Traveler's checks or cashier's checks

Traveler's checks have become difficult to cash in EU. Best bet-- have an account with a US based international bank like Citi & ask your branch to set up. cashing at Citi in Paris.

Next, contact some French based international banks & see if you can set it up.

Credit cards will go a long way

You will have great difficulty finding a French bank that will do business with you unless you have an account with them.. Furthermore, Traveller's Cheques are very much a thing of the past. Banks in Canada stopped selling them years ago.

This is the 21st century.

Travelers checks went out with Reagan.

Cashiers check will not be something easily dealt with in any European bank.

Debit cards, Apple Pay etc are today’s currency.

Talk with your bank for professional of course.

I guess a question in response...what is your intent? What is the money for, and how much are we talking about?

Are you getting a lot of Euros to pay for a rental apartment?

The European banking system is a lot different that that in the US or even Canada.

Short answer: NO, it is not possible to cash traveler cheques or a bank cashier check anywhere in Europe.

Both type of checks have been hit recently with an enormous amount of counterfeit items. That is the main reason traveler cheques have stopped being accepted and are even nearly impossible to buy. Then there is the foreign exchange cost. Foreign countries don't want anything but their local currency and these checks are usually in US Dollars.

Unless you are considering a huge amount of money, like for buying property, getting cash from an ATM is the best way to go for getting money in Europe. If you are purchasing something large, a wire transfer to a trusted party in Europe would be a better although costly option.

Banks will literally not do business with you unless you have an account with them. Neither of those instruments will work for you. If you need money first thing for an apartment then either plan to withdraw from several ATM when you get there or if that exceeds the possible, make the exchange in the US and carry the Euros with you using a money belt in transit (under your clothes).

And if it is more than $10,000 or €10,000 in cash that you are carrying it must be declared to Customs. Failure to declare risks losing the whole lot plus a big fine.

The banking system in Europe is different to North America

• Traveller's cheques are extinct
• "cashier's check" never existed in the first place.
• Normal cheques to pay bills are getting rarer. They still exist in the UK (fewer are used every year). In Switzerland they never existed.
• The normal way to pay bills, small and large, is to use your online banking to send money direct to another person's account. This works and is cheap, even if the recipient is in a different country.
• The best way to get cash for day-to-day use is from a cash machine (ATM).
• Credit and debit cards are "chip-and-PIN", and have been for 2 decades. The machine is brought to you, you insert your card and enter your PIN. No signature needed, and your card never leaves your possesion.
• Exchanging cash banknotes for a different currency is the most expensive way to do it. Most banks will only do it for their customers. You have to go to a specialist exchange office.
• Importing or exporting more than €10,000 to/from the EU must be declared at customs.

If we knew the purpose of your need for cash, we could help more.

When they bring the machine to you in a restaurant or whatever the same machine will also issue a receipt to be signed if you have a chip/sig card and so will machines at check out in stores including grocery stores.

Direct transfer of funds is the least secure way to convey money; once it is transferred it is gone. If the recipient is a scammer, the money is unrecoverable.

Normal cheques to pay bills are getting rarer. They still exist in the UK (fewer are used every year). In Switzerland they never existed.

I'm curious as to how the Swiss paid bills before the advent of online banking.

I'm curious as to how the Swiss paid bills before the advent of online banking.

They have things called "Einzahlungsschein" (paying in slip) which are sort of "anti-cheques".
When you get a bill, it has an Einzahlungsschein printed at the bottom. You take this to any Post Office and pay the bill in cash (this is free).
Or you take it to your bank, and hand it in and they pay the person from your account (this costs).
Or you can enter the details in your online banking and pay the bill that way (free).

You can also get Einzahlungsschein for your own account, and send one to people who need to pay you (your employer).
The Einzahlungsschein has account numbers on it, and reference numbers to allow the money to be credited against your bill (and not anyone else's).

It is the opposite of a cheque because it has a negative value (if you pay it into your bank you loose money, not gain it), and travels in the opposite direction (sent from the person to whom you owe money to you, cheques are sent from the payer to the person to whom they owe money).
As they have negative value, there is no problem with theft.