A $500 Gift or other card w/Password protection

[Dog Father]

When traveling, TCs (Travelers checks) are difficult at best to get cashed.
They are not what they used to be. I was thinking if a GC (Gift Card) that
has password protection, would work and be safe. Anyone know of such a
GC. TD Waterhouse has one, but only for customers. So, I would have to
open an account.

My bank does not sell GCs. When done with a trip, you can't deposit money
back into an account. But, you could spend it on other things. Anyone know
of such a GC, that anyone can buy.

[WildWildWest]

If you don't use your Visa or MasterCard you could always use a prepaid Visa - in Canada they all have a PIN for protection but so do our regular Visa and Mastercards up here. I found the USA one place that hasn't adopted the pin technology for credit cards and I find it much less secure to use our cards there. They would cut down a lot of credit card fraud if they just started using the chip cards properly. We haven't used travellers cheques in a decade but I do tend to carry more cash than I like when traveling. Hence the safe in the RV.

[BruceR]

We are pretty much Visa card users with a good bunch of cash when we travel. One tip with Visa - if you are going a long way - either call Visa and tell them about your travel so they don't shut your card off when it pops up 300 - 500 miles from home charging items you need. Or, get using it right away so a travel pattern emerges and can be made sense of by the Visa geography clickers.