Euro Travelers Checks

[gone cruisen]

Sailing on Golden, 9/23/06 Are Euro travelers checks (available by ordering at local AAA) accepted throughout Europe?

[HeinBloed]

Happy Cruising,

do not worry: in most European Countries EURO TC are accepted. In the official EURO-countries no problem - and in other who are preparing for EURO-inauguration in the next years not either.

In some UK banks (who are very proud not to be in the EURO-Zone and celebrating their Pound Sterling) you might need to go to another bank. But normally there should not be problems anywhere.

Have a nice trip.

Regards,
HeinBloed

[Hank]

Let me offer a suggestion based on a lot of international travel experience. If you buy Euro tc's in the USA you are going to get a less than great rate of exchange, pay a fee for the tc's, and assuming you don't use all the tc's you are going to again get clobbered by the exchange rate when you try to re-convert them back to dollars. I carry AMEX US$ tc's as a backup...but in the past 12 years (more than 30 trips) have never used one of those tc's. Why? Because the best and cheapest way to get Euros is to simply use ATMs or credit cards. These options will get your money converted at the wholesale bank exchange rate plus varying fees (check with your ATM bank) which generally range from 2 - 3% on the ccs. Still a good deal. If you have tc's in dollars, and you need to change them, its relatively easy at any bank or moneychanging kiosk...but the rate will still be higher than using ATMs. On the Golden they only use dollars, but will be happy to change cash or tc's to Euros at a less than favorable rate (but still better than buying Euros in the US).

Hank

[gone cruisen]

Thanks for the info, based on your advice -we'll probably skip getting Euros from our home bank, get a small amount on the ship and head for an ATM at the first port(and everyone thereafter). Carol