Travellers cheques or credit cards??

[Captain]

Never change money in a hotel. They got the worst exchange rate ever.

[shark1963]

Originally Posted by andy50

tell us the bad experience regarding t/cheques?
how can you have a bad experience with them?

maybe its better to say i got in some trouble and its now about 5 years back, so maybe things changed and there are more ATM now available. As you know you buy your cheques normaly in your home bank. So for my trip tp eastern europe i baught about 40 T-Cheques. In the bank you have to sign each cheque in front of the bank staff, so if someone takes your cheque he must have the same signature. Well so long so good. But you can imagine signing 40 cheques is boring so i did it quickly in not acurratly.So what happened. Coming into the bank in Kiev i try to change my T-Cheques But each cheques was signed a little bit different and second the signature on the cheques (i usually sign like this) was also different to my signature at my passport. I was waiting for the money but after a while the local Miliz appeared. I can only telling what a nice feeling it is, sitting in the bank, some Miliz Guys at your side with the Kalaschnikow in their hands, just as i tried a bank robbery. It took 3 hours to prove my personality. Thanks God it was Monday morning and i bought my Cheques in my home bank, so they could send a copy of my passport to my bank and the staff knows me well. I forgot to tell that my wife was waiting outside for over half an Hour not knowing what happend inside.
In my opinion this is a bad experience.

[dizbuster]

Originally Posted by cybernator_uk

Denver

I was last in Thailand nov 2004 and me and a friend had no worries using traveller cheques. We went to the hotel desk showed them our passport and gave them cheques and they cashed them no fuss.

This board tho has really given me a few other options i never considered. i will have to remember these when i go to Los this year

Hotel ??? I hope it was because everywhere else was closed, as they give the worst rates by far

[cybernator_uk]

Originally Posted by dizbuster

Hotel ??? I hope it was because everywhere else was closed, as they give the worst rates by far

i think we were getting 73 baht per pound. I was either drunk or hungover at the time i know most of the time it was hard enough to do my signature Lol. i got my triceretops tho diz so for that it might have been worth it I wish i had known of this forum before i had gone but we all made errors on our fist couple of trips but isnt what thi forum is all about. So newbies like myself can learn from it from people who have had more experience. Thanks for all your help guys

[irim]

i have been reading all of your post,s and to be honest for a newbie i think all of your post,s have been excellent, keep up the good work. see you in march. atm,s for me thanks.

[cybernator_uk]

Originally Posted by irim

i have been reading all of your post,s and to be honest for a newbie i think all of your post,s have been excellent, keep up the good work. see you in march. atm,s for me thanks.

Glad your enjoying it all irim. Its a good learning experience informative and many diffrent opinions

[oneday]

I know this thread is a little old, but either here or a new thread.

Because of this board I have been doing some research and here is what I will be coming to Thailand with for paying bills and getting money.

CREDIT CARD
I just got from "CAPTIAL ONE". Get this: NO Foreign Exchange fee and the bank absorbs the standard 1% fee charged by Visa. This is the latest information from a web site called "Bankrate" posted on May 2006:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/...1.asp?caret=15

DEBIT CARD:
I am in the process of switching to "Bank of the Internet" which can be done on-line and through the mail. As you can tell by the name their overhead is kept low because they mostly are not a physical bank except in the city where they are based, San Diego. I will now do all my banking here. With a senior checking account I will not only NOT be charged a fee on my debit card transaction they will refund to me any fees charged by an ATM machine up to 8$ per month.

Of course these institutions are based in the USA so I don't know if this will help anyone outside the US. Hope it helps someone.