Does Anybody Use Travelers Checks Anymore?

Now that people have ATM cards and can go to a cash machine in most parts of the world, does anybody take travelers checks with them when they're on the road? American Express is the most famous name on the market, but VISA also makes them available.

And it's the VISA ones I want to talk about, but they may be no different than any travelers checks these days. A woman I know received some money from her father in the form of VISA travelers checks signed over to her. She's married with two kids, so it's not just a matter of a new student in a college town or something. Her husband has recently started a new job, and so far they've done all their banking with his employer's credit union. Since today was Saturday, the credit union was closed, so she went to three banks to cash the travelers checks, and none would do it. They told her that they'd only cash them if she had an account at that bank (although one bank said that they'd cash them if only they were American Express travelers checks). I was curious about this when I heard it, so when I went to my bank today and asked them whether she'd be able to cash the checks there. My bank has a relationship with VISA, issuing VISA cards--their ATM card is actually a VISA check card. But they said they wouldn't cash the checks without he having an account at the bank.

What possibly is the use of travelers checks if you can only cash them if you've got an account at the bank. The whole point of traveling is that you're away from the institution where you normally do your banking. Travelers checks are purchased at the front end. They're like cashier's checks--the cash has already gone to VISA, and it's VISA that stands behind them, not the checking account of the unknown individual cashing them. Before ATMs became as plentiful as they are now, I used travelers checks when I was in other countries, and I'd always go to a local bank, which never had an objection to cashing them. Has the financial world changed to the point that this is no longer the case? Are travelers checks now looked on as little better than personal checks? With the flow of money supposedly made easier than ever, has the travelers check outlived its usefulness?