Transferring a large sum of Money From the UK at minimum cost and risk

[elhombresinnombre]

snip, snip >8......... involve a dozen return flights carrying cash USD...

Is it worth reminding people that there is NO limit to the amount of cash you can carry in and out of Argentina, the US, the UK and probably many many more countries? The limit is on the amount of cash you can carry WITHOUT DECLARING IT. If you don't declare it, it could be confiscated. If you do declare it you will need clear and watertight traceability and would be advised to have a demonstable reason why. It would also be advisable to be met at the airport by your own personal security detail in case the news of your arrival with lots of cash has preceded you to the arrivals hall. I personally wouldn't have the nerve - along with most other people - and this is why we are willing to let someone else take all the risks in exchange for a few percent. But if you are made of stronger stuff than me, zero percent commission movement of money is possible and legal.

 

[Kaz]

Thanks Kaz.

You certainly picked an interesting time to return to the UK. In your case the current exchange rate and falling house prices will work in your favour, assuming you can transfer the funds quickly.
If it were my money I would certainly consider working on a direct exchange per your suggestion. But as we have to work with Lawyers who are the executors of the estate working through the Bank will be our safest and easiest bet if we can make it work.
At the moment we're working through getting her an bank account set up with Banco Galicia as was suggested. However we already hit a snag with that as she doesn't have a tax ID. Sigh!!
We may come back to you if we can't make any more progress. Best of luck with your move back home.

Yes, I can't wait Simon, have been living here as a non-resident for 13 years, not my choice, just the situation I landed myself in.

I needed a tax ID to sell my house, and it is so easy to do a CDI, she just goes to the AFIP with her passport, a documento de domicilio, and I can't remember what else now. But I went a couple of weeks ago and it was done in an hour or so, just more complicated because I'm a foreigner and the Moron AFIP don't ever seen foreigners. But I went to Banco Galicia and they won't let me open an account without a DNI, nor Banco Frances, I've been to those two, and certainly won't let me have an account. Be careful if you buy property here, it is a nightmare to sell, honestly. I have had to resort to donating my house to my kids so that I can sell, otherwise it could take up to 6 months to do the ITI. You need to prove to the AFIP that you have been living here and not renting it out, and of course I don't have bills that go back 13 years to prove I've been here. Anyway, Simon, good luck on getting your problem sorted out. I will be here until the end of April if there's anything we can do to help each other.

 

[Kaz]

I am thinking about selling a property in San Martin de los Andes and would have the same problem. Easiest might be to open up a crypto account and then transfer using BTC etc and selling in Europe, but I am not sure whether BitInka, Ripio etc actually work well and are trustworthy at the moment.
Keep us updated about your solution, hope it doesn't involve a dozen return flights carrying cash USD...

Hi Patagone, I've lost faith in cryptos, I invested $2,600 last year and at the moment my investment is worth approximately $200. I had thought about it, but if they go down then I would be in the you know what and have to hodl forever, so too much of a coward to go that route. You know, if you sell your property, you can't even gift the proceeds to one of your kids, so Galicia told me, it's damned ridiculous.

 

[Kaz]

Is it worth reminding people that there is NO limit to the amount of cash you can carry in and out of Argentina, the US, the UK and probably many many more countries? The limit is on the amount of cash you can carry WITHOUT DECLARING IT. If you don't declare it, it could be confiscated. If you do declare it you will need clear and watertight traceability and would be advised to have a demonstable reason why. It would also be advisable to be met at the airport by your own personal security detail in case the news of your arrival with lots of cash has preceded you to the arrivals hall. I personally wouldn't have the nerve - along with most other people - and this is why we are willing to let someone else take all the risks in exchange for a few percent. But if you are made of stronger stuff than me, zero percent commission movement of money is possible and legal.

I was thinking about doing that, but my flight back entails a 14 hour stop in the USA, so I was worried that there may be problems there, I think if my flight was direct to Heathrow from here then I may take the risk. But like you say, it is a little risky to carry a lot of money on airlines, but I think it would be difficult for someone to do anything bad at the arrivals hall, don't know, especially in Heathrow. Why do the authorities need to make life so difficult for honest hardworking people, who just want to get their rightful money out of the country?

 

[Patagone]

Hi Patagone, I've lost faith in cryptos, I invested $2,600 last year and at the moment my investment is worth approximately $200. I had thought about it, but if they go down then I would be in the you know what and have to hodl forever, so too much of a coward to go that route. You know, if you sell your property, you can't even gift the proceeds to one of your kids, so Galicia told me, it's damned ridiculous.

I know what you mean, but I don't mean investing, just using the crypto to transfer it. If you can buy Ether with USD in Arg somehow, then you can sell it 5 minutes later via a Crypto exchange connected to your UK bank account. any of the main crypto's has a tiny spread between buy/sell and the transfers are confirmed within minutes. Of course this is assuming that you can actually buy cryptos (or get paid in cryptos directly for your house) and have another account connected to your UK bank without withdrawal limits (though you could easily turn it into USDT, DAI or another stable coin and sell them bit by bit).

 

[earlyretirement]

Is it worth reminding people that there is NO limit to the amount of cash you can carry in and out of Argentina, the US, the UK and probably many many more countries? The limit is on the amount of cash you can carry WITHOUT DECLARING IT. If you don't declare it, it could be confiscated. If you do declare it you will need clear and watertight traceability and would be advised to have a demonstable reason why. It would also be advisable to be met at the airport by your own personal security detail in case the news of your arrival with lots of cash has preceded you to the arrivals hall. I personally wouldn't have the nerve - along with most other people - and this is why we are willing to let someone else take all the risks in exchange for a few percent. But if you are made of stronger stuff than me, zero percent commission movement of money is possible and legal.

IF you go this route then you have to keep in mind that the airport employees (who are also corrupt) can still detail you. I had a friend that had this happen many years ago (under CFK era). She sold a property and she refused to pay the 3% to wire it out of Argentina. She just said she would declare the property and carry all the money herself to Brazil.

Well, when she got to the airport at EZE, they pulled her out of line and pulled her into the room. They took her money and claimed to be counting it. Well, they swapped out her genuine bills (they verified it at the bank at the property closing) and they put in fake counterfeit money and said she was transporting counterfeit currency. She showed them the property closing (escritura) but that didn't matter. It was her word against theirs and surprise surprise there were no cameras in the room.

She lost several tens of thousands of dollars. So I do NOT recommend carrying through the airport big amounts of cash that you can't carry on your on pocket.

And if you DO decide to do this be smart and take photos or register serial numbers of ALL the bills so in the event they pull you out you can tell them you have all the serial numbers. I guess that wouldn't stop them from still taking it and swapping it out. Just know the pitfalls of doing this.

I would NEVER recommend bitcoin either on this type of transaction because it's very volatile. Just yesterday alone within a few hours the value of bitcoin fell almost 4%. Too volatile.

 

[Somewhereinba]

Speaking of transfers - when you send USD to an Argentine account in pesos what exchange rate do they use to convert it? Is it the shitty compra 2 peso spread one or is it closer to the official?

https://banco.santanderrio.com.ar/exec/cotizacion/index.jsp

 

[Neil]

Speaking of transfers - when you send USD to an Argentine account in pesos what exchange rate do they use to convert it? Is it the shitty compra 2 peso spread one or is it closer to the official?

https://banco.santanderrio.com.ar/exec/cotizacion/index.jsp

 

[Neil]

Todays transferwise exchange....

 

[Somewhereinba]

So this amount gets deposited in the recipients bank account - I guess it doesn't take into account any fees the receiver has to pay to receive the money?