There are $1.8 billion in outstanding traveler’s checks.
In fact, I’ve got a $50 one from a relative, it was found in a stash of foreign currency that well predates the Euro, I’ll ballpark around the late 1970s.
I think on our honeymoon in 1992, although I used them a lot when I started traveling internationally for business in 1985…I don’t remember the last time I saw one…
Ditto.
Walmart around 2014. And the bastards /assured/ me that they accepted travelers checks, then /after I had already made it out, dated and signed it/ were unable to figure out how to enter it into the system.
No worries they said, you can get it refunded. And yes, I could have done so if I still had the receipts, which I had lost years ago.
I got some from AAA before a trip to Vegas around 2003. I remember it well because I tried to cash one at my hotel after having been somewhat overserved, and it took me a few tries to get the signature to match.
I recall my parents having some in the 90’s, “just in case”. I’ve never even thought about using them, a call to my bank(s) to tell them I’ll be [wherever] and I can use my card(s) without a problem. A little emergency cash in my pockets/socks and there’s nothing I can’t handle.
1980’s was the last time in Hong Kong. I can’t remember, but it’s been a long time.
1998, a 3-week trip from London to Italy via Paris and half of Germany. I brought $2000 in TChecks with me to be used as a backup, and almost never needed them. I never bothered after that.
I never really got the point of them by the time I was old enough to worry about checks in the 90s, they seem like something from a bygone era to me. I’d rather just carry pocket money cash and use a card for any high cost (not dollar, lol) purchases, and as far as I know credit cards in the 90s would work fine anywhere that you could count on traveler’s checks working.
I still have a couple hundred dollars’ worth, bought in the 1980s, stashed in my emergency bag when I travel. At this point, I guess it would make just as much or probably more sense to have the cash in the emergency bag, but I guess my thought was they were less susceptible to theft. The only place I can probably trade them in would be an AmEx bureau.
I remember using them a few times when I traveled as a teenager, ca. 1980.
Last time I actually saw someone use one was when I worked at the grocery store, 1999-2002. A young Asian guy who was probably an exchange student paid for his pharmacy purchase with one; he signed his name both in English, and whatever was his first language.
You can still buy them?
The last time i used them was probably in the 70s, and maybe in the early 80s.
Anyone remember Karl Malden in the Amex traveler’s checks ads?
1996, stolen in India. Tried to claim, but was sloppy in record keeping, didn’t know the numbers of the stolen ones, never got the $40 back. But my copy of the police report in Shillong is an interesting keepsake.
To the best of my memory, I’ve never used one. Last one I saw was right around the turn of the millenium, possibly early 2001.
1997 - Mrs Piper and I took a trip to the UK and France. We weren’t sure if the ATM network would work all the time for us, so we took them along as well. Found out the ATMs did work (although there were some glitches), so that was the last time.
When we were in Glasgow we had some trouble cashing them at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which charged a fee. Then when we were in the Highlands the RBS cashed them with no fee. I commented to the teller that the same bank had charged a fee in Glasgow and he replied in a soft Scottish accent, “We’re just friendlier in the Highlands.”
Prior to that, it was a trip to India in 1988. Had to be traveller’ cheques in either US dollars or pound sterling. Cheques in Canadian dollars were not accepted. I took them in pounds. That meant I lost on the exchange rates twice: converting Canadian dollars to sterling cheques when I bought them in Canada, then when I used them in India and the merchant converted from pounds to rupees.
One time in the 90s for my first trip out of the US because that’s what you were supposed to do when you travel. It quickly became apparent they are pointless.
I took traveller’s cheques to Europe in the 80’s. It was what you did back then. I had a Eurail pass and cashed them at the exchange in whatever country I happened to be in.
My next trip was a week in Wales. I didn’t even consider traveller’s cheques for that trip. Why bother? I took a bit of cash and used my credit card for anything else I needed, including more cash.
Never used them, I’ve always been a fan of cash.
Back in the 90s I had someone attempt to use one at work. Nobody knew what it was, and by the time someone asked me, the dude had left. Today my rule explicitly states we accept cash or credit card (specifically listing the cards). I would not accept one today unless I was doing a friend a favor.
There was a time when there were no ATMs, you know. Even in the mid 90s, in fairly advanced countries like Chile, I had to take my Visa card to a bank and wait in queue to see a teller and get a cash advance on it, which came after a couple hours wait for processing…
1986, on our honeymoon in Bermuda.