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If you travel with more than $10,000 in cash, you will be subject to the following restrictions:
People don’t usually travel with more than $10,000 in cash, but there are some who do. You might need a lot of money on your trip and decide that bringing it with you is the easiest thing to do. Or, if you have been working abroad, you might want to bring the money you have saved back to the U.S. No matter why you’re going on a trip with this much money, here are some things you should know first.
When you go abroad, you have to tell people about it.
You can travel with more than $10,000 in the U.S. and other countries. You can take as much money with you as you want.
But if you go abroad, you have to report cash and other forms of money that are worth more than $10,000. If you enter or leave the U.S. with this much cash, you must fill out FinCen Form 105 with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. You can fill out this form online ahead of time or ask a CBP officer for a paper copy while you are on the road.
There are similar reporting rules in a lot of other countries. For example, the European Union requires you to make a cash declaration if you are carrying 10,000 euros or more, or the cash equivalent. Make sure you know the rules of any country you want to visit.
There are a few important points to keep in mind. The ones below are for entering and leaving the United States with more than $10,000, but other countries may have similar rules:
What matters is the total value of all your cash and other forms of money. For example, if you have $7,000 in cash and 5,000 euros in euros, you would have to report that because the total value is more than $10,000. Same thing if you have $5,000 cash and a money order for $6,000.
Members of a family who live in the same house must report if they have more than $10,000 between them. If you and your wife are each carrying $6,000, you would need to tell the police.
If you’re close to the limit, pocket money can make a difference.
Let’s say your carry-on has exactly $10,000 in it. That’s less than $10,000, so you don’t have to report it unless you also have other money on you, like $5 in your wallet.
Money could be taken from you if you don’t report it.
Federal law is strict about bringing money into or out of the country. If you break the law, even if you don’t mean to, your money could be taken away and lost.
Even if the money is coming from a legal source, it may still be very hard to get back.
Civil forfeiture, which is a controversial topic, is the reason why. Civil forfeiture lets the police seize and keep any money or property they think was used to do something illegal. Police can do this even if the owner hasn’t been found guilty of a crime or even arrested.
But does this really happen when people travel? Absolutely. The Institute for Justice says that from 2000 to 2016, police in the U.S. made more than 30,000 seizures and took in more than $2 billion.
The most common thing that led to seizures was people going abroad with more than $10,000 and not telling anyone.
You can get a lawyer to help you fight for your money. But lawyers aren’t cheap, and it can take a long time to fight civil forfeiture.
When you travel with a lot of cash, there are always risks.
When travelling internationally, the most common way that having more than $10,000 could get you into trouble is if you don’t report it. But that’s not the only risk.
Even though it is technically legal to travel within your own country with this much money, law enforcement may be suspicious.
To say it again, law enforcement can take your money if they think it came from something illegal.
This had happened to people, even when they were flying within the United States.
Having a lot of cash on you is also very risky from a financial standpoint. Robberies can happen at any time, which is sad. Even if it’s unlikely, all it takes is one bad thing to happen for you to lose a lot of money.
Because of the risks and the need to report them when travelling internationally, it’s best not to bring more than $10,000 or even close to it.
It’s a lot safer to just bring a good travel credit card with you and use that to pay for things while you’re away. You can probably use your debit card at an ATM to get cash in the local currency if you need it. You could also send yourself money from your bank account. You’ll save yourself a lot of stress if you don’t carry too much cash.
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