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Why would you risk carrying around that kind of money? What’s wrong with doing a wire transfer? Or just writing yourself a cheque? Failing to see an honest use
by jbob2000 8y ago
Why would you risk carrying around that kind of money? What’s wrong with doing a wire transfer? Or just writing yourself a cheque?
Failing to see an honest use case for moving that much cash by hand.
- DoctorBit 8y agoRTFA
- loeg 8y agoCovered in like, the first few 'grafs of the article. Please don't comment without at least skimming the article.
- cesarb 8y ago> Why would you risk carrying around that kind of money? What’s wrong with doing a wire transfer? Mistrust of banking institutions. Several countries have, at some point in history, frozen and/or confiscated the money deposited in bank accounts (my country, for instance, had one of these in the 90s). > Or just writing yourself a cheque? As mentioned on many other discussions here on HN, several countries don't use checks anymore. And even when that's not the case, it's probable that they won't accept checks from another country.
- the_dave_santos 8y agoRead the news, it's explained there fully. According to them in Albania; wiring has high fee, bad rate, and possibility to be intercepted due to corrupt system.
- megous 8y agoWell I totaly understand why he would do this. I once made an international wire transfer, because there was no other option, and the banks stripped me of 7% of the funds on fees, and completely retarded currency exhange rate. For this guy, that would be a year of savings, which is not insignificant. Also banks will not commit to any specific total fee amount. If you read their terms and conditions, they say that money could go via unspecified number of intermediaries, where any one of them can take a part of the money up to 5% each or some such.
- custos 8y agoThe article explains why. In Albanaia, where he was going, there have been issues with people pulling money out of the bank and then being robbed shortly after. Sounds like an organized crime problem, where bank tellers are tipping off criminals about good targets. His solution was to take it out here, where it's safe...or so he thought.
- stordoff 8y agoJust because there are alternatives doesn't mean you can assume it is dishonest. Moving money IS an honest use case.
- nrmitchi 8y agoBesides the points already mentioned by others (as well as in the article), writing a cheque in this situation has the problem of being able to cash it on the other side. I cannot think of a single bank (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that would allow a client, especially a new, previously unknown client, to walk in and cash a $60k international check. Without special circumstances, you'd likely be looking at an extended hold period, which would defeat the purpose in many situations. Source: Wrote myself a check for a similar reason (not wanting to carry more than 10k across the border). Funds were held by the receiving bank for 15 business days.
- jbob2000 8y ago15 days is not an egregious amount of time to wait to verify that $58,000 is being moved honestly.
- nrmitchi 8y agoYou are correct, it is not, and I completely understand why most banks and financial institutions have this policy. My point was that if you are going on a vacation, or a trip, or business of some kind for 4 weeks with the need to take a relatively large sum of money with you, the 3 week delay would make this option less than ideal.
- throwaway062018 8y agoI would argue "because I want to" should be enough reason. That aside, the reasons are quite clear from the article: "In an interview translated by his son, Kazazi said safety concerns prompted him to take cash on his trip, rather than wire the funds to a local bank. “The crime [in Albania] is much worse than it is here,” he said. “Other people that have made large withdrawals [from Albanian banks] have had people intercept them and take their money. The exchange rates and fees are [also] excessive.” Albanian contractors often prefer dollars and euros over the local currency, Kazazi said. For those reasons, he said, many expatriates who return to visit Albania bring large amounts of cash with them." Folks from nations with fully functional banking and money systems don't understand this argument because they cannot envision what it means. One potential way to think about this is to just replace cash in this situation with your favorite payment system - payment, debit & credit card and Apple / Samsung payment watch - whatever and imagine that you are in a world where i) cash does ALL the things that these systems do for you ii) these systems can, for some reason, easily have your money withdrawn from them and iii) for some reason, you get a huge discount for using cash instead of other payment systems (think the way you get cashback or purchase points from some cards)... in this world, hard cash, especially US currency that comes with even more discount and flexibility benefits is worth the effort but, all that aside, "because I want to" should be enough reason
- outworlder 8y ago> Or just writing yourself a cheque? Good luck cashing in a cheque underwritten by a US Bank in Albania.