Travelling with over $10,000 - Page 2 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Komskies · 06-15-2010, 02:58 PM

If you go the briefcase route, beware of Tyrone. He is a terrible driver.

kipperfan · 06-15-2010, 03:07 PM

I do not see why this is complicated??

Keep your money in your current bank account except for enough to float you for a couple of days. Upon arriving in Brazil find a branch of their most popular bank (or whatever one you feel comfortable with) and open a new account.

Upon opening the new account advise the Braziilian bank you would like to transfer funds from your Canadian account to the new account.

Once all of the funds have been moved over call Royal bank (or whomever the Canadian bank is) and advise them you would like to close your account. Seems fairly easy and risk free to me...

Cactus Jack · 06-15-2010, 03:09 PM

^^ But do you get hit hard on fees/taxes or anything if you simply open a local account and transfer? Or would it be like a simple $10 money transfer type thing?

Is there a limit on the amounts you can transfer like that, too? Thanks

4X4 · 06-15-2010, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kipperfan

I do not see why this is complicated??

Keep your money in your current bank account except for enough to float you for a couple of days. Upon arriving in Brazil find a branch of their most popular bank (or whatever one you feel comfortable with) and open a new account.

Upon opening the new account advise the Braziilian bank you would like to transfer funds from your Canadian account to the new account.

Once all of the funds have been moved over call Royal bank (or whomever the Canadian bank is) and advise them you would like to close your account. Seems fairly easy and risk free to me...

It's not always that simple. I thought I could do the same with the biggest bank in Italy, but no dice. I ended up having to get my dad to send it through Western Union. The only other way I could get money from my canadian account was to withdraw it from an atm, which obviously has a limit, and absolutely destroys you on the conversion rate.

VladtheImpaler · 06-15-2010, 03:18 PM

The simplest thing is probably just to get a bank draft and close the account here in person. There are a couple of huge Brazilian banking groups (as in among the biggest in the world) - here is a link to a site dealing with Brazilian banks:

http://www.v-brazil.com/business/banks.html

I am sure they (some) have branches here. You could probably open an account before leaving.

kipperfan · 06-15-2010, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4X4

It's not always that simple. I thought I could do the same with the biggest bank in Italy, but no dice. I ended up having to get my dad to send it through Western Union. The only other way I could get money from my canadian account was to withdraw it from an atm, which obviously has a limit, and absolutely destroys you on the conversion rate.

Hmmm that is wierd. I suppose each countries banking restirctions are different as I know my cousin started his life in Toyko, financially that is, exactly as I just described. I also have a friend living in Guatemala right now and he was able to open a bank account there without citizenship and now uses it for alot of his money needs.

4X4 · 06-15-2010, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kipperfan

Hmmm that is wierd. I suppose each countries banking restirctions are different as I know my cousin started his life in Toyko, financially that is, exactly as I just described. I also have a friend living in Guatemala right now and he was able to open a bank account there without citizenship and now uses it for alot of his money needs.

To be fair, I should mention that this was 4-5 years ago. Things may have changed in the meantime. But I actually looked into it before leaving, and somehow determined that I needed an account at CIBC, and that they'd be able to transfer to Banca Intessa, but when I got there, they refused to do it. I can't remember the details, but it was a major pain in the ass. My dad ended up having to send a bunch of western union transfers so I could get my cash over there.

Remembering the hassle I had getting money there, when I decided to go home, I drained my Italian account and flew back to Canada with cash. Got a bit of static in Scotland for having 6000 euro in my pocket, but it wasn't a big deal.

Someone earlier mentioned HSBC. I don't believe I looked into that when I was doing this, but it sounds like a pretty good idea. They're everywhere.

kipperfan · 06-15-2010, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cactus Jack

^^ But do you get hit hard on fees/taxes or anything if you simply open a local account and transfer? Or would it be like a simple $10 money transfer type thing?

Is there a limit on the amounts you can transfer like that, too? Thanks

I am really unsure. Your best bet (IMO) would be to send an email or if you're comfortable (and dont mind long distance) call one of the bigger Brazilian banking chains and ask them these very questions. One has to think, esspecially in a country like that, the banks deal with situations like this fairly often.

kipperfan · 06-15-2010, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4X4

To be fair, I should mention that this was 4-5 years ago. Things may have changed in the meantime. But I actually looked into it before leaving, and somehow determined that I needed an account at CIBC, and that they'd be able to transfer to Banca Intessa, but when I got there, they refused to do it. I can't remember the details, but it was a major pain in the ass. My dad ended up having to send a bunch of western union transfers so I could get my cash over there.

Remembering the hassle I had getting money there, when I decided to go home, I drained my Italian account and flew back to Canada with cash. Got a bit of static in Scotland for having 6000 euro in my pocket, but it wasn't a big deal.

Someone earlier mentioned HSBC. I don't believe I looked into that when I was doing this, but it sounds like a pretty good idea. They're everywhere.

Very interesting, though not totally suprising in a country like Italy where most of their government and financial instituations are arse backwards.

I agree about looking into HSBC though, you should definatley look into this first Cactus, might be a very simple fix for you.

evman150 · 06-15-2010, 04:11 PM

There are Canadian banks in Brazil.

bcb · 06-15-2010, 08:30 PM

Open an ING account , and when you are in Brazil, Transfer the funds to a Brazilian bank.

GoFlamesGo89 · 06-15-2010, 09:52 PM

When I lived in Brazil (about seven years ago) I just used the Citibank ATM down the street to access my RBC account here. There was the usual $5 / transaction international withdrawl fee from RBC, but the actual exchange rate wasn't bad.

The biggest issue was that I need to repeat withdrawls a couple days in a row to get money for rent, since the withdrawal limits were relatively small (at least at that time) due to the dangers of kidnappings / theft etc.

If you're moving down there permanently, setting up and HSBC or Citibank account in Canada would be a good idea-- my sister routinely transfers money to and from the UK through HSBC, and while there is a fee (you can call and check), she can transfer relatively large sums with minimal hassle.

3 Justin 3 · 06-16-2010, 04:03 AM

I would do the briefcase thing, it is my dream to do that. Seems so cool.

Cactus Jack · 06-16-2010, 05:23 PM

Well, I called TD, RBC, CIBC, Citi and HSBC. Only HSBC has branches there but it really wouldn't matter. They all told me the same thing: I can write myself a cheque and deposit it in my new account in Brazil and pay the exchange rate. Or I can, wire money or bankdraft/moneyorder for a small fee and the difference in exchange rate. So regardless of who I go to I pay $0-$5 plus the exchange rate to deposit it into a local account one way or another.