Traveler's Checks - what the heck are these things about?

Years ago I used travelers checks when vacationing but now credit cards are easier. I wonder if he was upset about your refusing to cash it considering he was a regular customer? Still if he was a good person he would understand you were not familiar with these checks..

Before credit cards were around, travellers cheques were the safest way to travel with 'cash'. The advantage they have is that you can get them in a foreign currency and all conversion costs are done when you buy them so a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks; no exchange rate; no 2.5% for credit card transaction; no extra charges. When you pick them up at the bank you have to sign each cheque in front of the teller and they have to check that signature against your identity like a passport. When to go to a hotel or shop to use the travellers cheque you have to sign the cheque again, in front of the sales person and again, produce proof of identity, and again, a passport is best because it has a photo and a signature. In my experience it was always best to cash travellers cheques in a bank or in a hotel. Trying to do it outside a tourist area was often a recepie for trouble. You did right to refuse the transaction.

On the whole you were right not to accept it because there are so many scams associated with Travellers Checks: see here: http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_visa/visa_travelers_cheques.html That is not to say, of course, that Travellers Checks are always a scam - usually they are not. They are a very good way of carrying large amounts of money around safely, provided that all the safeguards are observed, and are certainly less easy to cash if they are stolen than, for example, a $100 bill. Unfortunately, regular customer or not, I would have been very suspicious and wary of taking the check under the circumstances. Travellers checks are not usually negotiable as currency, that is to say that they are issued to one person and that person has to sign the check and verify the signature independently (usually by comparing it with their signature in a passport). Generally, this is done through a bank. Although some shops (especially in tourist areas) will accept Travellers Checks, their staff will have been briefed about the dangers and will know how to verify the validity of the check. They will also probably have an agreement with their own bank that Travellers Checks can be accepted as cash.

I used travelers checks on my trip around Europe when I was eighteen years old. I went to a bank, showed my passport and then cashes one or more of my travelers checks. I had some twenties, some fifties and some hundreds. I think the customer at your job wanted to give you one hundred dollars travelers check for just twenty three dollars. I think that he wanted change in cash. When I traveled to America the first time I used travelers checks. It was accepted in most shops and I had to give the right amount.