TRANSFERRING MONEY TO BRAZIL

[trilingual]

In answer to recent questions, here are ways to transfer money from home to a foreign country. The references are to Brazil, but the process would be pretty much the same, no matter what country you're in, particularly in Latin America.

 

By far the easiest way to get money in Brazil from a foreign bank account is to use an ATM card. If you have an account at home (outside Brazil) with a Visa/MasterCard ATM card, your best bet is to deposit or transfer money to that account, and then withdraw money from an ATM in Brazil. If you wire transfer from one account to your other debit-card linked account at home, there will be transfer fees involved, but they're usually lower than for international transfers. If you don't have an ATM-linked bank account back home, get one! You may be able to open an account on-line (if possible, try doing this at Citibank, HSBC, Bank of America, ABN-Amro or Santander, more or less in that order of preference).

 

Money can also be transferred through Western Union (officially) or through the

remittance shops found througout the Brazilian immigrant community. This would be the

second easiest way to send money. To find a remittance shop, just ask at any Brazilian

restaurant, grocery or travel agency in your area.

 

Interbank wire transfers can be made to Brazil, using the normal worldwide transfer

procedures. However, I don't know if you need a Brazilian bank account in order

to receive the money, or if money can be wired to you without an account here. I would

suggest asking at one of the Brazilian banks that are part of world-wide networks (and

where there is likely to be someone who speaks English): Citibank, HSBC or BankBoston.

They can also provide you with the information you'll need (interbank numbers, etc.) to

send your foreign bank to make the transfer. If a Brazilian account is necessary and you

don't have one, you can try to transfer money to the account of a Brazilian friend who you

trust, who can give you your money when it's deposited into their account. You can also

inquire at the U.S. Consulate, which I believe can receive money for U.S. travelers who've

run short, or explain how best to do it. Wire transfers tend to be expensive (fees charged

by both the sending and receiving banks) and in spite of being electronic they're not

instantaneous. It can take several days to receive your money once the transfer is made.

If you transfer into a friend's account here in Brazil, be sure you reimburse them for any fees/taxes charged to their account for receiving the money.

 

Brazilian banks can probably accept foreign checks for collection, but you'd have to have an account at the bank, and you wouldn't receive credit for the check until it clears and the Brazilian bank receives the money. International check collection is time-consuming and it's also likely there would be a substantial fee involved.

 

However you transfer money, remember that you have to declare amounts larger than US$10,000 to the U.S. treasury (if coming from a U.S. bank) and similar declaration requirements exist in Brazil for transfers greater than R$10,000. You can avoid this by making some smaller transfers. That's particularly the case if you transfer cash to a friend's account, as they may not be interested in attracting the attention of the Brazilian tax authorities.

 

As you can see, there are many options.

[rapaz7]

Outsourcing

 

I am thinking about obtaining employment in the USA again and then outsourcing my own job to a lesser developed country. That is I would collect my regular salary and then pay somebody else either here in Brazil or elsewhere to do my work for me at 1/3 what I would be earning. This way I would receive 2/3 of my American salary and would not have to work. This amount of money would do very well here for me in Brazil. The negative part to this is that the situation would be contributing to the coming global wage equilibrium.

 

Are there any other pros and cons to this? Does anybody have any experience in this area?

[jackhammer91406]

Tri,

I recently tried to wire money to a friend in RIO from here in California. for some reason, and I still have no concrete answer, you cannot wire money through Western Union from California. Even the various Western Union reps that you will get from the 800 numbers won't know this or why. I finally found this out at my fourth location when the vendor tried to process the transfer and had to call his Western Union rep who informed us that money cannot be wired from California through Western Union. I was finally able to wire it using a local Brazilian market for a $15 fee. I could have used my own bank, but they would have charged $40 and said the money might take up to a week to transfer.

 

I have never had any trouble using the various ATMs all over town when I was down there. This past trip, when I suddenly needed money because of the incident, I simply had a friend deposit it in my Bank here and then I could manage it on line.

[trilingual]

RE: Outsourcing

 

>I am thinking about obtaining employment in the USA again and

>then outsourcing my own job to a lesser developed country.

 

Well, that's an ingenious idea, to say the least! I guess it could work, as long as your employer can't find out what you're up to, because then they'll just outsource directly, cutting you (the middleman) out of the picture.

 

I'd look at an English-speaking country (like India or the Philippines) for the outsourcing, because your end work-product will have to be written in English. You can find English-speakers capable of doing a lot of work in countries like Brazil or Argentina, but obviously they're not as thick on the ground.

 

Whoever does the work for you, you'll still have to review the work product, edit it into proper American business English, and be sure everything is accurate before you turn in the project, because YOU'RE the responsible party, as far as your employer is concerned. So you can't get off without doing any work at all, but you certainly could reduce your workload significantly using this technique.

 

Keep us informed. You may have stumbled onto a great gimmick! }(

[Guest dreynsol]

RE: Outsourcing

 

Hi rapaz7,

 

Got your e-mail, but when I attempted to respond, it got bounced back.

 

Just wanted to let you know that I'm not in Brazil now, and won't arrive until the 20th of Feb. Wish I were there now though! :-)

 

Not sure what type of field you are in, so it's difficult to respond to your question. Outsourcing works in some types of services, but also has failed miserably in some instances due to language and time zone differences.

 

From my experience, there's no such thing as a "free lunch", but if you can find something that works for you, I'd love to hear about it.

 

Good luck! and enjoy Brazil

 

- Drey

[buckguy]

Earlier this year, I tried to wire money to Carlo at Romanus and Brazil wasn't even listed on the Western Union website. I spoke to Carlo when I got to Brazil, he said that people have used Western Union, successfully, in the past. Very odd.

[trilingual]

This made me curious. I went to Western Union's site and on their "price it" option for transfers selected a U.S. to Brazil transfer. The response was that the on-line money transfer service isn't available to Brazil, but that the transfer can be made by visiting a W.U. agency in person. (There may have been too much credit card fraud using on-line money transfers to Brazil for W.U. to continue the service for now.) I'm still in Brazil, so I'm not able to visit a W.U. agency to verify if it can be done in person.

[jackhammer91406]

Tri,

I of course tried on line first, then went to 4 different locations in person. three of them didn't even have a location in Brasil on their computer. The fourth location is the one who ended up calling his rep. I was trying to wire cash at the in person locations. If anyone ever finds out why California is blocked, I would be curious to know. Even the reps from the 800 phone numbers said I should be able to do it in person at ANY location. It wasn't until the last vendor called HIS rep that we got an answer that the transfers wouldn't go through. We never were told why.

[+ Lucky]

I will volunteer to help any one needing to transfer money to Brazil. Just buy me a ticket down there and I will personally deliver it. Hope this helps!

[Big Daddy]

I wire money to Wan Hallen in Uracu, Goias, Brasil using Western Union. There is a $12 wire fee. He must pick up the money at a branch of Banco do Brasil. I must go in person and set up the transfer.

 

One problem that I had in the beginning was that I insisted on spelling it BRA S IL and not Z. The WU computer appearently could not figure out what Brasil meant.

 

The only thing that I can think of regarding the inability to send a wire from California is that California is a BLUE state and the Bushies are going to make Blue America pay for its total disloyality. You will notice that they are starting to disrupt services, minor as they may seem. This is just the start as they isolate California. I have heard that New Hampshire is next (being the only Red state that had the audacity to switch sides).

 

On a different note, Wan Hallen broke his arm on Saturday in a biking accident. Brasilian authorities have assured me that Bush nor his neo conservative agents are suspects. This is despite the fact that a note found attached to the wrecked bike stated that Sadam did it. In addition, it was a blue bike.

 

Wan Hallen is fine. He said that his arm hurt quite a bit on Saturday after he left the hospital, but that today he felt better. Further, it was his left arm, which leaves his right hand still free to do whatever it is that young men do when their "daddies" are not around.