non-American express travellers cheques

[spaced]

a colleague is travelling to Cuba in a couple of weeks. Only now he has been told that Cuba does not accept American Express travellers cheques, for some reason. He can not find anyother type of travellers cheque and does not want to carry cash or get the pre pay credit card. Where can you obtain non-american express travellers cheques?

[spudqueen]

Has your friend tried his bank? I did find this site which may be of some use http://www.wordtravels.com/Travelguide/Countries/Cuba/Currency

[dzug]

http://www.travelex.co.uk/personal/TC_default.asp?content=tc

is one source. Possibly Thomas Cook themselves for another

[dot.hawkes]

i went to Cuba last may and I took sterling travellers cheques from the Thomas cook shop and it was not problem, but when u change them over there get US Dollars which is the preferrred currency not Cuban Dollars (which u can't bring home anyway). The Hotel will excahnge them for you really easily.

[dot.hawkes]

Oh and if u are going in a few weeks it is mosquito season so if u are staying on the cayos especially, buy a local repellent as out uk type don't work, and take plenty of your older designer gear like baseball caps with nike on for instance and u can swap them with the traders for souvenirs. also leave your unused toiletries as a tip for the maid. Also our trainers are worth alot over there too so if u take a couple of pairs of sports trainers the hotel staff will probably want to buy them off u for big bucks. They have litle access to these sort of things.

[dzug]

The reason Amex travellers cheques are no good in Cuba is that the US government will not allow US banks to have any dealings with Cuba (or maybe the other way round or maybe a bit of both) - I'm not sure that Visa and Mastercard would be any better. Thomas Cook being a UK company would be OK.

[arnie7]

Thomas Cook hasn't been a UK owned company for quite some time as it was bought by a German outfit.

However, that aside, Thomas Cook travellers cheques issued outside America will be OK.

Only Visa & Mastercards issued by non-American banks outside America are OK. So, even though HSBC is a British bank, cards issued by it in America won't work in Cuba nor indeed will cards issued by it outside America using one of its American subsidiaries (eg HFC/Marbles). Neither will cards issued by MBNA anywhere (which includes many affinity cards in the UK eg Abbey National, Virgin, etc.).

Most pre-paid cards are issued by American banks and therefore won't work in Cuba (eg Citibank, Travelex [I think], American Express).