Cashing USD Travellers Cheques in UK

Jamp

Hi All,

My mum has a thousand or so dollars in Amex travellers cheques which she is never likely to use. I am going to the States in a couple of weeks and given the exchange rate currently, it would be desirable for me to buy the travellers cheques/cash from my mum. She has signed them so I believe they can't be transferred into my name sadly. Could they be cashed straight into US$ somewhere in the UK, AMEX counter or something? Any other solutions to this?

Cheers

shaun_from_Africa

Your best bet would be to contact Amex directly and see what they suggest.

Their customer service number for the UK number is 0800 587 6023.

zagfles

Check the following out first - but I would have thought she could sign them a second time and then you could use them, as cash. But I'm not sure how widely TCs are accepted in the US now - last time I used them was about 15 years ago and just like here people are stopping accepting cheques, same may be true over there. Also if she's double signed them you won't be protected from loss, so treat them like cash. Don't remember ever being asked for ID when paying in TCs, but again that may have changed.

Jamp

Thanks for the replies. I spoke to Amex and they weren't very useful - suggested paying into my account or getting them paid out in local currency - they didn't really understand my question.

I thought the merchant had to watch you countersigning travellers cheques? I saw my mum change a few in US banks when we were travelling together a couple of years ago, I think they did want to see her passport etc; it was time consuming and a hassle, hence she didn't use them all and started to use credit card as I had suggested in the first place :mad:

I think we'll just have to see what the Post Office et al would charge for cashing them into USD. I guess the fee to change them back into GBP and then the fee to change that into USD cash , but we'll see.

It might be worth chancing taking them countersigned (and I believe one can pay them into a bank account this way, but I don't have a US bank account...), but I only want to change them for cash in one or two lumps, not have the hassle of using a cheque (if possible, as above) for every purchase.

richardw

Would it be easy and cheap for your mum to get to an Amex location ?http://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/int/UK_en/fxip/personal/foreignexchangeoverview/ukforeignexchangelocations.do?vgnextoid=2553cf5ff27b3210VgnVCM100000defaad94RCRD

Not sure they would give her US$ in hard cash though.

Jamp

richardw wrote: »

Would it be easy and cheap for your mum to get to an Amex location ?http://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/int/UK_en/fxip/personal/foreignexchangeoverview/ukforeignexchangelocations.do?vgnextoid=2553cf5ff27b3210VgnVCM100000defaad94RCRD

Not sure they would give her US$ in hard cash though.

Sadly not, having looked at the list, she's in North Wales so miles from a branch. It would be easy enough for me to go to the branch at Heathrow on my way to the US, but I guess just me won't do.

That link above doesn't work for non airport locations by the way (server error), but this one shows them, if anyone is interested. http://www.amextravelresources.com/offices?zipcode=&radius=50&region=EMEA&country=UK&city=