Travelex dumps the travellers cheque

The foreign exchange and travel money company, Travelex, will stop issuing Visa travellers cheques early next year. The company said its prepaid travel cards outsell travellers cheques 17 to one and it no longer had a business case for offering branded cheques.

Travelex, which bought Thomas Cook in 2001, stopped issuing Thomas Cook travellers cheques last year. It will stop issuing Visa cheques in February. It will meet customer demand for travellers cheques by issuing American Express cheques.

Travelex regional director Graham Perry said sales of the Cash Passport prepaid card were up 80 per cent in 2006 and 100 per cent the year before. Sales of travellers cheques have been going down.
 
Perry said Travelex had more than 90 per cent of the global market for Visa travellers cheques. He expected that Visa would stop issuing travellers cheques.

Travelex will concentrate on the development of Cash Passport, a Visa prepaid card launched in 2000. The original Cash Passport allowed travellers to get cash from an ATM. Last year Travelex released a point of sale version.

Perry said Travelex was working on offering Cash Passport in more currencies. New Zealand dollars will be introduced in January and Singapore and Hong Kong dollars in March.

American Express vice president for foreign exchanges services in the Japan, Asia-Pacific and Australia region, Nick Dinopoulos, said Amex had the volume to continue offering the customer support that went with travellers cheques.