American Express Travellers Cheque Card Review

Good Points
Accepted in most establishments.
Small and convenient compared to travellers cheques.

Bad Points
Have to pay ATM charges, and AMEX take their cut, whereas hotels usually exchange travellers cheques without financial penalty.
Pending transactions... See general comments...

General Comments
Like the previous reviewer, I was sold the American Express Travellers Cheque card by Thomsons. The added $30 made the rate good at the time of transaction, and I was told all the plus points. I was given a sealed enveloped which detailed all the "bad" points and told to telephone after 2 hours to activate the card. With a promise of the $30 being added 3 - 5 working days after the card purchase, so we thought we had made a good decision.



In San Francisco, all the ATM machines charged at least $2 to withdraw any amount of cash, so we drew the maximum (about $450), then we were stung by an added charge by AMEX of $2.50 for the withdrawal.



As we had a laptop, we were able to track the account. We knew nothing about pending transactions. Most are OK and charge to the card exactly what you have signed for, but beware of petrol stations and Hard Rock Cafe. We were charged more than our transaction. Although this was soon rectified by Hard Rock Cafe, it made us nervous, thinking we had more money than we actually had, and it could incur a charge for going overdrawn. Without a laptop, how could you possibly know what has been debited? We had purchased $39.99 of petrol, but an additional $99 was levied. The blurb on pending transactions states this will be refunded up to 7 working days afterwards, and in our case, it was exactly 7 days... On the day we were coming home!!! Thank goodness we'd got a credit card and hadn't relied entirely on the Travellers Cheques card. Also, the $30 was only credited on the day before our last day (after nearly 2 weeks).



There is no way you can e- mail AMEX! We tried phoning from USA, but that also incurs yet another cost.



All in all, what seems like a good idea proved to be very costly, especially as the pound rose against the dollar. AMEX should not allow pending transactions to be more than has been signed for, as you cannot possibly keep track of your account.