What is a Traveler’s Cheque?

As the word denotes these cheques are invented for the comfort and convenience of the travelers who usually travel internationally. It is often used by the people on vacation in place of cash. It is the form of currency cheques for travelers which are convenient to carry. The traveler’s cheque is a fixed amount cheque and is pre-printed. This is designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege. A traveler’s cheque can be replaced if it is stolen, misplaced, or if it is lost.

Earlier the businessmen used to carry their cash in the form of currency notes and there was always a chance for theft or losing money. This would make them always worried about their cash. Due to these reasons, for the benefit of the business community countries all over the world decided to issue traveler’s cheques. Now business community could use the traveler’s cheques easily without any fear of losing their money in any way.

The traveler’s cheques have now lost their importance due to the introduction of credit cards. Now in most of the places they do not accept traveler’s cheque, and instead they entertain the usage of credit cards and very few places accept the traveler’s cheque and reject the credit card, so now the Travelex also sells “traveler’s cheque cards” which can be used like credit cards. The American Express has announced the discontinuation of their own traveler’s cheque cards and that they would no longer honor the cards which is in effect from October 31, 2007.

Traveler’s cheques are highly useful because of the following reasons:

• They are broadly accepted.
• They are safer to use than carrying cash while traveling.
• If we lose the cheques or if they are stolen they can be replaced within 24 hours.
• Carrying heavy loads of currency notes while traveling can be avoided by the usage of traveler’s cheque.