With our standard of living improving and airlines giving good deals, more and more people are travelling overseas to see their children or for holidaying. Dual income couples (DINCO) being on the rise and with aggressive marketing by tour operators, there is no end to holiday destinations and no limit on amount of money to spend.

Remember a few tips before you embark on your journey:
1)    Every Bangladeshi is allowed USD5000 per annum as travel allowance to countries other than SAARC and another USD1500for SAARC countries. This can be broken down into smaller amounts over the year for various journeys. Your Bank Manager will advise you as to how much of it you can take in cash dollars and how much in TC.  Those who have dual currency credit card can also have the travel quota of foreign exchange entered on their passports against their credit cards. The Bank issuing the credit card will do this as a free service at the beginning of each calendar year.
2)    If you have an RFCD (Resident Foreign Currency Account entitled to all Bangladeshi nationals) you can also take foreign currency from there over and above your travel quota. Your RFCD account can be funded with USD5000 (or equivalent in other currencies) every time you come back from an international trip carrying this amount– this has to be deposited within a certain period of time (ask your Branch Manager). It is an extremely useful account to have as you can remit funds from there to your children or other family members living overseas.
3)    The USD 5000 that you are allowed to bring in (without declaration) when returning from a trip can also be taken out freely when you are embarking on a new journey.
4)    In my opinion the best way to spend money overseas is by using a credit card, most commercial banks in Bangladesh will be happy to issue you a dual currency card (after completing all formalities) – the card will be issued against your travel quota or your RFCD account and this can be used overseas for your purchases, restaurant bills etc. The reason why I prefer the card is because it is safe (of course you have to take precautions to keep it with you all the time) and in the rare event that it gets stolen, lost or misplaced you can block it. Most importantly, please remember if you are carrying big amounts of cash (sometimes over USD10,000 especially to USA) and even though you declare it, you will still remain in the 'alert list' of the customs officials. Recently someone I know went to see her children in USA – she declared the amount at the US Customs and at the time of her departure after a month, just as she was about to board the plane she was asked to step aside by two uniformed officials. She was politely asked as to what she did with the amount of cash that she brought in. She obviously had valid satisfactory answers and she was wished a pleasant journey.
5)    The point I am trying to make is big amounts of 'cash' is always seen as a suspicious mode of currency as tracking it is difficult, unlike a credit card transaction which is immediately recorded. Why go through these moments of being interrogated? Why not make life easier for us and get used to credit cards. Of course we should all carry small amounts of cash for taxi fares, small purchases etc.
6)    Finally, always follow strict rules set out by the Central Bank – carry whatever you are entitled to and don't break  any laws….