When we travelled in the past, one way to carry money safely was to buy Traveller’s Checks (TCs). The last one I used was in 2002 on a trip to Guatemala. The reason I remember that is because the teller at the bank where I was trying to cash them had never seen a TC with two signatures, my wife’s and mine. The intent was that either person could sign in in presence of the person receiving funds. She thought that both are required so I had to get out of the line and fetch my wife from a shop she was in. Finally, we got the local currency.
Those were the good old days. People at least knew what a TC was. This was not the case at Bangkok airport on our recent trip to Asia. I had several hundred worth of TCs that had remained unused through all these years. The woman at Bangkok airport where I tried to use them to convert to local currency had never seen one. She was perhaps born after people stopped using TCs. She refused to accept them and we had to use cash to get exchange.
We thought that a bank would certainly accept TCs. We found a bank near where we were staying and patiently stood in line. When our turn came, the same thing happened. The young lad y had never seen a TC. This time, she called her manager, who told us that there was a currency exchange place a few minutes away and they will certainly convert these strange instruments. Passing the buck, literally. The exchange he suggested refused to convert and suggested we take a tuk-tuk and go to the main office of the bank where we could try our luck.
At that point we gave up and decided to wait until we returned to US.
Now, back in LA, we went to a branch of our bank. Once again, the young teller had never seen a TC. She called her manager, who, being older, had seen one in her younger days. She sternly asked me to sign my name with exactly the same signature and put my name in the line meant for putting the name of the recipient. I did all that and gave it to the teller. Now a third person, more senior, appeared. She asked me to sign each check on the back for good measure. I did that too. Finally, the checks were accepted on a contingency basis. I would not have access to those funds until the next day. “Traveller’s checks are supposed to be as good as cash,” I thought. However, at this point, there was no point arguing.
Mission accomplished? We will know by tomorrow ;-)
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