Deciphering the Problems of Sending Money to Cuba
The United States has tight restrictions in place when it comes to any business transactions or travel from the U.S. to Cuba, but even with that, it still is not impossible to send money to Cuba.
It’s difficult to figure out how much money is transferred into Cuba on a yearly basis, but many independent groups say between 490 million to one billion is sent to Cuba in one year. But don’t let that number fool you, it is a lot considering only people with relatives may wire money at a $300 limit per transaction. U.S. citizens can, however, move money into Cuba every three months for up to $1,200.00 a year.
Although U.S. officials are alert to the illegal ways to send money to Cuba, not much is being done about it. George Bush’s administration had the biggest affect over the last few years, but even still they were incapable of slowing the money trafficking from the U.S. to Cuba.
So now the U.S. is led by President Obama, whose administration looks to the U.S. relationship with Cuba. It is unclear how this will affect money transfer services in the future, but at the least we know it can only get easier in with every passing day.
Don’t be mistaken though, despite the rules on sending money into Cuba, the easiest way is still by exporting the funds using the internet. Besides that, senders may also use different services which are not associated with U.S. banks, so they are not forced to abide by any any of the U.S. embargoes in place.
Even despite the sanctions, people needing to wire money to Cuba have the same options other nations do. And the expanding internet is making it even easier to wire money, considering Cuba’s Government lacks the resources to track all the transactions.
Most likely, the trade embargoes imposed by the U.S. are deciding factor as to why the Cuban government has such a difficult time when it comes to tracking money flow into Cuba. This presents a difficult situation because if the sanctions are withdrawn, money transfers would be completely legal and the Cuban Government would be able to use the technology needed to trace all money transfers into Cuba.
Regardless of what things look like in the months to come, one thing is clear; people will not cease sending money to Cuba. It’s getting more straightforward for Americans to transfer money to Cuba these days, and someday the trade embargoes will even be removed. When the day comes money-flow into Cuba will drastically grow, in addition Cuba will discover quite an accumulation of business dollars. Until then, the internet remains the best way to send money.
Category: From the Editor
