The best way to cope with these restrictions is to allow yourself adequate time. First, do some research about banks either in the country where you intend to reside or perhaps in a neighboring nation. Any foreign bank of significant size will have a website, often with an English version, that you can peruse to determine exactly what the terms and conditions are for non-resident accounts. You may want to establish two accounts: one for the currency of that nation and another for foreign currencies like dollars. Make sure you get an ATM card to access the account as well. Then plan a trip to set up the account. While there are still some foreign banks that will allow you to open an account online, I prefer doing business face-to-face. Go and fill out their forms. Answer their questions. Be friendly. Make sure that you can add funds to the account without having to attain additional permission, and get all the data necessary to transfer money to your account by wire. Then go back home to begin the second and third phases of getting your money abroad.
Here's the way the Treasury Department, banks and credit card companies would like for things to be. Once every two weeks, your employer directly deposits your paycheck into your bank account. Every month, you send payments in roughly the same amount to your creditors. Once a week, you go crazy and withdraw $100 from the ATM to go out to dinner and see a movie. Every few days, you stop by the supermarket or gas station and use a credit or cash card to pay for what you buy. Same pattern, day after day, week after week.
Anything out of this pattern is "unusual" and therefore suspicious. Send a large check to pay off a credit card balance and you may find your account frozen until they talk to you about it. Withdraw $500 from the ATM because you want to get away for a weekend, and you'll get a phone call from the bank to see if your card has been stolen. Heck, even shop at a different supermarket and run up a larger-than-usual tab because you're having the neighborhood over for a barbeque and you may get a call.
What do you think will happen if you walk into your bank and ask to withdrawn tens of thousands of dollars and nearly clean out your account?
They make a federal case out of it. Literally. First, the bank will tell you they don't have that kind of cash on hand, and they'll be telling the truth. Banks treat cash the same way the supermarket treats gallons of 2% milk. They keep track of average cash demands on a weekly basis and keep that much plus a little more on hand. If someone shows up and asks for, say, $50,000, they will have to "order" it for next week's cash shipment, and it won't be available for five to ten days.
Second, the bank manager will begin to ask you a lot of questions. She's required to do it. Many people know that banks are required to file a "Cash Transaction Report" (CTR) anytime someone deposits or withdraws $10,000 in cash, but the Bank Secrecy Act requires a lot more than that. Any "unusual" transaction, anything out of your normal pattern, requires a bank, stock broker, even the clerk at the supermarket who handles Western Union money wires, to file a "Suspicious Activity Report" (SAR) in order to cover its read end with the federal government. Bank employees are trained to ask intrusive questions about what you plan to do with money and why so they can fill out all the blanks on the forms provided by the government agency, FinCEN, that collects all this data.
Here's the scary part. When you tell them you want to withdraw $100,000 in cash or wire it to a foreign bank, they are REQUIRED to file a SAR. They are PROHIBITED from telling you that they are filing it. And it's entirely up to them whether they honor your request or not. They can freeze your account until they are satisfied that what you want to do with YOUR money is legitimate.
This is why you should set up your foreign account first. Then instruct your U. S. bank to wire the money to the overseas bank. They probably already know you set up the account anyway. Have your explanation for why you're transfering the funds ready. Don't go into a long dissertation about the coming fascist dictatorship. Tell them you've decided to retire early and you've always wanted to live in Costa Rica or New Zealand or Tuscany. You're not under oath, but they have to get some kind of answer so they can fill in their SAR form.
Then wait. Wait until you have confirmation from your bank abroad that the money has arrived. Then breathe a sign of relief. You've transfered your assets out of the country that Andy Grove says is headed "down the tubes."
There is another way of transfering assets: convert everything to cash; buy a money belt or one of those briefcases with a wrist chain; and take it with you.
This does provide some additional challenges because the United States government does not like cash and people who use it. It's just too hard to track.
The first problem is physical. Unlike most countries, the U. S. does not print any bill larger than $100. The typical money belt will not hold much more than $20,000. A small briefcase will handle many times that, but is pretty conspicuous to thieves.
Getting Your Money Into Your Own Hands
Getting YOUR money out of YOUR bank is not as easy as you might think.Here's the way the Treasury Department, banks and credit card companies would like for things to be. Once every two weeks, your employer directly deposits your paycheck into your bank account. Every month, you send payments in roughly the same amount to your creditors. Once a week, you go crazy and withdraw $100 from the ATM to go out to dinner and see a movie. Every few days, you stop by the supermarket or gas station and use a credit or cash card to pay for what you buy. Same pattern, day after day, week after week.
What do you think will happen if you walk into your bank and ask to withdrawn tens of thousands of dollars and nearly clean out your account?
They make a federal case out of it. Literally. First, the bank will tell you they don't have that kind of cash on hand, and they'll be telling the truth. Banks treat cash the same way the supermarket treats gallons of 2% milk. They keep track of average cash demands on a weekly basis and keep that much plus a little more on hand. If someone shows up and asks for, say, $50,000, they will have to "order" it for next week's cash shipment, and it won't be available for five to ten days.
Second, the bank manager will begin to ask you a lot of questions. She's required to do it. Many people know that banks are required to file a "Cash Transaction Report" (CTR) anytime someone deposits or withdraws $10,000 in cash, but the Bank Secrecy Act requires a lot more than that. Any "unusual" transaction, anything out of your normal pattern, requires a bank, stock broker, even the clerk at the supermarket who handles Western Union money wires, to file a "Suspicious Activity Report" (SAR) in order to cover its read end with the federal government. Bank employees are trained to ask intrusive questions about what you plan to do with money and why so they can fill out all the blanks on the forms provided by the government agency, FinCEN, that collects all this data.
Here's the scary part. When you tell them you want to withdraw $100,000 in cash or wire it to a foreign bank, they are REQUIRED to file a SAR. They are PROHIBITED from telling you that they are filing it. And it's entirely up to them whether they honor your request or not. They can freeze your account until they are satisfied that what you want to do with YOUR money is legitimate.
This is why you should set up your foreign account first. Then instruct your U. S. bank to wire the money to the overseas bank. They probably already know you set up the account anyway. Have your explanation for why you're transfering the funds ready. Don't go into a long dissertation about the coming fascist dictatorship. Tell them you've decided to retire early and you've always wanted to live in Costa Rica or New Zealand or Tuscany. You're not under oath, but they have to get some kind of answer so they can fill in their SAR form.
Then wait. Wait until you have confirmation from your bank abroad that the money has arrived. Then breathe a sign of relief. You've transfered your assets out of the country that Andy Grove says is headed "down the tubes."
Ferrying Money by Hand
There may be reasons that you decide not to follow the procedure outlined above. Maybe your resources really don't allow for you to take multiple trips abroad to set up bank accounts. You may be doing well to afford one (always round trip) plane ticket. Or you may be in a hurry. Or you may want to create as little trail as possible between your old residence and the new one.There is another way of transfering assets: convert everything to cash; buy a money belt or one of those briefcases with a wrist chain; and take it with you.
This does provide some additional challenges because the United States government does not like cash and people who use it. It's just too hard to track.
The first problem is physical. Unlike most countries, the U. S. does not print any bill larger than $100. The typical money belt will not hold much more than $20,000. A small briefcase will handle many times that, but is pretty conspicuous to thieves.
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