travellers cheques in Italy

Don't expect to cash travelers checks in Canadian $ at all except in banks. The cost of buying and exchanging travelers checks is more than getting cash from a machine.

It's not a bad idea to carry some extra cash in your money belt to exchange as a backup. Use the ATM's when you can.

Travelers Cheques are a liability these days in Europe. Many places in the smaller areas will not accept them. It's just too easy to get cash from the ATM. There are more ATMs in Italy than you can possibly imagine. They are everywhere. True that there will be some limit to the cash withdrawl each day but using the ATM is the only way to go. Your desire to carry traveler's cheques is an over-reaction to some fear of carrying cash. With a correctly-carried money belt, you can carry a bit more cash than usual without worry.

Forget travellers cheques and use your ATM card. Many places won't even take travellers cheques anymore.

I was watching "The Suzie Orman Show" (she is a finance
expert and has written many books and has a TV show)
I was very shocked by what she said about travelers checks, and coming from an expert like this!
A woman called in and said she was shocked to see so many extra charges on her credit card after her trip to Europe. Suzie said that's why she uses travelers checks
when she goes to Europe, to avoid extra charges on her credit card!
I have brought TC's to Europe and was sorry I did. I was charged $10 just to cash them. Finding an American Express office to cash them would take up too much time.
I guess the last time Suzie Orman went to Europe must have been in 1980!
Happy Travels!

Bobbie, I would strongly advise against travelers checks. You'll spend a great deal of time trying to cash them and will pay significant fees for the privilage. I understand the concern about carrying too much cash and ATM's not being available or not working. We had exactly the same fears. But use a money belt, keep a stash that will cover hotels/meals for 2-3 days, and hit the huge number of ATM's (bancomats) when you need to. If disaster hits and your debit card somehow won't work, you can always enter any bank with your passport and a credit card and make a cash withdrawl (a last resort that I'm sure you won't need). Cheers

Ditto...NO to traveler's cheques. Really hard to use, have to go to a bank, merchants and eating places will not touch them. Even at the bank you pay through the nose to cash them. You will loose money using them.

Get an ATM card and take cash out as needed in the currency you need.

Traveler's cheques are out of date, and unusable in most cases - do not waste your time!

Lisa--I saw that episode and I was pretty surprised as well, but then again, I suspect Ms. Orman is dealing in much larger quantities of cash than the average poster here. It may not be practical for her to use the ATM method for large sums, and I am not surprised that she would not generally advise using credit cards, as most do charge fees and many people get carried away with using credit.

For me, I carried a credit card (Capital One, no fees) and a debit card (WaMu/Mastercard 1.5% fee), and 50 euros in cash purchased here. My total fees for the weeklong trip was probably under $10 and I consider that just fine for a several thousand dollar vacation.

Bobbie, it isn't worth the trouble to take travellers cheques to Italy unless you have either made arrangements to pay your accomodations using cheques or you really, really want a backup that isn't cash and isn't plastic.

echoing the rest--no traveler's checks . The only reason to have them is if you want a backup in case everything gets stolen since they can be replaced. Before I gave up on them I once got in a bind in florence and had to pay a 20% commission on them--that's extreme but commission is consistently higher. Definitely plan on using an ATM. If you do bring them, don't plan on cashing them anywhere except banks.

Kim says "Don't plan on cashing them at anywhere but banks" and I would add "If you can find a bank that's open when you need it."

I thought it wise to use travels cheques last time i went to Europe in 2006. Funny enough, it was easiest to cash them in Italy, but that isn't saying too much, as overall it was very difficult and time consuming to find banks to cash them (most places have to copy down a lot of information and all), especially at a rate that was worthy (many banks have inflaated currency rates or high service fees).

Essentially, I would strongly discourage using travelers cheques, and opt for ATM/Debit cards, as those proved far, far more efficient.

If you do go with travelers cheques, you could be in for a near nightmare if they are Visa cheques and/or double signature cheques. It may make sense in North America, but it creates a significant amount of confusion most places I went to in Europe.
In Italy, I believe it was BNL that was easiest to cash the checks. They generally had the lowest rates, and once you're in the BNL system, you don't have to keep giving your information (as I mentioned earlier). But in the end, travelers cheques and Europe really don't go well together anymore.

Maybe you can use the T/C's when one travels over on the Concorde.

Bobbie,

I absolutely agree with the others regarding Traveller's Cheques! My position is the same as Rick's - I've cashed my last Traveller's Cheque!!!

The method I'd suggest would be to take a small amount for "travel funds", perhaps €100-200. That should last for a day or two until you can get settled and find an ATM. DO NOT take all of your travel funds in cash, whether in a Money Belt or not.

The easiest (and often least expensive) method is to get cash from ATM's. It's a good idea to take two ATM cards on different accounts, in case there's a problem with one (I learned the value of that when I was in Europe in June, when I found that my primary ATM card wouldn't work - always good to have a backup!). Note that your funds must be in a chequing account with four-number PIN. It's also a good idea to have at least one credit card.

Be sure to notify your Bank that you'll be travelling overseas, and review your daily withdrawal limit, as this will include foreign currency exchange charges. Note that European Bank may impose a different daily limit than what you're used to at home.

On the topic of Suzie Orman's goofy advice, she may be a "finance expert" but she's obviously not too clever with travel matters. I'd suggest following Rick's advice on this.

Good luck and happy travels!

I am currently travelling in Italy and took a mixture of cash and TC, in Euros. I also brought my visa and TD debit card for back up.

Not many shops accept TC, even in big cities, and some banks don't accept them either. I spent an hour visiting 4 different banks in Orvieto and none of them would cash them at all! A bank in Volterra would only cash a maximum of 150 Euros (of course I only had 100 Euro TCs and then they charged me 6 Euro to cash one cheque).

The best success was in Cortona at La Banca Etruria but the hotel staff called ahead on my behalf. I was charged a flat fee of 9 Euros. A 'cambio' in San Gimignano cashed TCs happily with a 5-per-100 Euro transaction fee.

Next time I will just bring cash.

Good luck

With all due respect to this "financial expert", I'd say that Ms. Orman is an idiot if she suggests you bring large quantities of money to Europe in the form of travelers checks.

I'm guessing that she either 1) has not been to Europe in many years; or 2) if she has been to Europe recently, it has probably been on someone else's dime, and she never had to worry about such mundane tasks as actually paying for things; or 3) she just has one of her personal assistants tasked with finding a financial institution that will convert her archaic travelers check into real money, and if takes them all day to do that, well, that's their job.

If your lifestyle is like that, well, more power to ya. But for most of us? Get real!

Seriously, I can see maybe taking a small amount of funds in travelers checks - like maybe $200 - as an emergency backup. I actually used to do that (10 years ago) but have since stopped bothering. Never again.

Consider this: The availability of cash from ATMs in Europe is at least as good as it is here at home, in fact, it's usually better. I see no more reason to walk around Sienna with $4000 in travelers checks stuffed in my pants than I do when walking around Seattle. Both would be not just bad advice, but just plain crazy.

This "expert advice" suggests (to me at least) that perhaps one should view any advice from this (or any other TV personality) with some skepticism.

OK, everybody, this thread is now 15 months old. Bobbie has no doubt already been to Italy and back. To summarize:

ATM = good

Travelers Check = bad

I cashed my last TC over 5 years ago. Now I take some USD ($200 last time) and whatever European money I have left over from my last trip. Then I use my debit (check) card from BofA for cash. As a backup, I have set up a credit card so that I can get a cash advance if necessary. So far, the ATM card has worked every time. I try not to use my credit card at hotels and for purchases. My CC # was stolen last year at a hotel; someone tried to use it a month after I returned home. I've decided to pay everything in cash if I can. I call my bank in advance so they know I'm traveling. I'm still anxious until I actually get some money out of an ATM. Then I know it's working.