Anonymous Travel With Your Money

There are many ways and many good reasons to want to take your own money with you when leaving the country. One could use the typical ways of getting a bank draft transfer, checks or credit cards. But what if you want some privacy? With the recent FINTRAC legislation, it is mandated that all bank employees not only report transactions of more than $10,000, but also all transactions which they deem suspicious. Safely, one can usually move money around in transactions of less than $3,000.

But given what happened in Cyprus, one can't blame those looking for alternatives to the banking system or are using Bitcoins and other decentralized electronic currencies which are not controlled by Governments.

*Disclaimer: Not declaring income or hiding assets from legal proceedings, in most cases, a federal offense. This website in no way endorses tax evasion or money laundering. Do your own research and seek competent legal advice. This information is for information and entertainment purposes only.

Secured pre-paid anonymous offshore credit cards are a good bet, especially given that they cards allow you to load and withdraw quite a lot of money on them. The fees are a tad high, sure, but its well worth it for the privacy they afford. You can get either a Mastercard or Visa and load quite a bit on them and then go on world tour, spending your own cash or getting ATM withdrawals with no paper trail.

One could also use Traveler's Checks, but they typically require ID and again, buying too many at a time will likely run the risk of unnecessary attention.

One could use a money market account, like Perfect Money, and then send money abroad to a third party, and once the transfer is complete, simply close the account.

Traveling With Large Sums of Money

It is a given that the same cash limits will flag you at the airport. I read of one case where an individual was traveling in Canada, and left the country with close to $10,000 of his own money, in cash. From what I read in the media report, all of it was seized.

The authorities excused their actions by claiming that the traveler didn't report it. Another red flag is one-way tickets to anywhere.

The best strategy is to always purchase return tickets and set close return date, and then when abroad, cancel and get a refund or re-sell the return ticket.

Another thing to watch is that apparently the IRS will set anyone to be flagged when leaving the country who hasn't filed a return in more than two years, and will definitely flag anyone who owes them.