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Traveler's Checks' Safety Not IronClad County Alert Highlights Consumer Responsibility for Protection By Caroline E. Mayer Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 17, 2001; Page E01
For years, traveler's checks have been promoted as safer than cash. If lost or stolen, they can be easily and quickly replaced. Stephen Jankowitz of Damascus learned the hard way last summer that that claim isn't always true. He purchased $2,000 in Visa traveler's checks for a trip he planned to make to England. While he was visiting his parents in Florida before departure his traveler's checks were stolen -- along with his plane ticket and checkbook -- from a zippered gym bag. He left the bag under a bench next to his father's locker at a country club while he took a three-minute shower. When he tried to get the checks replaced, Visa refused. The reason: He had been negligent. "In leaving your bag containing the travellers cheques unattended in a public area, you didn't safeguard them as you would a similar amount of cash," wrote Interpayment Services Ltd., which sells the traveler's checks for Visa. Jankowitz ultimately got his money back -- after seeking help from the Division of Consumer Affairs of Montgomery County's Department of Housing and Community Affairs. His experience has prompted the consumer affairs division to issue a consumer alert today, as the summer vacation travel season approaches, advising that traveler's checks "may not be as safe . . . as people think they are." As the division's chief, George Rose, said in an interview yesterday, "They are safer than checks, but they are not 100 percent safe. We want to let consumers know that they have an added responsibility to safeguard traveler's checks as they would cash." Both Visa and American Express have agreed, in response to a request from Rose's office, to change the terms and conditions on their Web sites to make their warnings about safeguarding traveler's checks more prominent. MasterCard does not have a Web site that promotes its brand of checks. The use of traveler's checks has fallen off in recent years, with the growing acceptance of credit cards worldwide and the increased availability of automated teller machines. Sales peaked at $58.8 billion in 1992 before dropping to $40.6 billion in 1999, according to the Nilson Report, an international newsletter of consumer payment systems. Last year, sales increased to $43 billion, thanks in large part to American Express's aggressive marketing campaign. American Express is the largest issuer of traveler's checks, selling $24.6 billion last year. The Nilson Report suggests one reason for trying to increase sales: "The float Amex enjoys on $6.2 billion worth worth of uncashed cheques is probably generating about $425 million in interest income annually." Officials at Visa, MasterCard International and American Express -- the three largest issuers -- say they rarely reject consumer requests for refunds. Visa spokesman Michael Sherman declined to say how many refund requests are rejected, as Jankowitz's was, because consumers failed to treat their checks as cash. "All genuine claims get replaced," he said. But "you shouldn't think you can do anything with them and then have somebody else pick up the tab if you're not being careful with them." Sherman said traveler's checks are still safer than cash. "Absent fraud or illegal use, lost traveler's checks are replaced. Cash is never going to be replaced." MasterCard spokesman Marc Levy said its policy is the same as Visa's. "It's incumbent upon the cardholders to safeguard their traveler's checks." Levy said his company might also have denied Jankowitz's refund request. "The question you have to ask is 'Would this guy have left cash in the same place?' Probably not." American Express spokeswoman Nancy Muller said her company would probably not have denied the claim. Muller said the company rejects 4 percent to 7 percent of all refund claims annually. But rejections are made only if the consumer failed to sign the checks in the appropriate space immediately after purchase or if fraud is suspected. "Failure to treat the checks like cash is not a sufficient reason for denying a claim. . . . There must be other reasons," Muller said.
Lost Bank Card: Trouble Abroad May 6, 2001 - by Toni Kamins CREDIT and A.T.M. cards have become the coin of the realm for travel at home and abroad — especially in Westernized countries. But if one of them is lost or stolen, you could be in for a nasty surprise when you try to get an emergency replacement. It may be several days before you can get a substitute; in some cases you may not be able to get one at all. It helps to learn your bank's emergency policies before leaving home. Banks and other card issuers are reluctant to release loss and theft figures, but according to the American Bankers Association, loss or theft accounts for 67 percent of credit-card fraud cases. When Denise O'Berry lost her A.T.M. card at Indianapolis Airport last year she immediately contacted the GTE Federal Credit Union in Tampa, the card's issuer. Although GTE's policy is to try to work with its members, said Brad Baker, vice president, member services, Ms. O'Berry said that she was told she had to wait until she got back home for a replacement. She received her new card, but it took two weeks. The gap that may exist between a bank's policy and real life is something I learned the hard way. I was traveling last year for an extended period in London and Paris when my wallet was stolen. A collect call to Chase's emergency phone number (which I had fortunately stored separately from my wallet) was almost more exasperating than the theft itself. I was switched around for more than an hour to several people who said that they could send a replacement A.T.M. card within 7 to 10 days — but only to my home in New York. I wore down two supervisors before persuading Chase to send a new card to my foreign address. Chase's "standard policy" is to send replacement A.T.M. cards only to the address on file for security reasons, said Judy Miller, a Chase spokeswoman, but the bank will work with customers in an emergency and send a new credit or A.T.M. card anywhere by express delivery. But even when a supervisor finally did agree to send my new card to my hotel, I was told it would take at least five business days. With the intervening weekend I was looking at a week without it. Activating the Card In some cases a bank's policy means you can't get a replacement even in an emergency. Key Bank, with branches in 14 states, including New York, will replace an A.T.M. card only at one of its branches, according to Michele Mullee, senior vice president, Key Electronic Services, but she added that many customers have switched to the debit- A.T.M. card, which can be replaced over the telephone. Citibank can have a new A.T.M. card processed and activated within 24 hours, and it will send the card abroad by courier, said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman; a card that includes a signature-based debit feature takes two days. When a customer calls MasterCard, according to Mike Baechle, vice president of the company's global service center, the representative finds the issuing bank's replacement procedures in its database and contacts that bank directly. Depending on the bank, the customer can get a new permanent or temporary card within a few days. According to Melissa Morey, a spokeswoman for Visa USA, while most large banks will provide quick replacement, some smaller banks may not be as quick. Bank of America Replacement in a Day Card issuers recommend the following steps to protect yourself. • Before you leave, check with the banks that issued your cards about emergency replacement procedures — for the United States and specifically for the countries you will visit. • Have a sufficient credit line available in an emergency. If your credit card arrives before your A.T.M. card, you can get a cash advance, but you can't always count on an immediate credit-line increase. • Know how to get a cash advance with your credit card. Do you need a personal identification number? If so, memorize it in a numbers-only format. Foreign cash machines usually have only numbers, and not letters like phone keypads. • Carry account numbers and their emergency phone numbers separately from your wallet; leave a copy with someone easily reachable. • If your bank has a toll-free emergency number, make sure you can call it collect from abroad. A United States toll-free number cannot be dialed from outside the country. You must use an operator and have a telephone or other credit card to pay for the call. • Find out if the emergency number goes into a complicated voice mail system, or links up easily to a live operator 24 hours a day. The central MasterCard and Visa numbers can be reached from abroad, and there are country-specific phone numbers, listed at www.visa.com and www.mastercard.com. Even if everything falls into place and your new cards are on their way to you in some exotic locale, you may find yourself without cash or credit for a few days, especially if the loss occurs on or just before the weekend — the department that physically makes the cards could be closed on Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes it's best to carry some travelers' checks and keep their serial numbers and the emergency-replacement phone number in a place other than your wallet. |
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