Making final wedding payments abroad in cash

Beetree17

Hello,

I get married in 4 weeks in Portugal. So far I've made payments and deposits through my bank but some of the suppliers have requested the final chunk of money to be paid in cash at our pre-wedding meeting / on the day.

By the time I've added it all up its looking like €4000 odd in cash floating around in separate envelopes which doesn't fill me with confidence.

Has anyone got any advice on the best way to do it please?

Thank you

alanq

I would be concerned about this for several reasons including:

Banks getting suspicious of money laundering.

The risk of being robbed of a large sum of cash.

The risk of suppliers not providing a service that has been paid for. Unlike with credit card payments, bank transfers as cash payments give the payer no protection against fraud or bankruptcy.

If the cash payment is in order for the supplier to evade paying tax there is a risk that the payer could be accused of aiding and abetting.

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5970500/paying-cash-for-a-wedding-abroad

PRAISETHESUN

I'd probably avoid if you can - insist that the rest of the money be paid by other methods, such as bank transfer or debit/credit card if possible. If not, I'd reconsider if you could afford to lose the 4k if things went wrong

18cc

There is not the slightest chance of money laundering coming up for the sake of 4k in euros for a wedding.

Go to your bank and order them. Or online - you get better rates. Sainsbury and PO used to do good rates. Any questions tell them you are getting married abroad.

mrmajika

It's not ideal to be carrying such a large quantity of cash around I suppose, but to counter some (IMHO far fetched) arguments made by previous posters.

Money laundering flags at UK banks are in place for large cash deposits. Withdrawing a £3k for a wedding should not trigger any such suspicion.

Whilst I don't know of the Portuguese legal system, to suggest that you'd somehow be implicated as assisting tax evasion by settling a bill in cash seems ludicrous to me.

A good compromise may be to take some euros at the best rate possible then look to withdraw some whilst there, bearing in mind your travel card's limits. You might need several travel cards to achieve this.