di marco
24-08-2006, 11:19
i didnt know whether to put this here or in the holiday and travel forum cos its to do with holidays but thought more people would see it here, but feel free to move it :)
anyway, i just wanted to warn people about taking an american express travellers cheque card on holiday with you
when we booked up our holiday we were advised to take out one of these cards, cos we were told they were safer than taking cash and travellers cheques and that these cards were new and would soon be replacing travellers cheques. cos they were new you got so many free dollars so my mum opened a card for all 4 of us. when we opened them we were told we would be able to use them anywhere and that all you would need was a pin number, no id was necessary. after we had opened the card and put our money on it we got information through about the card saying that it could only be used in places that accepted american express, so that was different to what we were originally told, but we thought seeing as american express was a big company we would be able to use it most places
however, when we actually got to america and tried to use the card we found that we couldnt. some places just looked at the card like they didnt know what it was and refused to accept it, even though we explained to them what it was, others tried to use it but it didnt work (even though they accepted american express) and there are surprisingly a lot of places that dont accept american express. plus we were asked for id almost everywhere we used it and never were we once asked for our pin number
another problem with them was that we were told we could use atm machines to take out money and check our balance, however the cards didnt work in these either, and it wasnt just cos we only tried one, we tried every one we came to, we even asked someone who worked in one of the banks to help us (thinking we were somehow doing it wrong!) but she couldnt do it either
apparently some of the problems were due to the fact theres some financial struggle (or something) between american express and one of americas other banks and thats why the cards didnt work (even though the cards have only just been released and the struggle has been going on for a whiole now)
anyway, i just wanted to warn people that if theyve taken out one of these cards to use on holiday, to take plenty of cash with you as well, and also make sure you take id everywhere with you, otherwise you might have the same problems as we did
anyway, i just wanted to warn people about taking an american express travellers cheque card on holiday with you
when we booked up our holiday we were advised to take out one of these cards, cos we were told they were safer than taking cash and travellers cheques and that these cards were new and would soon be replacing travellers cheques. cos they were new you got so many free dollars so my mum opened a card for all 4 of us. when we opened them we were told we would be able to use them anywhere and that all you would need was a pin number, no id was necessary. after we had opened the card and put our money on it we got information through about the card saying that it could only be used in places that accepted american express, so that was different to what we were originally told, but we thought seeing as american express was a big company we would be able to use it most places
however, when we actually got to america and tried to use the card we found that we couldnt. some places just looked at the card like they didnt know what it was and refused to accept it, even though we explained to them what it was, others tried to use it but it didnt work (even though they accepted american express) and there are surprisingly a lot of places that dont accept american express. plus we were asked for id almost everywhere we used it and never were we once asked for our pin number
another problem with them was that we were told we could use atm machines to take out money and check our balance, however the cards didnt work in these either, and it wasnt just cos we only tried one, we tried every one we came to, we even asked someone who worked in one of the banks to help us (thinking we were somehow doing it wrong!) but she couldnt do it either
apparently some of the problems were due to the fact theres some financial struggle (or something) between american express and one of americas other banks and thats why the cards didnt work (even though the cards have only just been released and the struggle has been going on for a whiole now)
anyway, i just wanted to warn people that if theyve taken out one of these cards to use on holiday, to take plenty of cash with you as well, and also make sure you take id everywhere with you, otherwise you might have the same problems as we did