confused about traveller's cheques

stringbeanjean

hi,
i'm travelling to canada in a week.

i have no credit or debit cards and no way of getting one.

i don't want to have only cash on me so i was planning to get travellers cheques (i've been reading the board and see that M&S is good value),
i have never travelled before and so i am clueless about what is the best way to do all of this.

i don't even know how travellers cheques work?
or where is a good place to buy them?

i don't want to get a bad deal just because i don't know the ins and outs.

can anyone give this newbie some good advice please?

exel1966

Best to obtain your Travellers cheques in the Canadian Dollar as you then won't have need to go to a bank and change them whilst over there. Also try to obtain smallish denominations ($20,$50 etc) as some places may refuse $100 cheques.

TC's are as good as cash in the majority of places in Canada, but you will need to produce ID at the request of the retailer when using one so carry your drivers licence or passport when using them. Some will ask for ID, some won't.

When purchasing your TC's you will have to sign each individual one (thats VERY important), and then when using one for a purchase you will have to sign again in front of the person accepting the payment. It's a very simple process.

Never keep your TC receipt with the cheque numbers on with the actual cheques as these numbers are your insurance if anything happens to the cheques themselves (ie. lose them,get stolen etc). As long as you can provide the cheque numbers of the lost/stolen ones to the original issuer you should be able to get replacements.

For Canada/USA I'd reccomend obtaining cheques from American Express.

p00pieb0tt0m

American Express also offer a service whereby, God forbid, your passport is lost/stolen, ring them and they will arrange an interview with the nearest consulate, saving you a lot of hassle trying to find out for yourself where it is, etc.