Travellers Cheques

alicat

Which brand of travellers cheques would you suggest for:

- convenience/widespread exchange
- ease of replacement if stolen
- good customer service
- any other benefits?

Gerlinde

AMEX and Thomas Cook.
TC's get always a better conversion than notes.
But take a "healthy mix" of TC's, cash and CC.
Gerlinde

sonzybhai

Though Amex TCs are accepted at many places, Thomas Cook centres are more in number and it is redeemed almost everywhere. Most big malls have a seperate Thomas Cook Counter.

Regards, SonzyPuneet Aggarwal "Sonzy"
Your Indian Food & Cuisine WZ-ard
http://wz.com/food/IndianFoodCuisine.html
PuneetAggarwal@wz.com

gozer

i've read all the threads on travellers cheques and still haven't found the info i need:

are the VISA travellers cheques accepted the same as American Express cheques???????

i have a pile of VISA cheques and am wondering if i should swap them in for AMEX.............???????????

__________________
If you want a friend, feed any animal.....

cyberhippie

Ok the lowdown on travellers cheques!! Cheques are still THE most convenient way to keep your funds safe on a trip around India and are accepted by both banks and the hundreds of authorised money changers you will find all over India!!
As for the best brand name well that a difficult one, as this changes all the time but generaly speaking Thomas Cook and Amex remain the chart toppers with visa secondry!!
This does'nt mean that you can't cash you visa cheques just there is a small chance that you may be refused somewhere along the line!!
The reason for this was explained to me some years ago, all the above companies occasionally fall foul of Indian banking and finacial services, when they are slow to honour these cheques!! The upshot of this, certain cheques become unpopular for a time and others are shunted up the popularity stakes!!!
This is rather an in depth look at the situation, usually, as in 9 times out of 10 you won't experience problems cashing any of the big three cheques, In 11 years of travel I've only had this difficulty once in Gangtok where the state bank would'nt cash my Thomas Cook cheque I simply went to the next bank and bingo they gladly accepted said cheque!!
I hope that clears things up for you all!!!

gozer

cyberhippie - yes, you more than cleared up my question. it was just difficult to ascertain the scoop on the VISA cheque - something of a mystery - referenced, but never answered..... thank you.

also found this epic little site while searching for more info:

http://www.cashmycheques.com

you can click on either the MC or VISA logo, input country and city, and it will tell you where and for how much, you can change your travellers cheques.