# Transferring money back to the U.K



## gmhady

Hi all, very happy to have found this forum. Hope your all good and well.

So just some quick background information...I'm half Egyptian my mother who passed away 12 years ago was Egyptian and my dad is British. 

We have a decent amount of money in Bank El Ahly in Egyptian pounds, We are wanting to take our money back out of Egypt and bring it back to the U.K mainly due to economic woes in Egypt and us wanting to keep our money in a safer more reliable environment.

We are not sure what would be the best way to go about doing this, if anyone has any information that would be of use please post!

*One option we are contemplating is this:*

My family and I will be traveling to Cairo in March lane: hoping to accomplish this goal, I know that you can take 10,000 Dollars out of Egypt on your person without declaration. 

Their will be 3 of us traveling so does that mean we can take $30K between us?

I have been hearing on the news that foreign currency reserves are low, I do not know if this will have any impact but does anyone foresee any problems changing our money from Egyptian Pounds to dollars or sterling?

Sorry for the lengthy post any help is appreciated.

Regards Hady


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## Homeless

The laws in Egypt and not all that clear and in my case in Canada the laws are less clearer. I planned on travelling with the US10000 dollars allowed and thought I was safe but in Cairo airport after being physically searched at the boarding gate I had to declare the money as it was in my pocket and was told that I was suppose to have it certified on my passport by the bank. The way I understand it is you take your passport with you to the bank and aks them to certify the money (that you are withdrawing from them) on your passport. But I just argued with the them and went through it didn't take more than a few seconds.
In Vancouver airport on the other hand they didn't like that I was coming back from a "troubled" area with that much cash (I had to declare it on an arrival card and I was searched for hours ) and they told me that even though I was within the limit Canadian law allows, I was still responsible for providing proof that it was not from illegal gains. I don't know that that was true but nevertheless that kind of cash attracts attention. I know Vancouver custom control are corrupt as in a bunch or psychos with militia/gang like mentality but I got the impression the few times I went to the UK that it is much worse there to the extent that I would never ever go through the UK on transit even if the ticket was free.

And yes the 10,000 is per person.

With regard to transfer money out of the country. Last I was there and transferred money was in December and the limit then was US100000 per year.
I don't know what it is like now but I can tell you it all depends on the bank you deal with. Most are just too dumb to know the rules and make them up as they go along. If one bank says no, go to another.


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## GM1

I think it will be difficult to get the money changed to foreign currency! You can also get a VISA card for your account and withdraw money/buy goods with it in the UK.


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## MaidenScotland

GM1 said:


> I think it will be difficult to get the money changed to foreign currency! You can also get a VISA card for your account and withdraw money/buy goods with it in the UK.




but all the time the exchange rate is falling..


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## Homeless

Unlike getting money changed and having it in cash transferring money should be doable. I am just about to find out and will let you know.

With regard to the credit card idea, there are many disadvantages. First, the Egyptians pound is plummeting and the interest rate doesn't balance it out. There are charges and foreign exchange fees. I would just transfer the money and get it over with. It is doable.


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## canuck2010

I have used western union to transfer money out of egypt without issues, however, that option is limited to only a few thousand dollars per month, something like $3000, .but if several family members each did a transfer, you would be able to get a little bit out. 

I travelled into egypt with slightly over 10k once without issue, but I was never searched, it was a red eye flight and I think all the immigration people were still asleep. I had the cash well hidden in my travel documents. 

One more option, one can open a USD or uk pound account within Egypt ( we have a USD account at CIB), then at least you can get the money out of Egypt pounds. 

Times are changing quickly however, I would think an electronic transfer would be the safest option if there is a considerable amount you need to get out, though you'll most likely lose quite a bit due to the falling egypt pound. It's a catch 22. If Egypt gov comes to their senses in the next couple months, the pound may stabilize, but it doesn't look like that is what is happening! Good luck.




Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


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## hurghadapat

GM1 said:


> I think it will be difficult to get the money changed to foreign currency! You can also get a VISA card for your account and withdraw money/buy goods with it in the UK.[/QUOTE
> 
> I have a Mastercard which was issued by the CIB bank but i cannot use it outside of Egypt so not sure if a Visa card will be the same.


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## aykalam

"Egypt's currency bureaus are being overwhelmed by demand for dollars amid a supply fueled by political crisis, the head of the foreign exchange department at the Chambers of Commerce said.

Mohamed al-Abyad said foreign exchange offices can only supply 20 percent of the dollars for which they receive orders."

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/dollars-start-running-out-egypt-s-currency-bureaus


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## MaidenScotland

My domestic staff struggle some days to change pounds to dollars.. sometimes going to 3 or 4 different exchanges.. 

but did the OP say it was a dollar account or has the person just converted pounds to dollars


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## aykalam

MaidenScotland said:


> My domestic staff struggle some days to change pounds to dollars.. sometimes going to 3 or 4 different exchanges..
> 
> but did the OP say it was a dollar account or has the person just converted pounds to dollars


Apparently it is now in Egyptian pounds, so if they are looking to get the money out of Egypt, at some point they will need to exchange into foreign currency, whether dollars or sterling.


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## aykalam

the pound is trading at more than 7 to the dollar in the black market 

INTERVIEW-Egypt currency has further to fall - business leader - Yahoo! News Maktoob


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## MaidenScotland

aykalam said:


> the pound is trading at more than 7 to the dollar in the black market
> 
> INTERVIEW-Egypt currency has further to fall - business leader - Yahoo! News Maktoob





ohh the good old days are back.. will need to see what I can get for me crisp sterling notes


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## gmhady

MaidenScotland said:


> My domestic staff struggle some days to change pounds to dollars.. sometimes going to 3 or 4 different exchanges..
> 
> but did the OP say it was a dollar account or has the person just converted pounds to dollars


Hello everyone, thank you for the many replies. 

@ MaidenScotland the money is in Egyptian Pounds. So it is going to have to be changed in to dollars, sterling or even euros. 

The news regarding the huge shortage of dollars is very grim indeed. I don't think this trip is going to be much fun 

So... if I was to withdrawa considerable amount of money from my account at the Bank El Ahly and open a dollars account can I use my Egyptian Pounds to open the account which in turn will be converted to dollars for me?

Sorry I am a little confused nothing is straight forward in Cairo -.-


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## Homeless

I will rephrase as best as I can. The way money is transferred vs money exchanged is quite different. To wire transfer money the bank buys from international money traders and they debit your account in Egyptian and credit your foreign account in whatever currency you choose. They don't have to have the money on hand.
When you do as you described and open a foreign currency account the local bank has to have that foreign money on hand somewhere in Egypt. Importation and exportation of money is and has always been restricted to few banks. Even here in Canada very few banks import directly and most go through other banks. For example I was able to wire money from my Egyptian account directly to my Canadian account for as long as it was converted to Canadian (the bank has no Canadian dollars on hand). But if I wanted to wire the money to my US account in Canada it had to go through another bank first which meant that there were two beneficiaries, the bank that trades in dollars and then myself.

Make it very simple. Go to your bank and ask them what the best way get the money out is. Flat out, tell them you want to get the money out of Egypt and to the UK. I still believe the best and most secure way is the wire transfer. It is also the cheapest.


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## paolop

Hi, I transferred a large some of LE out from my bank here to my sterling account in the UK. The bank simply exchanged the the maximum amount of LE into £ on a daily basis then transferred the whole amount in the sterling to the UK. The whole process took about 10 days. This happened about a month ago.


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## hurghadapat

MaidenScotland said:


> ohh the good old days are back.. will need to see what I can get for me crisp sterling notes


Lol...don't think many here on the forum will know about the good old days when you exchanged money on the black market.....Happy Days.


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## writer

paolop said:


> Hi, I transferred a large some of LE out from my bank here to my sterling account in the UK. The bank simply exchanged the the maximum amount of LE into £ on a daily basis then transferred the whole amount in the sterling to the UK. The whole process took about 10 days. This happened about a month ago.


Has anyone had more recent experience of changing Egyptian pounds into a convertible currency such as dollars or sterling?


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## dingobingo

Im struggling currently to get funds transferred to the UK from Egypt. They now want to know the source of the funds. I've not tried the Egyptian Visa card abroad. Might give it a go tomorrow.


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## hurghadapat

dingobingo said:


> Im struggling currently to get funds transferred to the UK from Egypt. They now want to know the source of the funds. I've not tried the Egyptian Visa card abroad. Might give it a go tomorrow.



Lol...worried incase you are money laundering


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## dingobingo

Special sheesha filler is legal right?


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## ejsaunders

Has anybody been able to send LE back to the UK via the bank? I have some LE cash that I would like to send to my UK bank but my bank here (CIB) said I need to change it to £ first (they wont do this for me - is this normal??) then pay it into my CIB £ account then transfer it online (that bits easy) I got told I have to change the cash at a money exchange yet whenever I try I get told they dont have any £!! Its only about £100 so not a huge amount. Any ideas of where I can find £ cash?? Thanks!


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## dingobingo

Yes it's normal and very frustrating. We were fortunate that our Egypt account is in UK Sterling. But transferring it online is NOT easy, not with HSBC anyway. We've had to fill in countless forms, jump through hoops and the latest is we need to officially prove where we got the money from. It's a central bank of Egypt requirement. They wont allow overseas wires without proof of the source of the funds.


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## Helen Ellis

Why don't you ask if anyone in Egypt wants to withdraw money from their UK accounts. They can transfer the money to your account and you give them the cash. Of course it would have to be someone you trust.


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## dingobingo

Unfortunately I'm not In Egypt to withdraw the cash, otherwise I'd do that and put it in my pants and fly to the UK


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