Huxley1234 said:
That is not the easiest, nor the cheapest way. According to some, with whom I disagree, it is supposedly the safest.
However, if you are a US citizen, that may be a bit problematic. I opened a bank account in Uruguay about 4 years ago when the US wasn't blackmailing other financial systems around the world so strongly. Even then, I had to do a lot of work to be able to send more than a little bit of money each month to prove the provenance of the funds. I did it, but I never really used the account for that.
Now, I know 4 people who have gone to Uruguay in the last year to open an account and they were refused because they were American citizens resident in another country and the banks they went to felt it was too big a risk if it turned out they were laundering money or evading US taxes.
I've heard of one guy that was successful, but it was anecdotal, I don't know the guy and didn't hear it from him.
Also, for those who do not have some kind of residency here but are being perma-tourists, the more border crossings you make in that shape, the more likely you are to be asked to leave the country and not come back for years.
Huxley1234 said:
That's what I thought when he first wrote that in response to my post. Then I realized, as he said, he's saying that if you have multiple cards, of course on multiple banks or multiple credit accounts, you don't have to spend more than one day in Uruguay (where they are not hoarding dollars and causing themselves problems) while you wait for your daily withdrawal limits to be available again.
Of course, you still have to think about the cost of tickets to cross the bay, at least half a day of your time (probably more) screwing around with this, and the transaction charges and currency conversion losses that one usually gets through using debit cards and credit cards.
And if you only have one or two cards, or your limits aren't high enough and you need two days, don't forget to add another day of trips and tickets to return the next day or the cost of a hotel while you wait...
Huxley1234 said:
In my opinion, find someone who knows a private cueva or change house that will allow you to send a wire and allow you to pick up dollars here or pesos at a great exchange rate. I believe that small, privately-run places are safer than the big changes that may have a basement where people go to wait for their money.
LostInBA's service sounds interesting, but I don't know if I like someone knowing where my apartment is and how much money he brings to me. i also don't know if this guy's service includes being able to send a wire transfer, or is he only buying dollars in cash.
In my case, I spend about twenty minutes to go down the street, up 18 floors, pick up my cash, back down the elevator and back to my apartment, deal done, no muss no fuss. And I save (earn?) a good $1200 USD a month by getting my monthly expenses via wire transfer like that, with the blue rate. It costs 2% up to $10K USD and 1% over $10K.
Just like people continue to tell me that going down to Florida is dangerous, so they tell me, it seems, that going to a private cueva is dangerous. Life is not always perfectly safe, but there is such a thing as being a bit too paranoid and not understanding what the actual risks and costs are.
