Are travelers checks obsolete?

I have to agree that they are less and less useful but I'm not sure they are obsolete yet. I always take about $200 in traveller's cheques as a back-up to my other sources of money. I generally rely on ATM's but what happens if your card gets de-magnetized? Or an ATM eats your card? Or your bag gets stolen? Or the machine you want to use doesn't belong to the right network? Or you are stranded in a town that doesn't have an ATM? And depending on what country you are travelling to, you can't rely on credit cards ... in many countries they are only accepted at high-end hotels/restaurants, if at all.

If you belong to AAA or CAA then you can get the cheques commission-free and only have to pay when you cash them and if you have a good guidebook it will tell you where you can cash them at the lowest cost. Some banks and credit unions also offer commission-free traveller's cheques although it might depend on the type of account you have with them. In some countries they are useless while in others they can only be cashed at a single bank chain so you need to research where you are going before you make your decision. On two of my trips I relied mainly on traveller's cheques, Scotland in '01 and Guatemala in '07, because they actually ended up being cheaper to use than ATM's. Each of those countries had one bank chain that would cash them commission-free and since I didn't pay a commission in the first place it was a great deal for me.

I've been in situations where my my main source of money just wouldn't work - in Bolivia my ATM card didn't work anywhere, on my first trip to the UK my card was de-magnetized and stopped working. At least with traveller's cheques, if you lose them they can be replaced and you aren't out any cash.

I will never travel with TC again... they cost to much to buy and a lot of places do not want to take them. The last time I traveled I took some cash and them used plastic most ot the time. That would be debit or credit and then paying off the credit card once home. No problem using them and all places were happy to take them.

Cash and credit cards.

Most places now have ATM machines.

Find a bank that will not charge you for with drawing your money over seas. There are some.

Some countries have band travelers checks. China is one example.