cwc

We are going to Egypt next month, and was planning to use the Citibank ATM to withdraw cash (Egyptian pound LE). However, someone who recently came back said they had hard time withdrawing money because the bank only load money in the morning!!! If the ATM run out by noon, then you are out of luck that day.

Then I read about "emergency" check cashing thing. Can all AE travel office cash personal check or only certain ones? Also, can I cash the check into LE? I heard for cashing a check, it will cost me the same as cash advance, but I never use cash advance in my life, so how much it will cost?

Thanks!

Mr. Vker

Just an FYI, we usually order foreign currency from AMEX if we are going to a country where accesing funds is difficult. They deduct $$ from our checking account and send us the money to our house. Its quite convenient having the money on arrival.

cwc

Yes, I know about the foreign currency delivery, but the exchange rate is not very good from what I understand!

Mr. Vker

Its probably not "the best", but it wasnt much different on our last trip. They will tell you on the phone and you can decided then.

Doppy

I spent the summer in Egypt with a fairly large group and never heard of anyone having trouble with getting money out of an ATM.

Citibank doesn't charge me any fees, and none of the ATMs I used charged a fee, so I wasn't limited to Citi ATMs, either. Your hotel will undoutedly have an ATM, so you should be fine.

If you're worried, bring some extra US dollars with you as a backup. You can either change them (plenty of places to do this), or, if you have small denominations, can probably get a lot of people to take them instead of pounds, even with the weak dollar.

merrickdb

You can cash a U.S. check at most AMEX Travel offices overseas. The maximum amount varies by card. You'll get the posted exchange rate for the travel office for conversions between USD and the local currency (which usually isn't very good). At least for Platinum and Centurion products, you're not charged any fees other than what AMEX makes on the currency spread.

Likewise, with an AMEX charge card product, any ATM withdrawals come from your checking account and don't incur any cash advance fees.

If you get really desperate, you can use AMEX Global Assist to wire you money. They wired money to a post office in Israel for me once. Not only did they pay all the fees, but the wire posted as a regular purchase to my AMEX card, so I had time to pay it and (I believe) earned membership rewards points. Note that Global Assist is intended for emergencies and can normally only be used once every six months (though they have assured me they wouldn't leave a card member stranded if they happened to have used the service in the past six months and needed assistance).