Job Discussion Forums

[eclectic]

Through airports as you meander your way through your ESL experience?

[runthegauntlet]

[eclectic]

would the type of currency---US $s or Korean won---matter?

[runthegauntlet]

[Hod]

Not very helpful in the Asian section, but the �10K limit in Europe is strictly enforced if the trashy airport docu-soaps are to be believed.

There must be safer ways to get by than dragging around a bulging wad of cash. Wouldn�t opening a Citibank (or indeed any bank) account with an ATM card give you access to cash almost anywhere? The withdrawals might be pricey and the exchange rates baffling, but it beats losing the lot to a mugger/washing machine.

There are hundreds of other ways to avoid carrying cash, and I�m intrigued why people still walk around with pockets of wonga.

[gajackson1]

Not sure about these days, but a handful of years ago, the standard way around that was getting low or mid-denom traveler's checks. Safer han cash, just about as useful. No worries if they are lost, ruined, stolen, etc.

A solid choice these days would be buying a handful of the pre-paid, top-it-off-as-you-go credit cards offered by most banks. My S&C one has a 4000 limit on it; most of them are in this range. No one raises an eyebrow at a few credit cards, and again - your money is safe if anything happens to them.

There is still something Johnny Dangerously cool about carrying around massive amounts of cash on tap - but not prudent, at all, in this day & age.

[Mr. English]

I can tell you a story about that. Back in the 70s my father owned a lime/papaya plantation for a few years in Dominica, an island in the Caribbean. One fine day a local walked up and offered him $50,000 U.S. to buy the place. My father (he and I are both Americans) felt that he had a little more in the place than he wanted, and he was still a partner in a law office back in New Jersey, so he sold. They guy paid him with a stack of U.S. bills, from 100s to 1s. Shortly after he, my brother, and my sister were flying back to the states in his airplane (a twin engine that he used, among other things, to deliver the fruit to desert islands in the Caribbean; there was no market on Dominica for his produce). He passed a third of the stack to each of them, and told them to stuff it in their pockets. As they approached Miami the two of them, my brother and sister, sounded more and more nervous, so he finally told them to give him all of the money, and he stuffed his pockets full. He walked through customs first - no problem! They were both searched thoroughly.

If I can be so immodest, I have my father's wits, I am the oldest, and I have crossed borders with plenty of cash. Get yourself a big pair of boots.

[eclectic]

[tttompatz]

[JLL]

I've always wondered why customs people ask for such silly, apparently random things, and why anyone would be compelled to tell the truth if it just meant more hassle.

I flew into the US (where I live) today, and there was a poster in the Dallas airport warning against smuggling parrots. And there weren't many other posters either; apparently this parrot smuggling problem is high on the list for them.

Who the hell smuggles parrots?? In airline luggage? And if someone were bringing back $20,000 earned legally in an overseas job, why would they tell customs about it, knowing that they'll just create a bunch of nonsense for you to have to deal with?

Anyway those customs forms are always good for a laugh. "Q: Have you been handling livestock?" WTF?

[eclectic]

agree 114% u.s. customs held me up 30 mins. arriving back in NYC from Guyana in 2008, asking me if I had any drugs in my bag and if I was lying Id be strip searched, trying to intimidate me.

I wasnt intimidated.

[Glenski]

[eclectic]

but is it really that serious? how many people on a jet have been handling livestock? 1 out of 10 jet-fuls maybe,.....MAYBE???

[tttompatz]

[eclectic]

some people like to do daring things, and don't cower at Big Brother's agenda to control the "sheeple".