When travelling into the US, carry as little money as you can.

There's not much reason to carry cash at all when traveling internationally any more. I didn't even exchange any on my last trip overseas (to Finland). I just used a credit card for everything.

I would like some indication that cash seizure without reasonable cause happens often, or ever, before getting all hot and bothered about it.

In any case, I suspect our friends in the north probably just use their credit and debit cards for large purchases rather routinely carrying wads of cash.

Seems completely off-base, to me. I have lived in and around some very backwoods Texas towns - "speedtrap" towns, where the police issue as many tickets as they can to generate revenue. However, being issued a citation is quite a different thing than what this seems to be implying. A police officer has never taken cash directly from me or from anyone that I know. That would be a serious crime. A headline-making deal. As a matter of course, that is simply not how things are done.

And as to citations? It doesn't matter whether you have your cash on hand or not. It can be back in Canada, or on a credit card, or what-have-you. You still have to pay your fine. If you got a citation but don't believe you should have, you can take it up with them down at the county courthouse - and, surprisingly, even in speed-trap towns I've generally found them to be pretty darn reasonable.

For the last several months, I've been taking regular trips to Canada, and I love it. The driving is a little different, and I have committed a moving violation so close to a parked cop that he and I made eye contact when I did it. He rolled his eyes at me. Gotta freaking love Canada. My Canadian friend has family that treats coming to America as this hella dangerous, scary thing that he should never, ever do. They have these ideas that we're all dangerous, gun-toting thugs, and all our cops are corrupt, and that America is just somewhere even the bold don't dare travel alone.

To me, it seems ridiculously overblown.

This is a new one on me. I've heard plenty about law enforcement officials stopping people and doing questionable (from a 4th Amendment point of view) searches for drugs or weapons. But I don't think I've heard any stories about police stealing from the people they stop, much less a pervasive pattern.

TSA workers, that's another story. But they're not law enforcement officials.

Anyway. Why carry around lots of cash anyway? You can use your credit/debit cards everywhere, and it's much safer.

the department of interior may be your biggest concern... canadians use acorns or pine cones or some such shit for currency, right?

CassandraW said:

Anyway. Why carry around lots of cash anyway? You can use your credit/debit cards everywhere, and it's much safer.

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peddle your anti-christ commerce bullshit elsewhere, succubus...

veinglory said:

I would like some indication that cash seizure without reasonable cause happens often, or ever, before getting all hot and bothered about it.

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The New Yorker had a story about this. I think it's a bit biased as story, but there are hard numbers in it.

For example:

At the Justice Department, proceeds from forfeiture soared from twenty-seven million dollars in 1985 to five hundred and fifty-six million in 1993. (Last year, the department took in nearly $4.2 billion in forfeitures, a record.) The strategy helped reconcile President Reagan’s call for government action in fighting crime with his call to reduce public spending. In 1989, Attorney General Richard Thornburgh boasted, “It’s now possible for a drug dealer to serve time in a forfeiture-financed prison after being arrested by agents driving a forfeiture-provided automobile while working in a forfeiture-funded sting operation.”

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And:

“There’s this myth that they’re cracking down on drug cartels and kingpins,” Lee McGrath, of the Institute for Justice, who recently co-wrote a paper on Georgia’s aggressive use of forfeiture, says. “In reality, it’s small amounts, where people aren’t entitled to a public defender, and can’t afford a lawyer, and the only rational response is to walk away from your property, because of the infeasibility of getting your money back.” In 2011, he reports, fifty-eight local, county, and statewide police forces in Georgia brought in $2.76 million in forfeitures; more than half the items taken were worth less than six hundred and fifty dollars. With minimal oversight, police can then spend nearly all those proceeds, often without reporting where the money has gone.

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This is big, big stuff. Death-of-a-thousand-cuts kind of stuff.

I'd think it would depend o what you consider "large" amounts of cash. If you're lugging duffel bags stuffed with 100's across any border, you're going to get suspicious looks. If you've got $300 in your wallet to spend on your trip, not so much.

I can say from personal experience and that of my mother when crossing the border - you NEED to have some cash on hand when going to the US.

If you show up at the border with a few pennies in your pocket it's assumed you will be working illegally in the US. They don't expect you to carry millions but you should have SOME cash on hand if you're visiting the US.

So, yeah, I'll call shenanigans. The CBC does pretty well with the anti-American propaganda...

William Haskins said:

the department of interior may be your biggest concern... canadians use acorns or pine cones or some such shit for currency, right?

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Chestnut and walnut pods, I'll have you know. Hmph.

Though I'd heard the education system south of the border was rather dumbed down and you lot don't even have to haul wood from outdoors into the fireplace and have fancy things liked coloured chalk for your blackboards

ETA: On a serious note, it's illegal to carry more than 10K in cash unless you're a former prime minister.

I travel internationally ALL the time. I'm off to Orlando in just over a week. I NEVER carry cash to any country. Ever. Why would I want to touch paper money? I don't even get it. Besides, if by chance I need it...I would just get it wherever I am. Gone are the days of getting currency before heading onto a vacation. That's so archaic.

ETA: I just checked that part of my wallet I don't use...oops. Guess I do get the odd money. I'm thinking only for incidentals where debit can't be used. I have Euros, U.S. and pesos in my wallet from recent trips. But, seriously...negligible amounts.

Sheryl Nantus said:

I can say from personal experience and that of my mother when crossing the border - you NEED to have some cash on hand when going to the US.

If you show up at the border with a few pennies in your pocket it's assumed you will be working illegally in the US. They don't expect you to carry millions but you should have SOME cash on hand if you're visiting the US.

So, yeah, I'll call shenanigans. The CBC does pretty well with the anti-American propaganda...

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REALLY???

Because when I went to NYC a couple weeks ago nobody even asked about money...but I would have told them I don't have a thin red dime on me. I. AM. MODERN. I. HAVE. DEBIT. CARD. AND. CREDIT. CARD.

Here's the search you want to do about civil forfeiture abuse.

https://www.google.com/search?q=civil+forfeiture+abuse

robjvargas said:

The New Yorker had a story about this. I think it's a bit biased as story, but there are hard numbers in it.

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I know about proceeds of crime forfeiture in general (and how it is getting a tad out of hand in some laces). But stopping a car of an unknown person and just taking money because its very presence is suspicious? I have never heard of that.

Any seasoned traveler will tell you carrying cash is an invitation to disaster, no matter what your citizenship or where you travel. I've been to Canada and carried nothing more than pocket change. That's why they invented traveler's checks, credit and debit cards, etc. As to forfeiture laws, it's not just small-timers who get hit. My brother, a criminal attorney who handles a lot of drug-related cases, typically gets paid by the governmnt because his clients' assets are seized - and some of his clients are very well-heeled.

clintl said:

There's not much reason to carry cash at all when traveling internationally any more. I didn't even exchange any on my last trip overseas (to Finland). I just used a credit card for everything.

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Unless you're traveling in a country like Japan, where credit cards (particularly international ones) are not accepted everywhere, and finding an ATM can be tough (and expensive). Japan is a cash-based society and people routinely carry around hundreds. I've been known to walk around with the equivalent of $2000 on me, though I don't often recommend it.

Point being, it depends on where you're going, and you're much better off making sure you know specifics of the area you're traveling to rather than use this as blanket advice.

Xelebes said:

I think that is point of the comment. The well-heeled get themselves a lawyer. The minorities and such often don't get themselves a lawyer.

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On the other hand, those with the inclination and enough money to travel probably are more likely to be savvy enough to get themselves a lawyer. (Assuming we're talking tourists and not refugees.)

I suspect that if the sum of money isn't large, a lot of people would decide it wasn't worth their while to hire a lawyer to pursue it. Thus the death by a thousand cuts.

Was it John Oliver that did a special on civil forfeiture a couple of weeks ago? I feel like it was either him or Colbert, but my mind is leaning to Oliver. It was a great explanation of what goes on in many places, and how difficult it is to get the money back in the future. Basically, it's perfectly legal to take a person's money, and the only way to get it back is to prove that it wasn't drug money. That's even if you were never charged in the first place. Very messed up practice.

Xelebes said:

I think that is point of the comment. The well-heeled get themselves a lawyer. The minorities and such often don't get themselves a lawyer.

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I thought the point was that someone was alleging asset seizure of cash from cold traffic stops. Which I frankly have trouble believing.

I mean some random (apparently Canadian) person just driving along, being stopped search and their money taken. Really?

Can anyone post an actual example of that happening?

Xelebes said:

We're talking border shoppers here.

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If we were talking fifteen years ago, I'd probably agree. Fifteen years ago, all you had to do at the U.S./Canadian border was state your citizenship, and they waved you through. I grew up on the border -- we used to go to Canada all the time, even just to get ice cream. It was like driving to another city in the U.S.

But now you generally have to show a special I.D. card or a passport if you want to cross the border. At a minimum, you need to show a birth certificate and other current government ID. You have to know the requirements and fulfill them. I'd argue that most people who are savvy enough to do that are also savvy enough to know that someone can't just confiscate your money for no reason, and that a lawyer could help. Not too many unsophisticated, poverty-stricken, uneducated folks have a passport or a NEXUS card.

I'm sure there are some unsophisticated people who haven't watched a thousand episodes on court tv and have no idea of their basic legal rights who hop across the Canadian border to shop. But I would wager it's not many.

How timely. The Washington Post has just finished a three-part series on asset forfeiture.

Under the federal Equitable Sharing Program, police have seized $2.5 billion since 2001 from people who were not charged with a crime and without a warrant being issued. Police reasoned that the money was crime-related. About $1.7 billion was sent back to law enforcement agencies for their use.

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Part 1: After Sept. 11, 2001, a cottage industry of private police trainers emerged to teach aggressive techniques of highway interdiction to thousands of local and state police.
Part 2: One training firm started a private intelligence-sharing network and helped shape law enforcement nationwide.
Part 3: Motorists caught up in the seizures talk about the experience and the legal battles that sometimes took more than a year.

It's a real problem, and it's proven very profitable for those sworn to protect and serve. Exactly what they're protecting and who they're serving is another question.

Any time I travel with more than $200 cash, they'd have to disassemble my car to find it.