dcpatti

Risk of seizure aside, I would look into as many alternatives as possible before travelling any distance with a significant amount of cash. Buy some travellers checks--- if the amount is enough, the banks will work with you on the fees, especially if you do a fair amount of business with them. Or take it to Western Union and send yourself a wire transfer. Money orders? Paypal it to yourself? There's got to be other options out there. I am not really concerned about getting mixed up with LEO seizures--- there's generations of cops in my family and all I need is a couple of carefully dropped names and I get treated like family by LEO's everywhere, and I hope I never need to use that for any situation like ones I am reading here. What I would be worried about, though, is any of the other ways there are to become parted from your bags.

Could you imagine getting ready to board and finding out your plane had been downgraded to a CRJ and you'd have to gate-check the bag? Would you gate-check it with the money inside, or try to discreetly remove the money from the bag before gate-checking, and find somewhere else to stash the money. Hopefully you preplanned for this possibility and the money is safe and out-of-sight in its own little case where it can easily be stowed elsewhere.

What about the braindead PAX who accidentally grabs your carry-on from the bin and deplanes before you notice? Or a fire in the hotel room and all your belongings, including cash, go up in smoke? Or the thieves at the airport bar?

I know none of these situations are really all that likely but since you can't replace cash, I would be unwilling to take the chance. LOL I would probably drop dead of a fear- and paranioa-induced heart attack, leaving the airport pickpockets ample time to remove the money from my bags!

SteveinTX

The best way to carry something easily convertible into cash would the US Postal Money orders. Buy them at the post office, redeem them at the post office. All cash, no official records.

That being said, I have flown SWA into Vegas with $10k in cash, and every once in a while a little more than that on the way back out. I keep it in a large heavy leather wallet (the one Continental gave me when I first signed up for Onepass back in 2000), tucked away in my carry on. I've certainly never seen anyone open it or examine the contents.

Oh, and the post office across the street from LAS stays open until 9pm!

~Steve

buylowsellhigh

^^ Yeah, money orders may do the trick, but then you'd have to figure out how to cash $9k in money orders because somehow I HIGHLY doubt that a PO has that much cash in the drawers. Even if you handed a stack of MO's to a seller for say a car, the seller might not feel comfortable just like cashier's checks...

Or you can just bring 10 ounces of pure gold

themicah

That works fine for less than $3,000. But once you get to $3k there's a paper trail, and you can't do more than $10k in a single day. From http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/503.htm#wp1150680

And if you get caught doing a bunch of $2,999 transactions, you can get in trouble for structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. You'll see the boxes they would check on this blank SAR:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f902256.pdf

mirage1228

Personally, I would never travel with that much cash. I have a BofA account, and there are BofA's everywhere. I'd just get to my destination city, and then IF i needed the cash, withdraw it from the BofA there. But again, wire transfers, cashiers checks, etc .. there are just easier ways to do things ... unless you're really up to something no good i.e. don't want to leave a paper trail...

Anyway, I've always wondered though ... in the movies, you see people getting on planes with briefcases handcuffed to their arm. Would that fly today? Would the TSA/Airlines really allow that?

blueeyes_austin

Why not just open a joint account with a major financial institution (Chase, Wachovia, etc.)? Fly to the relative, bring the cash to the local branch, and voila, no problems in moving the money around.

As far as SARs and the like...I had deposited very large amounts of cash (20-25K a month) in what must have been very dodgy-seeming transactions (timeframe 1999-2002) pass through multiple bank accounts without an incident. Didn't get me on the terrorist watch list or anything similar, although post-9/11 I scaled back and finally ended the activity that was generating all the income (not drugs or anything illegal). YRMV, of course.

Top Tier

http://www.fear.org/

Landing Gear

Box 28 (c) seems the least desirable one.

bocastephen

That is one scaaaaaaary website. We really do have police powers which are totally out of control and operating with a conflict of interest. I wish these stupid laws would be ruled un-Constitutional and go away altogether, but absent that, all federal, state and local asset forfeiture laws should reformed immediately to include the following restrictions:

1) assets cannot be forfeited without a criminal conviction
2) an asset forfeiture action must be filed in court and approved by a judge or magistrate in the same manner as a warrant - the police will lose their authority to arbitrarily take someone's property without authorization
3) assets cannot be detained or confiscated without a criminal arrest. If the charges are dropped, dismissed or the defendant prevails in court, the assets must be returned to the citizen within 5 business days.
4) any forfeited assets must go into the general revenue of the State where the forfeiture proceeding took place - the assets cannot be given to the local police agency or the local jurisdiction where the crime occurred. At the Federal level, all forfeited assets are turned over to the GAO for disposal or transfer to the Department of Revenue.

We must stop their out of control lust for assets and end their conflict of interest!

photomike

Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning limits on transporting cash while traveling onboard airlines.



The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) does not have jurisdiction over this matter. However, please note that Transportation Security Officers at our Nation's airports are trained to follow procedures in place to notify Law Enforcement Officers should a passenger be found to have what they deem an excessive amount of cash in his or her carry on or checked luggage.



This issue falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice. Should you wish to obtain further information regarding Federal Laws governing transporting cash while traveling, you may contact that agency at:



U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530-0001



The U.S. Department of Justice may also be contacted by telephone at (202) 514-2000 or via e-mail at [email protected].



Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us and we hope this information is helpful.



TSA Contact Center



--- Original Message ---
From: <[email protected]>
Received: 7/27/2008 11:42:31 AM Eastern Standard Time (GMT - 4:00 )
To: "TSA Contact Center" <[email protected]>
Subject: TSA Contact Us: All Other Inquiries

THIS GENERATED EMAIL HAS BEEN SENT FROM TSA INTERNET CONTACT US
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remote Client IP: 74.211.57.57
Date Time: 7/26/2008 5:52:41 PM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: michael
Email: [email protected]
Brief Description of Inquiry: CASH AUTOMOBILE PURCHASE
Comments: I'M FLYING OUT TO PURCHASE A CAR IN ANOTHER STATE. I'M HOPING TO GET A BETTER DEAL BY PAYING CASH.
IS THERE A LIMIT ON HOW MUCH MONEY I CAN FLY WITH?
THANK YOU

bocastephen

What a bunch of crap! The TSA deems what is excessive? Please Obviously, this is likely the fantasy ravings of some underling looney at the TSA and not their official policy, but I think this response deserves a complimentary forward to the ACLU for legal review.

Global_Hi_Flyer

Who was it that said TSA is not running a dragnet?

stupidhead

I left that bank for this reason-and because they were sued for selling private information. The moment I found out I cut up both my debit and credit card, closed my checking account, and got myself a Citibank account, not that they're any less sketchy. But at least they didn't get sued for aiding and abetting identity theft.

I'm not sure why credit card companies won't accept cash as a payment. Unlike checks it doesn't take several days to clear AND it's legal tender for all debts, public or private. I guess we don't pay cash because they're known to lie about stuff like that.

stupidhead

And interest and penalties as well as damages paid to the defendant. 32.99%APR sounds like a good number. And not within 5 business days, immediately. By immediately, I mean in cash (if it's a house, deed and key in an envelope, if it's a car, key in an envelope), before the now-not guilty defendant leaves the courtroom, by order of the judge. The not-guilty person who is free to go signs for it when he/she receives it. If not, the prosecutor is to be arrested for contempt of court and grand larceny. No signature, bench warrant for the DA's arrest.

studentff

Dittos on the to Bank of America

In spite of doing all of the above to alienate their legitimate customers, they want to keep their illegitimate customers happy. When an illegal alien broke into my mother's house, stole her paycheck (she works for a small business w/ no direct deposit), and tried to deposit it at Bank of America before going on a check-forging spree in my mother's name at various stores, Bank of America refused to turn over the teller video, the fingerprint they collected, or any other information about the criminal to the sheriff's office or anyone else. They had no interest at all in pursuing charges, and gave both her and the sheriff the runaround. Heaven forbid they alienate their precious illegal-alien customers in CA.

Bank of America is bad people. I will not do business with them.