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I don't know about where you live, but my bank has absolutely no problem accepting travelers checques as a deposit.
Or, pay your taxes, pay your rent, etc. The uses are endless.
One little problem, travelers checks are treated like cash when you deposit into the bank, doing this too often, you risk tripping over some anti money laundering
reporting requirement.
I travel to Thailand frequently and prefer AMEX traveler's checks to carrying cash and when I do cash them in, in Thailand, I get a better exchange rate than with cash.
Another problem, many small Amex Travel Centers (usually run by local TAs) won't be able/want to help you with this. I've inquired at various locations, and have usually been told that they require cash/only allow this scheme with Amex Plat and Optima. Plus, it's a fairly bureaucratic process, and I couldn't picture myself dealing with weekly purchases with three different Amex cards. Now, if it were 10 times the number of miles...
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I am going to do a big trip in the Fall.
What are the advantages of getting Travelers Checks over just using a CC while there?
And what about foreign currency Travelers Checks? Is the value of the $ falling enough to make it worthwhile getting Yen and Aust$ now for a Fall trip?
I did this Amex thing last year for a while, getting my $1000 worth of TCs each week, and immediately depositing them at my bank.
After roughly 6 weeks I got a letter from Amex advising that they were looking into "suspicious activity" on my credit card account. I stopped, and never heard anything from them again.
Does anyone here have experience doing the TC thing over a longer term timeframe?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ejross
I travel to Thailand frequently and prefer AMEX traveler's checks to carrying cash and when I do cash them in, in Thailand, I get a better exchange rate than with cash.
Really?! Everywhere I've ever traveled / worked / lived from Asia (inc. Thailand) to South America to the Middle East always has worse rates for Travellers Checks. Some places you get better rates for the "new" $20s and $100s instead of the "old" ones, but the TC rate is uniformally the worst. At best, I've seen them be equal, but rarely. Maybe things have changed in Thailand in teh last five years since I was last there, but everywhere else the same paradigm still seems to exist.
peace,
~Ben~
__________________
Robin: "What do you think, Ben?"
Me: "There's time for thinkin' when we're dead! Let's go!"
I travel to Thailand frequently and prefer AMEX traveler's checks to carrying cash and when I do cash them in, in Thailand, I get a better exchange rate than with cash.
I had same experience at an exchange desk at ICN; there is a exchange desk just before you exit the custom area which offered better rate than outside the custom area including cash exchange.
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schmare - perhaps the problem was that you immediately cashed the checks. I wonder if the same thing would happen if you cashed them more gradually. That is what I am trying. I have some old travelers checks that I collected and I am cashing them and depositing them first. I haven't done it all at once for fear it would get reported somehow. We'll see if I get a letter if I haven't cashed any of the checks I've gottn in the last month. Also if they were all cashed "at home." I am sure that they can track all of this. As far as they know, I am saving for a major trip.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zlc
One little problem, travelers checks are treated like cash when you deposit into the bank, doing this too often, you risk tripping over some anti money laundering
reporting requirement.
What kinds of reporting requirements are those / for what thresholds? I would imagine that people / travellers deposit unused TCs upon returning home all the time since most I know that do bother getting them do so "just in case." Merchants certainly deposit these all the time. I think we ran through this same discussion in the GC thread and nothing ever came of it. I don't see what is remotely illegal about it or how it could be money laundering, so please let me know. Getting a TC is just acquiring a cash instrument with one's own money (/line of credit). You're redepositing it into your own account. There's no tax evasion or attempt to or benefit from "concealing the source of the funds." How would it be any different than the fact that I constantly withdraw cash, change it into foreign currency, and redeposit when I get back from a trip. I think that Amex might get pissy over the terms/spirit of the thing, but I don't understand how it could be money laundering and would like to be enlightened before I embark on anything. Thanks.
I came across this Amex TC opportunity when I was looking for the next best thing after the Gift Card churning came to an end about a year or so ago. At the time it seemed like too much of a pain, but now that I'm in Manhattan where there are 8-12 Amex corporate centers I could do this, I'm definitely considering it.
Anyone who's done it low key for a while, I'd appreciate any tips.
peace,
~Ben~
__________________
Robin: "What do you think, Ben?"
Me: "There's time for thinkin' when we're dead! Let's go!"
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dgordon
schmare - perhaps the problem was that you immediately cashed the checks. I wonder if the same thing would happen if you cashed them more gradually. That is what I am trying. I have some old travelers checks that I collected and I am cashing them and depositing them first. I haven't done it all at once for fear it would get reported somehow. We'll see if I get a letter if I haven't cashed any of the checks I've gottn in the last month. Also if they were all cashed "at home." I am sure that they can track all of this. As far as they know, I am saving for a major trip.
For $1000s of dollars isn't the cost in interest (or lost interest if you're paying off the card and foregoign the cash in your account) greater than the value of the miles/points over any extended period? I agree with an earlier poster -- Amex makes their money off of the float so I don't see why they would care. It's not as if TCs are a convenience service / loss leader for them.
If I buy $10,000 in TCs one day and cash them at the bank even just a week later (or even a day later), they've earned interest on that money and it hasn't cost them anything transactionally. Why wouldn't Amex ENCOURAGE people to do this?
peace,
~Ben~
__________________
Robin: "What do you think, Ben?"
Me: "There's time for thinkin' when we're dead! Let's go!"
