Transferring large amounts of money query?

[Bright Spark]

All transfers greater than £10K (GBP) have to be vetted for money laundering

[darmstadt]

I transferred that amount a couple of times from the UK to Germany and it took ages. It sat in a computer in Berlin while they traced it back first, even my bank couldn't help me in telling me how long it would take (2 weeks eventually!)

[NotAllThere]

Mine went overnight. But that was into Switzerland...

[BlasterBates]

Think of it like taking 20 grand through customs, on the whole you won't be stopped, but you might be.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Think of it like taking 20 grand through customs, on the whole you won't be stopped, but you might be.

That reminds me of a little story ......

May 2003, the lads from myco and clientco are out on the juice in Miami; four septics, two English (one being HAB). One of the septic was being particularly obnoxious and was getting up HAB’s nose. Another of the septics was also not happy and spotted my frustration. He whispers to me, “quietly bring up the subject of bringing large amounts of currency into the country”. I was wised up on the story a week earlier, but told to keep quiet. After a few more beers I just could not resist.

HAB says, “I got stuck in the queue coming through immigration this morning. Flight from the UK and one from somewhere else local came in about the same time. The homeland security guy was getting very tetchy. When he saw I was coming in from one of the tax haven islands he started giving me all sorts of questions of what I was doing and how much money I had on me. All I had was a couple of hundred bucks and a credit card. However, I played the charming Englishman and he was happy. What is going on? Are you lot having ago at all foreigners? Why don’t you lot get asked intrusive questions?”
The noisy septic STFU on the spot. All the other septics go quiet and sip on their beers. HAB goes, “Wot?”, trying to sound innocent. One of them almost burst out laughing and to cover himself calls the waitress over and orders six more beers. Noisy septic says, “No, I’ve got to meet the wife” and hastily leaves. As soon as he is out the door everyone except the other English guy cracks up. “What was that all about?”

The week previous, noisy septic was down to see us and to look at a condo. Unknown to us at the time, he had on him 30,000 USD that he wanted to put into a bank account and to use as a deposit (or just hide it away from the IRS). He got it out of the US and through local customs without being spotted. However, when he went into a local bank to open an account they told him where to go. He was lucky not to have it taken off him there and then and be questioned by the police. Someone must have grassed him up because when he went back to the US he got stopped and was asked to account for the money that he was bringing into the country. One of the guys with him said that he had gone into one with the “Don’t you know who I am, I’m an American”, etc. Homeland security simply called in the guards and they took him away. He never admitted it, but he was over-head whispering on the phone that they had done a full body cavity search on him. He got out the next day because his own bank had confirmed the withdrawal and realtors had confirmed that he had viewed property. He was the ‘butt’ of all jokes for the rest of the evening.

He left clientco a few weeks later; I don’t know if was pushed or jumped.

[Menelaus]

Probably may raise an eyebrow if its the first time you've done it but after that it'll be considered totally normal.

[TiroFijo]

I need to transfer money from one country to another. Does transferring large amounts, over 20k euro raise any eyebrows. (It's not a problem whether anyone asks really)

What are the forums opinions?

You are allowed to transfer in and out as much as you want as long as it's your own dosh (and why not). The 10k rule at aiprorts is just to verify that it's not dirty money or linked to terrorism i.e. just to keep a trail of all money comming and going over 10k. If you arrived at the airport with say 25k that you had declared then customs just asks that you state that you are bringing in said amount on the form then let you go on your merry way.

If it's your hard earned dosh then there's nowt to worry about.

[TiroFijo]

All transfers greater than £10K (GBP) have to be vetted for money laundering

Not always.

[Bright Spark]

Not always.

I am sure there is a £10k limit where uk banks have to vet a transaction
for money laundering as I got called by barclays last year when I tried it,
and they had to ask me questions regarding Anti-Money laundering.

Also if you try to split the transaction up into smaller amounts you can still
be done for structuring depending on the country linky to
wiki here