Getting large amounts of money while abroad

Did you type that correctly? $150,000? As far as I know she'd have to wire it. There's no ATM that will pay out anything close to that, not even a tiny portion. They've all got limits -- like $500 or $1000 a day limits.

Also, a bank, especially a foreign bank, isn't likely to have that kind of cash on hand to fork over on a moment's notice. In the U.S. I think it'd depend on the branch and stuff whether they could give you that if you walked in and wanted it out of your account that minute, but a foreign bank in U.S. dollars? I'm no kind of expert at ALL, in any way, but I think that'd be unlikely?

If she's wealthy might she have had an envelope full of travellers' cheques in a safe at her home, which she grabbed on her way? then she could make up the rest by selling something valuable: jewelry, for example. Or if she's desperate, her passport.

Hi
You have not give much information about this person or the reasons for needing the money. In any country, foreigners getting large amounts of cash is difficult, especially instantly . If you have a bank account in India and America , you could transfer the money . If your very rich and have a history of ,... being rich . American Express will give you a unlimited card. You can't legally import that amount of money into India , not sure about US dollars but it's going to be about $5000 cash, max, and maybe more for traveller cheques. But it will be way off the amount you need.

If she has bank accounts in both the US and India with the same bank (such as HSBC), then she could transfer money from her bank account in the US to her bank account in India. But there would be time zone delays - US banks are open when India's are closed. So there might be a delay of 8 or 12 hours. But then you're dealing with withdrawing a huge amount of cash in India, and that can be very difficult to impossible if the bank doesn't have that much cash on hand, which it likely would not. Arrangements would have to be made.

You could use a private bank that deals with only the wealthiest of people, and she has some kind of credentials that means they will deal with her.

I don't know how the restrictions would work, if someone transferred from one account in a bank to another account, but India has rather strict currency import restrictions, so the branch in India might not be able to give her cash unless she had an import license. You might check wit the Indian embassy or with a bank that has branches in both countries.

There are two separate issues here. The first is the banking industry and how fast can the cash be arranged. The second is how do the governments involved deal with this.

Large sums of cash are a concern and only tend to be used in illegal activities. Further compounding this problem is the large amounts of counterfeit cash out there, a lot of it allegedly from North Korea. Even before 9/11, governments were clamping down on cash. In the US, banks report any activity that is suspicious, including anything in cash over $5,000. Indian banks, especially dealing with an American and American cash, will probably be talking to the government authorities. My guess is that your character would get to meet with some government authorities.

The American Express Centurion Card and the Visa Black Card, if you're rich enough ($100 million plus for this sort of transaction) would provide the ability to get a cash advance of $150k. But at this point, insert the previous paragraph and then add in the problems of getting that sort of cash together. If you're in a large city, this might be doable in a few hours, but you're going to be talking to a lot of people about what you're doing and hassles are going to be created at every point they can think of.

Faster and cleaner would be to acquire the sum in bitcoins. Her problem is that if she doesn't play in this market would be finding someone to help her. If she has the bank cards referenced above, she'd have concierge service who could probably help her.

I'd also think of flying to Ecuador by private plane. Ecuador is one of the few remaining countries with virtually no regulation of the banking industry.

Your character's knowledge, and connections are big factors here.

Jim Clark-Dawe

As Jim points out fund transfers exceeding threshold amounts trigger mandatory suspicious activity reporting (SAR). Accounts can be frozen while an investigation ensues (that could be on either end of the transaction--or both). If time is a significant factor, I'd urge you to consider Jim's suggestion of bitcoins. Be aware that even bitcoin transactions are now the subject of some scrutiny.

https://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase/pages_manual/OLM_015.htm


Oops, sorry but I, too, missed the time frame (2000). I'm not certain, but I don't think bitcoins were around back then . . . mea culpa . . .

I apologize. I didn't notice the year in your original post. Lots of differences.

Starting point for your research would be the Financial Action Task Force. This was in existence prior to 9/11 as the US and a few other countries tried dealing with drug trafficing. After 9/11 was when the big push was made to force other countries into the standards required of the Financial Action Task Force. I believe that India ended up joining in 2005.

Somebody with significant assets is not going to keep $150k sitting around, absent unusual circumstances. The money will be invested, and a short-term high cash need would be dealt with by credit. There are several choices here, but I'd give her an account with Barclays. Solid English bank with solid connections to many banks worldwide. Barclays has a corporate presence in India with a headquarters in Worli, Mumbai. Name is relatively easily recognized by your readers.

Barclays could easily handle a request for $150k in cash. Remember that the preferred cash in a country is the easiest to get. What would happen is she would work through her account manager and the local bank's manager. Depending upon how this plays with time zones, and how much cash the bank is sitting on, in 2000 it's possible you could do this in less than an hour. Questions in 2000 at Barclays would be very restrained with a known account holder.

If she was using Barclays as an investment banker (think stock broker), she would have had a pre-assigned borrowing limit against her investments. She could borrow $150k easily with a million in investments.

My guess, however, is that in India the bad guys would prefer gold. India was heavily involved in gold, both legal and illegal, and plenty of channels for converting gold existed. A lot easier to carry and a lot less likely to be a problem.

Jim Clark-Dawe

I think it's very different for an individual traveling abroad as opposed to a representative of any kind of corporation. Corporations deal with money/distance in other ways than private citizens do.

Another option might be to consider a precious metal. eh--no, scratch that--I just looked it up. $150,000 cash US is about thirty lbs of 7k gold, apparently