[Anchor]

I used travelers checks to pay for a deposit on an apartment in the NT. I printed the name of the landlord on the check and then signed my name at the bottom. The landlord, who spoke excellent English, was sure he could then deposit these checks in his Hang Seng bank account and willingly took them.

However, Hang Seng wouldn't allow him to do so. Supposedly, the bank said these checks could only be deposited in an account in my name. So he wants to give me back the checks in return for cash, which might be fine, if I could actually then deposit or cash these checks AFTER I've already signed them over to him.

Any suggestions on how to best handle this would be appreciated.

-Anchor

[MovingIn07]

Go to his bank together and try again?

[PDLM]

Move into the 21st century and use a bank transfer?

[Anchor]

Well, that's a good idea, but we were just visiting from overseas to find a place and found one on Saturday afternoon, and didn't really feel like toting around big bundles of cash during the process. We offered to give him cash or a bank check on Monday after we opened a bank account, but he insisted he could cash the traveler's checks himself.
-Anchor

[ontheroad]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my (backpacking) day, you couldn't pay anything with AMEX TC's, you could only go to the bank and exchange them for cash.
The whole point of having Travellers Cheques on the road vs a credit card was that you could only cash them in yourself- and so if they were stolen, the person couldn't cash them in because they would have needed your passport and signature.
Maybe it's changed since then. Although I'm not that old.

[mike2525]

he should be able to cash or deposit them, if the bank still refuses:
mark his name out
write in yours
sign next to the correction
deposit in your bank

i had to do this about a year ago

[Anchor]

Thanks. Was hoping someone had already tried this and it worked. Will try myself when I return.