Originally Posted by
radonc1
I thought about that CBP requirement thinking as you did. However, a close review of the definition of "cash equivalents" does not include GCs.
From this
article, the following is seen:
"The U.S. Customs office defines this as cash, stocks, bonds, money orders, personal or cashier's checks, coins and cash."
So it appears that carrying a piece of plastic, that actually is only good in the USA to begin with, across borders appears to be kosher without declaring it.
(Please be advised, I am not a lawyer and don't currently reside in a HIE, so take this as a layman doing basic research. If someone knows better, have at it
)
In my experience, they do actually work outside of the US. I have used them in Canada a few times, and made an online payment in Euros once as another test. The exchange rate for the pending transaction was slightly lower than what actually posted, so I ended up with a negative balance of a few cents. Maybe that's why they discourage it.
Not the case with MGC/VGC from my experience, but most other gift cards say something like "treat this card like cash" so I could see a problem arising from having a lot of gift cards with the "wrong" officer.