Talk:Traveler's cheque
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"Waitperson"? Surely "waiter" is the more commonly accepted term?
[edit] Amex (not) first to develop traveler's cheques?
The current article says: "The largest volume issuer of traveller's cheques is American Express, the first to develop the product in the late 19th century." But the page for January 1 lists "1772 - The first traveller's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London for the first time." Only one of these statements can be correct, and I don't know which one. Probably, Amex was not the first to develop them after all? — David Norris 01:43, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
- The tale is relayed in American Express of J. C. Fargo's difficulty obtaining cash on a letter of credit in the late 19th c. If the 1772 launch was a successful enterprise and TCs still existed at that time, the market niche would not have been available for Amex to service. But I'll try to incorporate this discrepancy in the article. knoodelhed 04:00, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
- On a related note, when I deleted the claim that Thomas Cook developed traveler's cheques, I stated in the edit summary that my reference was the Thomas Cook AG (former) article. I can't change an edit summary, but the statement about when they entered the business is actually in the Thomas Cook article (though it shouldn't be since it's about the company; that article is supposed to be about its founder and namesake). Of course, I left the 1772 statement in there although nearly all reliable sources attribute its invention to American Express. --RBBrittain 03:19, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
- Thomas Cook first issued traveler's-cheques (although not under that name) in 1874. There's a lot of European institutions that were issuing TC's before Amex's launch in 1891. Amex may have caught a niche in the US, but that wasn't universal. Thomas Cook's TC's were pretty dominant in the UK, for example. Mauls (talk) 00:31, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
- On a related note, when I deleted the claim that Thomas Cook developed traveler's cheques, I stated in the edit summary that my reference was the Thomas Cook AG (former) article. I can't change an edit summary, but the statement about when they entered the business is actually in the Thomas Cook article (though it shouldn't be since it's about the company; that article is supposed to be about its founder and namesake). Of course, I left the 1772 statement in there although nearly all reliable sources attribute its invention to American Express. --RBBrittain 03:19, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Usability
The article doesn't indicate some common difficulties in using TCs. For example, in a number of countries (e.g., Mexico, France) it is virtually impossible to use them except by cashing them at a bank. In Russia (St. Petersburg), I was unable to cash TCs at banks (I didn't even try stores), only one (Sperbank) of the ten or more we tried even admitted to even theortically cashing them. On three different days in the summer of 2007, the bank said that they would have to have authorization from Moscow (for even one one-hundred dollar TC), which they said they couldn't contact. Kdammers 08:27, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
