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I need to travel abroad, and one of the ways I thought I could easily take money without it being in a form of cash is to buy something. Gift cards obviously is a bad idea - it's limited amount ($100 or so), and selling them would mean I'd lose about 15-30% of the value.

Is there something that I can buy using cash that I could take and cash out in another country that I'm traveling to? Something that doesn't have my name on it like a credit card? (the money is inheritance from old people, the kind of people who'd save money under the bed, so I don't want authorities asking questions and creating problems for me, nor do I want it to get stolen on the way)

I reside in Europe and will be traveling within European Union.

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    Could you explain a bit more about the problem you're trying to solve? I can understand not wanting to carry too much cash around, but what's wrong with a debit/credit card, and/or getting cash from a machine? Wherever your money came from, can't you just move it to your bank account - or is your concern that, for example, it may breach local tax rules relating to gifts/inheritance?
    – Steve Melnikoff
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 10:30
  • As you are travelling inside EU, except for some countries which have their own currency, you can use Euros. So it might be worthwhile knowing which countries you are visiting, which have their own currency.
    – DumbCoder
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 12:37
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    Traveller's cheques are essentially anonymous, so may meet your requirement. However, they may not be as widely accepted as they once were.
    – Steve Melnikoff
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 15:58
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    If what you are trying to do is legal, use the normal banking channels and do the required paperwork. If not, this is not the forum to discuss ways to circumvent law.
    – Dheer
    Commented Jun 19, 2015 at 3:16
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because "appears to be asking advice to circumvent law"
    – Dheer
    Commented Jun 19, 2015 at 3:17

2 Answers 2

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What sort of amount are we talking about here, and what countries are you travelling to?

As long as it's not cash, most countries will neither know or care how much money is in your bank account or on your credit card limit, and can't even check if they wanted to. Even if they can, there are very few countries where they would check without already suspecting you of a crime. I think you're worrying over nothing. Even if it's cash, most countries have no border control anyway, and those who do (UK, Ireland) allow up to £10,000 or so cash without even having to declare it...

Just open a second bank account and don't take the card (or cut the card up). Use online banking to transfer money in smaller chunks to your main account.

Alternately (or additionally) take a credit card or two with a smaller limit (enough to make sure you're comfortably able to deal with one month plus emergency money). Then set up your regular bank account to pay this credit card off in full every month.

If I was really concerned, I'd open a second bank account and add a sensible amount of money to it (enough to cover costs of my stay and avoid questions about whether I can afford my stay, but not so much it would raise question). Then I'd open two credit cards with a limit of perhaps $1000-2000: one covers the costs of living wherever I'm going, the other is for emergencies or if I misjudge and go over my amount per month. Set up your bank to pay these off each month, and you're sorted

Honestly, I think you're worrying over nothing. People travel inside Europe every day with millions in the bank and raise no questions. You're legally allowed to have money!

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It sounds like your looking for something like an offshore bank (e.g. an anonymous Swiss bank account). These don't really exist anymore.

I think you should just open a small bank account in your home country (preferably one the reimburses your ATM fees, like Charles Schwab in the US). If it's a small amount of money, the authorities probably won't care and they won't be able to give you large penalties anyways.

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