Jun 082010
Happiness like this sparklin' sparkler!
“Ms. Marshall!” typed a former student on the Facebook page for this blog, “I am so curious. Did you ever get your money back when someone robbed you for your Travelers Cheques?”
Good-hearted young Carol was, of course, referring to my recent article about the shocking discovery, in my first week home from nine months abroad, that my secret stash of American Express Travelers Cheques was mysteriously stolen from my backpack in some hostel between Ghana, Portugal, and Spain. Ohh, the treachery! Ooh the financial pain!
I had no answer for Carol then, and in fact feared the money was gone forever. However, today I got a something in the mail that lets me resoundingly tell Carol: “YEESSS!!!” while dancing around the room pumping my fists in the air.
Today, three weeks after discovering and reporting the theft, I received a truly delightful letter from American Express in which they (ahem) expressed their sadness for my robbery and enclosed a check to pay me back for the FULL amount of money in the stolen Cheques: no small sum! I gleefully deposited the reimbursement check in my account, and thus am officially UN-robbed!
The delightful letter: "a full refund!"
This brings us to today’s li’l lesson:
Travelers Cheques ARE worth packing for your next voyage!“Ew,” sneers Negative Nelly right about now, “Travelers Cheques are sooo uncool. NO ONE uses them anymore. It’s hard as heck to find any place that even agrees to cash them, and when you do, the agents always charge a crazy commission fee. What’s the point?”
More sparkler fun... Pretty like that refund check!
Nelly, you are not alone in your disdain.
Few backpackers nowadays carry (much less use) Travelers Cheques for these same gripes.
However, what happened to me illustrates why you SHOULD always travel with a stash of Travelers Cheques as a third form of moolah beyond cash and credit cards: There is no better form of “emergency backup cash” than one that will be fully refunded (up to thousands of dollars!) if stolen or even absent-mindedly misplaced.
Travelers Cheques are basically like bionic, indestructible money: they can never be murdered and won’t let you down. Super Loot to the rescue!
Right, now I’m thinking it could be sensible to take traveller’s cheques with me to South America… thanks for promoting the idea that they’re essentially indestructible
Yes! Yay!
Have a wonderful trip. I aim to go to South Africa in the next few years!
These financial things are the reason I don’t want to grow up. I don’t want to do bills, manage my cards, and taxes etc. But we have to deal with theft too?! Life can suck. But it’s amazing how you got all the money back. If I was you I would’ve been so relieved! This will be great advice in the future though.
I like the sparkling pictures. (: I read this article, because you wrote it on my birthday! And it’s horrible how they robbed you! >:O
Wait, so what happens if you lie and just say you got it stolen? How will they ever find out? Just…..asking. If i ever find those people who stole my money I would take that rifle that I shoot those birds with and…..and…..I cant say on this but it wouldn’t be good. But I don’t get stolen from because everybody already knows whats going to happen if they steal from me.
To echo Lillie’s sentiments, having the receipts and ID numbers for your traveler’s checks is HUGE!!
I think the last time I used travellers cheques was way back in the 1980′s when on holiday in Corfu and I vowed never to use them ever again…but perhaps they are worthy of consideration after all.
Haha, thanks for the follow-up. I wonder how can you cash a check without knowing where you did it:)
Nice, so which country was it finally?
It wasn’t stated in the letter and I have been to busy to call and ask… I’m curious, though! Will keep you posted.
WOW: Just called American Express and after 30 minutes of them fiddling around with the online images of the cashed checks the very nice agent declared: “Your signature was obviously forged, which is why we refunded you so readily, but the robbers used a method of cashing the checks that does not allow us to know which country it took place in.”
I gasped: “Those are some high-tech robbers!”
The agent sighed and replied, “Yes, we must be extremely careful nowadays. There’s no way we can track these people down now, but at least you got refunded.”
Wow.
Piping in to clear up some confusion…
1. No, the photos of the sparkler have absolutely nothing to do with the article. I took them at a recent wedding of a dear friend in Ohio, and had a deep desire to use them, no matter how random the placement. This, ladies, and gentlemen, is what we call “A Force.”
2. I neglected to mention in these articles an important but seldom-followed tip: Always make several photocopies of the I.D. number sequence of the Cheques (usually the first or last page in the pack) and keep these copies in several different locations (including one at home). If your Cheques get stolen or lost, the only way you can get them refunded is if you know their I.D. numbers!
Cheers,
Lillie