We're flying to the US later this summer to visit my family, and my Dad wants to pay us back for our flights and also give my son a few thousand dollars so that we can put it into an account for him here. He wants to give us cash, so I'm wondering if anyone knows how much cash we are allowed to bring with us on a flight from the US into Switzerland? I know we can do an international wire transfer in the US, via my dad's bank, but I guess international wire transfers can be expensive, and for that reason, he'd prefer to give us cash.
I assume there are some limits as to how much cash we're allowed to bring into CH, but I have no idea ( ). And would we need to declare the money when we arrive here?
USD 10 k in new $100 notes Is the exact same size a 100grm Lindt Chocoletti packet. Open the box carefully, take the choc out and eat it, wrap the $10k in aluminium paper, put in to box & glue shut.
Any transfer via any means - cash, bank transfer or whatever - that's above 10k needs to be declared. I've been asked with a 100k transfer what it was for. I just said 'gift from parents'. That was enough
So bring it in in cash. If it's more than 10k declare it. Your won't have any trouble unless you're on a watch list.
Why take on extra stress, while travelling, of having to take additional care not to lose the cash / not put your bag down / not get it snatched nor pickpocketed, etc.? The risk seems disproportionate, just for the sake of trying to save those transfer fees. And afterwards, as bowlie said, it might not be so easy to deal with cash Dollars in Switzerland.
It sounds like doing a wire transfer would make more sense. My dad seems to think it's a waste to pay the fee for the wire transfer, but I'd rather do that than have to bring so much money here in US dollars. And as Marton pointed out, maybe we'd get a better exchange rate via a transfer as well. (I hadn't even considered that!).
Unlimited. There is no restriction and you only have to declare when asked by Swiss customs. If you have more than 10k they might ask extra questions and report it in a database.
Be aware that if you come through the EU that you must declare voluntarily funds of more than EUR 10k. In some case ASAP you leave the airplane. There is a special phone at the gate for such purposes.