Moving Money

[GoodOlBoy]

Hello everybody. I am looking for some ideas. My wife is going home next month and needs to move some money from Russia (Siberia) to USA. It is a pretty large sum (she sold her flat). She does not want to carry cash through Sheremetyevo. Any ideas on what the cheapest way of doing this would be? Ladies maybe you can help me with this one? Thanks in advance. Rick

[Misha]

You can wire large sums of money directly from Sberbank in Russia to an overseas bank for $35-or-so. The money is in your account quite often within a day.

[Lily]

She may be allowed to carry mo more than 10k USD in cash, depending on her resident or non-resident status.

Other amounts may go through:

- travel checks;
- bank transfers, one option has been given, but need to check from bank to bank. Especially advisable would be to look for banks that are present both in your city and the city where the money is. However, pay attention that the account holder in Russia, and the account holder in the US are not the same individuals.

For insance, Citibank (for Moscow and some other cities). One could probably consider opening a USD account in a Russian Citibank, putting the amount of money on it, then getting a debit card in Russia, and go with this card to the US. Then one may get it cashed from an ATM, or just use a Citibank debit card like any card.

[Misha]

When my wife sold her apartment a year-or-so ago, I wired the money to her in Canada from a Sberbank. All I needed was the Swift and the bank's info (address, etc...). I did not even have to open an account. I just paid the fee ($35) and my wife picked up the money the next day.

Opening up a bank account and using a debit card in the USA will cost you in the long run: you will be dinged with a bank fee every time you withdraw.

[Shadow]

You have been given the corrrect advise. If you wife is worried about the tax office, provided she had been owner of the apartment for a certain time she does not have to pay any taxes, nothing bad in showing the money.

[Lily]

Opening up a bank account and using a debit card in the USA will cost you in the long run: you will be dinged with a bank fee every time you withdraw.

Would the U.S. Citibank charge anything if a Moscow Citibank card will be used in a US Citibank ATM?

[Mir]

Would the U.S. Citibank charge anything if a Moscow Citibank card will be used in a US Citibank ATM?

If you have an account in US dollars in Citibank Moscow and use the debit card to withdraw dollars in USA I don't think you will be charged anything extra.

[kievstar]

If you carry a high balance in a bank they will always pay your fee.  High balances very but usually $25,000 usd plus in a bank is considered a high balance.