peagreenid

I have searched everywhere trying to get the answer to this question, so I thought I'd ask all of you-

Normally when we travel we use a separate debit card at local ATM's in each country for the best exchange rate. We have a cruise coming in April and will be visiting Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and several stops in Japan. We are in Australia and Japan long enough to use our normal strategy, but Hong Kong and Taiwan we are just visiting for the day so we thought about purchasing HKD and TWD prior to our visit. We are thinking about ordering currency online since my bank I've had for years is located in a different state. I don't think that debit cards offer the same security that credit cards do, so I thought about using my AMEX. Will this be considered a Cash Advance if I order foreign currency?

sydneyracquelle

Call Amex and ask but my guess is yes.

lindros2

I would look into AMEX Traveler Cheques
we’re buying them now since exchange is excellent, and banks suck. 1.43 vs 1.5+ exchange rate.
(obviously Yen isn’t 1 it’s 100 but you get it)

beachmouse

You might be able to do a back door workaround by sending the amount to a Venmo account, which AmEx does not count as a cash advance, as an intermediary.

Orange County Commuter

It’s definitely a cash advance.

But I wouldn’t go with Travelers checks either You have to find someplace to cash them. That seems to me to be even more trouble than finding an ATM in those cities you’re only in for a day. I certainly wouldn’t go the travelers check

flyerCO

A lot of people dont even know what Travelers cheques are any more.

OP, yes it is cash advance.

beachmouse

I remember my parents using them in the 1970s and 1980s. I had no idea they had survived this far into the 21st century.

flyerCO

I remember working in college (early 2000s) as a CSM at Walmart near Canadian border. (grand forks) We would get lots of Canadian customers. Usually theyd just pay in CAD (Walmarts near border Usually take both). However every now and then they'd come in with travelers cheques. My cashiers would have no clue what they were or how to handle. (They're processed as CASH, not checks)

lindros2

hotel front desk. Not hard.

CarmenOM

I would be wary of trying to use travelers checks.

In 2012 I left home to travel for a month in Sri Lanka, with a stop in Singapore en route to Colombo. In Singapore I discovered that I had inadvertently left home without a debit card but had brought my AmEx credit card. I was reluctant to buy enough Sri Lankan cash for a month but was able to buy American Express Travelers Checks in Singapore. However, in Sri Lanka I discovered that no hotels or businesses would accept travelers checks and I could cash them only at one bank chain in the country. Each time I would cash them, it was about a 30-minute process involving multiple staff at each bank branch. I would have had no such problems using a debit card at ATMs all over the country.

I don’t know whether the challenge in using the travelers checks was particular to Sri Lanka or, as others have indicated, caused by the infrequent use of travelers checks these days.

GagaPilot

Will it count as a cash advance? YES. Unless you can find a way to add a middleman in there like Venmo or PayPal. Those transactions Amex does not consider a cash advance.

Keep in mind with either a cash advance transaction or 3rd party money transfers there are limits likely much lower than one’s credit limit.

Also suggest avoiding anything to do with Traveler’s Cheques. Almost no hotels accept them anymore and banks view them as suspicious. I’ll never forget a family vacation as a kid back in 2008 where my dad took essentially all traveler’s Cheques to Rome and almost no Euros. No place accepted them! We finally found an Amex Office in Rome and it was full of Americans trying to cash them in exchange for Euros.

My recent trip to Thailand I exchanged around $4000 USD into Thai Baht. Half I got from a currency exchange in the Dallas airport a few months before the trip that actually had a decent rate. The other half I got on arrival at BKK. Paid in US cash both times. I don’t trust the ability to use a debit card overseas and risk dealing with declines and bank fraud protection measures.

flyerCO

Biggest issue that seemed to kill traveler cheques, fraud. It became much easier to cheaply produce fake cheques. What was once a very secure guaranteed method of payment, became anything but. Same with money orders. A lot of places place holds nowadays just like if was a check.

emma dog

Don’t use cash at all… your cards are welcome
everywhere in the countries listed. Pretty much everyone has gone cashless and you get the best exchange rates (especially since amex blocks dynamic currency conversion).

flyerCO

This simply isn't true. Lots of small Businesses and especially taxis only take cash.

Also AMEX is frequently not accepted due to their higher fees.

Orange County Commuter

they’re on a cruise ship - there’s no hotel front desk.


Not to mention that from researching this because I was amazed that anyone was still suggesting travelers checks in 2024 I see they don’t come in every currency. So you can cash them at our front desk at a hotel and get ripped off. I quit using them after a trip to Turkey, where no one would cash them.