Before credit cards.
And having to pay a yearly fee for the card?

No

Yeah, I remember them. I personally never used them, but my parents did. They were pretty popular they made a big thing out of them

Army made us buy them, I always cashed them out when I got to my bank.

I used them back in the day. I hated them as not everyplace would take them and when the trip was done, you had to go and try and cash out what was left over.

Great way to hang on to your money when someone else wanted it.

Nobody in the world could make you sign one unless you wanted to.

I remember my parents getting them to go on vacation. That's about it

I used to use them. Amex. Best way to not get ripped off and lose your money in some 3rd world sheathole

No, I don't remember Traveler's Cheques, can you tell us more about this granpa?

Are they like rain checks?

I used them a time or two.

Yep. I used them on my ROTC summer training cruises

I used traveler's checks in Mexico in 1972.
I used sign language to communicate with a taxi driver that I would cash a traveler's check to pay the fare when we reached the Oaxaca airport.

I used them a lot before I got my first credit card. They were a necessary evil if you wanted to travel and didn't want to take tons of cash with you.

kwg

Still pretty common to use them on safari in Africa. You pay up at the end of the hunt and only an idiot would carry that much cash. Many safari outfits are getting the electronic payments up and going but travelers checks are still used.

Dad used to get them for vacations.

My buddys wife manages optical chains and one day we were out shooting. Started raining so my buddty says let's see if the wife wants to go to lunch. We get to the optical store just in time to see some old guy try to pay with some travelers checks. Buddys wife was trying to explain that they didnt take them he was all sorts of pissed off. Finally he started ranting and raving and she threatened to call the cops.

Wabigoon: They worked well/safely for me for many years.
Times change though.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I remember taking them on a business trip to Malaysia in 1997. They seemed to work for getting cash from the Hotel and that's the only time I can remember using them.

remember? "What Will You Do!"...

20 years ago our company stopped our incentivized safety program, I had built up a bunch of points trying to get…something. They bought us travelers cheques in the Dollar amount owed.



I still have them!
Will take pics when I get home.

wabi, gimme some S&H Green Stamps so I can finish filling out my book, I've been trying to finish this one since 1974

I can remember business trip expense account and Boeing in the 1970s impounding employee frequent flyer miles.

I saw armed Boeing guards come into engineering to throw out the head of software for an expense account issue.

I remember that in BCT/AIT but not afterwards.

I remember having to get a Diner's Club card when I worked for the FDIC.

I just found a stack of them about a year ago. They were 30 years old and almost a grand... lost a lot to inflation!

Used to be a real gem using one in some place like a Wendy’s

Foucking idiots all the way up to the manager thought it was Monopoly money. They acted just as stupid with $2 bills.

Yep

You're still paying a yearly you just don't pay it directly to the the CC company. You pay it through all the vendors who have raised their prices enough to cover that yearly fee. Remember when they first came out credit cards for gasoline and they had a price for cash or credit.

I didn't leave home without them.

Yes when I first got out of college I worked for IBM and that was the only way you could take long business trips

Traveled a lot for work. Travelers checks destroyed my signature.

I was in Minnesota last week for a funeral, stopped at a Holiday gas station and had to wait for a young woman to write a check for her gas. I haven’t seen a personal check since before the year 2000!

I had a friend that his brother made big money working in construction jobs traveling all over. We came home and he was burning a whole bunch of travelers checks. We asked him what he was doing. He said I only keep enough money to get me through his next pay check and burns the rest up in travelers checks. Then later we found out he was going through a divorce and there is no way to track the travelers checks. After the divorce was over, he would present the stubs and get reimbursed for all the travelers checks he burned up. I had never ever heard of anything like that. He had a bunch of money then. SMART

Lots of refugees used traveler's cheques to get get their assets out of Kuwait after Iraq invaded. They'd convert assets into AmEx travellers cheques. Then burn the cheques. They'd smuggle the cheque receipts across the border for full redemption of their money. Better than gold.

Increasing numbers of local businesses are charging extra if you use plastic. I love it.

Let them pay for what they get.
Free plastic purchases is no different than some people getting 20oz and some getting 15 when paying for 1# of burger

A check is more secure than having your credit card float up into the cloud and be taken. Last week, I had to change my Verizon password because someone had gotten into their system and mined account info. CC numbers, SS numbers, addresses. Verizon yet, one of the largest computer intelligence companies in the word. Some shooting clubs would rather take a check than pay CC fees. Checks are far from being a thing of the past.

You be needing a new Electrolux aye?

I was cleaning out some old luggage the other day and found a $20 Travelor's Check that probably came from a hunting trip back in 1984. I need to get that to my bank and cash it in.

I guess the last time I used them was in the 80's.

Went on a church trip as a kid.
I was given a couple of Traveler's Checks so a knot headed kid wouldn't lose cash.

Second trip to Kodiak, AK, one of the group was a newby to AK. The guy that put the trip together asked Jack if he had exchanged his money to Alaskan money?
Jack almost missed the boat the next morning! He was trying to find an exchange to covert his money to Alaskan currency! LOL!
Next best question was when a lady asked the captain, "What's the elevation here? I'm having trouble breathing."

I recall an episode of Green Acres where Mr Haney sold traveler's checks. Of course Mr Douglas wouldn't buy one then a 'random' person (Haney planted) just happened by saying no- he wouldn't cash any travel....OHHH it's a HANEY Traveler's check - and cashed it. Funny stuff.

That's the funniest thing I've read around here in a while.