜plane flight - walk to foreign bankā€™ leg of the trip, but that seems like a small fraction of the trip. Except that often there was no need to walk to a bank to exchange travelerā€™s checks for cash. They have become much less common since the 90ā€™s because credit cards and ATMā€™s have become more common. But when travelerā€™s checks were more popular people would buy the checks at home (in the local currency of wherever they were visiting) and simply use the checks to pay for purchases since many businesses accepted them. So that ā€œreplace if lost or stolenā€ covered the whole vacation, not just the plane flight and walk to the bank. The anecdote you responded to happened in the mid-90s , so it may have already become uncommon for businesses to accept travelerā€™s checks as payment- but if he had bought travelerā€™s checks in the US, it would have taken roughly the same time to convent them into local currency as it would have taken him to convert US currency into the local currency. And itā€™s very possible that his hotel would have cashed the travelerā€™s checks for him , which would have allowed him to cash some every day or two and minimize the amount of cash he was carrying around. - I worked at fast food restaurants in the 80s that accepted travelerā€™s checks and most other restaurants and stores and hotels did as well. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/68 "2018-06-17T15:34:31Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > 1988, Ft. Gordon, GA. I had to take them to AAFES and exchange them for cash because the junk yard where I wanted to buy an engine wouldnā€™t accept them, and military policy was no paychecks in cash, only in travellersā€™ checks, unless your direct deposit was already working. How odd. Your military pay was in travelerā€™s checks? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/69 "2018-06-17T17:02:17Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > How odd. Your military pay was in travelerā€™s checks? By the mid/late 1980s, at least in CONUS posts, the payclerks would no longer disburse in cash, so if for any reason you could not direct-deposit (such as the account still being processed) what would happen was that you would get a paycheck, then have it ā€œcashedā€ in travelersā€™ cheques at the next table over. I experienced that once in Basic Training, by the time the next pay period came around the direct deposit had kicked in. At the time you were already being told to to set up an account that allowed direct deposit and ATM. However at that time that sort of account was not yet universal and many new enlistees were unbanked. That BTW was my one and only use of travelersā€™ cheques, ever. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/70 "2018-06-17T17:46:54Z")
It sounds like your ā€œpaycheckā€ was actually a voucher, redeemable only at specified locations, like the military clerk at the next table. If it was truly a check, it could have been cashed anywhere checks are accepted, like a bank or merchant. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/71 "2018-06-17T18:00:47Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > It sounds like your ā€œpaycheckā€ was actually a voucher, redeemable only at specified locations, like the military clerk at the next table. If it was truly a check, it could have been cashed anywhere checks are accepted, like a bank or merchant. Itā€™s possible- but itā€™s way more likely that those who were cashing their checks at the next table simply didnā€™t have a local bank account and preferred getting travelerā€™s checks to paying a fee at a check cashing business. Even back then , few businesses would cash paychecks- supermarkets were the big exception. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/72 "2018-06-18T01:55:18Z")
It was an actual check. We could have taken it and deposited it, or taken it to AAFES and have it cashed. The money order desk (which I think was AAFES) was just a convenience, and took the pressure off the military for handling cash. That is, the military would give us the check, and then we would go to the AAFES desk to cash the check, but policy wouldnā€™t allow us to have more than a token amount of cash, so the rest was via purchasing travellersā€™ checks. This meant that AAFES was handling the cash, but AAFES was also earning all of those travellersā€™ check fees. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/73 "2018-06-18T02:14:40Z")
1991 in Switzerland. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/74 "2018-06-20T20:00:55Z")
1984, when I hitched to New York City from New Mexico. Pain in the butt to find a place that would process them ā€” essentially only the banks that sold them themselves would touch them. I _did_ in fact end up having them stolen, _did_ have the receipt in my wallet, and although I spent the better part of an afternoon being stared at with utmost dubiety and suspicion by the bank personnel, they grudgingly allowed as to how I passed all the litmus tests and replaced them. I think they were still trying to suss out exactly how the scam worked when I went out their door. Yeah, ATM machines after that. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102/75 "2018-06-25T18:31:22Z")
1986, I think. We got them for a cross-country driving trip in 1985, and I think we got some for a similar long-distance vacation (though via air, not car) the following year. Back then, ATMs were indeed less ubiquitous than they are now, and you had to really work to find one that was on your bankā€™s extended network. As far as safer than cash: I suppose a thief, seeing a pile of cash versus a few travelerā€™s checks, would have grabbed the cash instead - but I honestly donā€™t recall what other protection they gave. I donā€™t remember whether we had to show ID to spend them, or whether we had to sign them on receipt and again on spending, or whatā€¦ or what would keep us from simply reporting them stolen (after having spent them). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-used-a-travelers-check/816102.md?page=3)