Yeah, and we'd really miss you vincenzo, so take heed!

Doesn't this say it all?

"I fear that US customs will invent some reason to seize it from me."

Atitude is everything, just saying....

Skillfully trolled, OP!

As I said earlier, "I don't believe it has anything to do with money." Whether deluded, or as NewbE says, a waste of our time either way, though I we do volunteer to waste it.

What I see is that there are a lot of people here who think working without cash makes them superior. What you are, however, is sheep.

Jayne--the "cashless society" is a totalitarian society. What you see on display here are people who are sheep and who have submitted to this. They could have ignored my question (they obviously don't know the answer) but instead post to preen, to prove something, to try to show that they are good and proper people and that I may be one of the "Russian agents" they heard about on the news, who is subverting America or something. It's pathetic.

>> It's pathetic.something is pathetic about both of your threads . . .

<It's just that they always grill you when you reenter.>

I have never once been "grilled" by customs coming back into the US. You might want to figure out why that always happens to you.

"You might want to figure out why that always happens to you."

Because he obviously isn't a sheep. I have to say, though, there is something to be said for appearing to be sheep. It means we who appear to be can carry our wads of cash from nefarious sources wherever we wish without being "grilled" (lamb chops anyone?) or found out for whatever we really are. So OP, who loves to not look like sheep, gets caught, and we who appear to be sheep slip quietly through. I'm liking how this is going, very much.

Sorry - this has gone way off the rails of any practical reason to carry all that cash.

Obviously this is some hobbyhorse of yours - that the government is trying to control us through the use of credit cards (I've been using them for 40 years and never had a problem, never mind the government controlling me). And we are all becoming sheep (I don;t feel particularly sheeplike.)

So what is really going on is that you have some sort of mania about this and that probably shows when you get to customs. I can't imagine you are pleasant and cooperative - and so you are going to be asked questions until they are satisfied.

If this makes you somehow feel freer than carrying a credit card or a debit card, go for it. But don;t be surprised when it causes questions.

As for the "abusive" questions, the Immigration person asking why you are coming to the country (vacation or business) and how long you will be staying, are perfectly normal questions - as is US Immigration asking where you were and why. The real reason they do this is to see who seems very nervous or reacts inappropriately. My guess is that you do both and end up causing yourself a lot of trouble, since your mania on this issue bubbles to the surface. (And I don;t believe for a moment all of these other people who are "abused", think you are making it all up.)

If you continue to travel this way - well, that's your business. But if I were you I would head for a therapist and find out what is really bothering you.

I would not be surprised if he thinks therapists are government agents out to control us Serenity-style...

The real question is what he thinks of the DMV. Or the administration at his "top US News" university, because I've met some professors with real interesting theories about that

$10,000 in twenties is 500 bills.

A ream of bills.

There are so many holes in his story. I mean - if you leave the country with $10,000, don't use credit or debit cards, how do you return with $10,000 especially since he boasts of long travels. Not making much sense. Some of his statements would suggest he hasn't traveled much. Makes for interesting reading.

I sense this excursion of hobby horses and sheep and wolves in sheeps' skin through reams of $20 bills and comments is winding down.
I just wish I were part black sheep ... instead of a bald head I'd have a full head of black curly hair like I used to have back when I was in college when I was used to sneaking all sorts of contraband around...

Ok elbegewa, now that was funny!

Ok in honesty and I not sure why I didn't remember in my post above but yes I was asked once how much money I was carrying. It was strange as it was on my return trip home after having my card cloned in Scotland. It so far has been the only time I was asked and I had no problem telling the agent how my money got stolen over there. I think he was sorry for asking because he waved me through before I finished my story. Maybe this was the question to ask last summer in Newark.

Sass: >> Careful. You may be getting close to being banned. LOL.

This thread has been highly entertaining

I've been asked lots of questions at US immigration - where I've been, why I went, etc. But I can't remember ever being asked about money. I always get more questions when I travel alone than with others though. Once I was asked a lot more questions than I usually am - I had been to Madrid to give a software training course to some Spanish engineers, and so that's what I said when asked. I guess this was an odd answer, so more questions followed. What do you do for a living? Aren't there people in Spain who can give this class? Why did you have to go? Why are you involved in software if you are a mechanical engineer? So, not seeing an end to the questioning, I went into geek-professor mode and just started explaining what what our software does and how electric utilities use it - and no one who is not an engineer (or perhaps a scientist) ever wants to hear these details. After about a minute, the agent's eyes started to glaze over and he was done with the questioning

From the original post, "...I know this topic must interest some people."

Or maybe not, although a good enough excuse for entertaining ourselves, it seems. I'm always amazed at how a thread can take off, even as here, when no one has anything of much value in the way poor old guyanantigua I imagine was hoping. Fodor's would be poorer, though, without the occasional outlier.

Good tactic, November moon!

MmePerdu, I think we had a lot of useful info for the OP if he could actually take it in rather than being stuck in his paranoia. Oh well - we tried. And some of the meandering in response was entertaining!