Travelers Cheques

Someone owed me US$ and I let them pay me in American Express travelers cheques. The person countersigned OK, and left the "pay to the order of..." section blank. I assumed these could be deposited into the US$ bank account here like any other cheque. Nope. The two biggest banks won't touch them, and American Express says they will only cash these if the signer signs at their office. The signer is gone. What's this all about? How do merchants or anyone who gets paid with travelers cheques actually get their money? This is not a case of the person giving me bad cheques--I just can't figure out how to cash them. Ideas?

Return the cheques to the signer and have them post you AE Gift Cheques instead. AE gladly cashes these here in HK, and they don't require any signature from the purchaser. Have the purchaser make them out in your name.


In my experience, this is the cheapest way to send small amounts of money from the US.


Unfortunately AE doesn't issue gift cheques here...

Wow...comprehensive answer! Let me clarify my original post, written when I was a little annoyed at the (Hong Kong) banks that will not accept these: when I said countersigned "OK" I meant they were signed by the buyer correctly at the bottom, just as travelers cheques should be. There is no problem whatsoever with the cheques themselves, but not only would two of the largest banks in HK refuse to touch them, even the two moneychangers I went to said they would only accept cheques if I was the original buyer. And American Express's own local agency says they will cash them only if I am the buyer and if I bring my passport. I am not the buyer, of course. I just found this more than a little odd.


However there is good news. I e-mailed my bank in the US and they said I can deposit them to my account there as though they were any other personal cheque. So that solves the problem, and inexpensively teaches me to stay far away from TCs in the future.


Thank you both poor man and green.

Usually Traveller Cheque can only be cashed by a business. So if your bank still rejects you on the deposit, then find a friend that owns a business and have them cash it for you thru their business account... Also, please take note that theire is a surcharge applies, mailing/stamp and handling charges...

Hello everyone: those things are now in the mail, on the way to the US bank, with my name written on the "Pay to the order of" line, and endorsed on the back by me. (Yes, I know, too much information.) I saved a copy of the US bank's e-mail to me saying it would be no problem to do this. Green's idea to write the management of the two banks in HK is good in principle, but I think it's like tilting at windmills. They aren't going to change their policies or educate their staff because of me, and my goal after all was just to get the money. I will not ever accept TCs again so it was a one-off thing. I like Bayliner's idea too, except that if American Express won't even take their own cheques, I think it is unlikely to find a business willing to take the risk.


Anyway, enough about this now, let me close the thread, and thank everyone for these ideas, which are all good ones.


~Goloh