Money Problems!

This unattractive picture was the photo I took to document what I thought was a “soon-to-be-over” money issue that needed to be resolved before we landed in Cuba. I took this picture after I sent Kapil a photo of the cab certification number. Yes, I left my hand-luggage and the kids with Kapil, exited the airport, and grabbed an emergency cab to go to a Mexican bank. Read on for the full story—I’ll try to do the craziness, literary justice.

Background:

Our initial post-Guatemala plan included a visit to Nicaragua (still on our bucket list), but unfortunately, the country has been struggling with civil unrest and violence in rioting against the sitting President for the past several months. Though we watched with baited breath before we left the US, we had to call it and choose an alternate path. Fortunately, the new path led us to a destination I have dreamt of visiting for over 12 years—Cuba!

After a phone call some excellent guidance from ExclusivelyCuba.com, out of Florida, USA, we began our journey and knew we would need to finalize the Cuba plan as we traveled. We were warned that Cuba is a closed, cash economy and that because of the US-Cuban relations (or lack thereof), US banks and cards would not be recognized, but we hadn’t finalized on the set amount until several days before our flight.

The Plan(s):

Once we knew how much we needed, our plan was to go to a large bank in Antigua, Guatemala, and pull out a sum of cash in Canadian dollars (as we knew that currency could be exchanged once in Cuba). However, once we got to the bank, and waited patiently in each of the dual line systems (one for cash and one for more complicated matters), we learned that they did not carry Canadian dollars and at a ratio of $7Qs (Quetzales) to $1USD, getting USDs over $1,000 was not an option. I decided to do some additional research to see if Quetzales were exchanged in Cuba and decided to return to the bank another day.

Our research yielded the new plan—though less than ideal (because we would lose money through exchanges)--we would pull out Quetzales from the Guatemalan bank, exchange them into Canadian dollars at the Guatemalan airport, and then exchange the Canadian dollars again into Cuban CUCs once we arrived. There was only one problem with the plan--safety. Before our flight out of Guatemala, we were going to be spending two nights in Guatemala City, known for its theft crimes against tourists.

To mitigate the issue, we called our bank from Guatemala City (just to make sure we were within the appropriate withdrawal limits) and they assured us that we should be able to go to a Visa cashier/bank in our layover location, Mexico City to pull out the funds we needed. Perfecto! This new plan would save us a little bit of money and a conversion headache, because the Cuban government recognized Mexican Pesos!

The Drama:

We landed in Mexico, completed Mexican customs and re-check-in process, and then went out to the terminal. There were money exchange kiosks every few feet which was great! Simple, right? There was one small hiccup…none of the kiosks took cards of any kind. We decided to settle the kids with Kapil while I checked out the banks in the airport.

Two of the three banks showed the Visa symbol but only allowed funds to be dispersed through the ATM machine which had a limit of $300USD. We needed more than $600USD for the week for our family of five! I asked if any bank in the airport would take the Visa card in-person and exceed the machine limit. They advised that perhaps if I went into Mexico City. I called Kapil (thanks to T-Mobile) and we made a game-time decision. We had a little less than three hours and I had some Mexican Pesos (as we did convert our on-hand cash which we knew would be enough for lunches and dinners in Cuba), so I was going to take a taxi out of the airport to a bank while Kapil fed the kids breakfast, as we had left our hotel at 3am that morning). I met a kind taxi driver who partnered with me on the issue and drove me to the nearest HSBC bank.

The bank informed me that no bank in Mexico City would take a foreign bank’s Visa card in-person and that I would be subject to the ATM machine’s daily limits….and meanwhile, every ATM I tried had issues with the machine itself (i.e. card stuck, not enough money, I felt my stress level escalate immediately and Kapil, the taxi driver, and I started working on simultaneous plans: 1) Call our banks/cards, after all we were American Express and Visa’s preferred travel customers, 2) Figure out if we can push back our flight or even what our options would be if we could not make it in Cuba, 3) Find check-cashing places where I could write myself a personal check.

Banks and cards could not help though I was transferred to Global Assistance and Customer Service. With American Express, I made the mistake of expressing my urgency regarding our impending “travel  to Cuba” and that set off all kinds of statements and notations. They were no longer allowed to help me due to Cuban-US relations. Kapil learned that it would cost us over $2,000 to cancel or change our travel plans (direct/indirect costs) and my taxi driver thought he found one option at Walmart over an hour away. I followed-up on the taxi driver’s idea, by having him stop at two more banks where I asked about his Walmart idea and begged for them to find any solution. I learned that the Walmart and check-cashing options were only available to Mexican bank accounts so that wasn’t going to work. Darn! All three back-up plans were busted. ☹

Now what? I called our guide (and now dear friend) Maria Rosa to see if we should cancel Cuba. She assured us that we would find a Western Union solution once in Cuba and to continue as planned. She said she would cover us until we figured it out! With a prayer and a family hug, we boarded the plane to Cuba.

The Drama, Continued:

Once in beautiful Cuba (separate post coming just on Cuba), we contacted my cousins in the UK to see if we could get a Western Union transfer (from somewhere other than the US). Keep in mind that we had extremely limited internet, no cell ability, and a huge time difference, so all of the communication was happening over the first few days. Bless their hearts…they tried twice from the UK and even in Dubai through my cousin-in-law…all attempts were to no avail. Western Union said that they would only transfer the funds to Guantanamo military base which was not possible to enter and was like 10 hours away.

My parents then joined the effort and went to a Western Union in California where they were told that they do these transfers all the time, so long as I am a blood relative! Fantastic! It might take multiple transactions, but money for our home stay, tours, car/driver, and breakfasts would soon arrive…or so we thought!

When we went to “receive” the first transfer from Western Union (in Cuba), we were told that this was only for Cuban nationals or residents and as soon as the passport number was entered into the system, the Western Union transaction would be cancelled, according to a new post-Trump US-Cuba issue. We tried twice but failed again. By now it was day 4 of 7 and it seemed that we would have to have Maria Rosa meet us somewhere else along our trip to collect the money!

The Solution:

Maria Rosa mentioned that her fiancé, Lerdo had a brother in Florida who transferred money to the family via Western Union. We devised a plan for us to transfer the funds from our bank account to Lerdo’s brother and then he could do a Western Union transaction to them. Bingo!

Then came the next obstacle! Chase Bank does not allow internet access or application access from Cuba! What? Same issue with PayPal or any other money transferring tool! Sheesh. I leaned on the only other person who I know does not take “no” for an answer and knows enough to be “Aila” when needed—my colleague and the Operations Manager of my company, Natalie Reynolds!

I emailed Natalie and asked her to transfer money to Lerdo’s brother. Do to the spotty internet connection, I was short with my email and signed off. Well, rightfully, that was not enough for Natalie and the team. They were sure this was a scam and emailed/texted me to verify my identity, asked me questions only I would know about previous work memories (to ensure someone didn’t have my phone), talked to my parents to verify the issue, and then waited for picture posts to ensure I wasn’t kidnapped! Shameless Plug: You can always count on Venture Leadership Consulting to do thorough problem-solving work!

Day 6 (of 7) we received confirmation of the transfer of funds. By then, we were already spending time at Maria Rosa and Lerdo’s home and concocting plans to meet again! This was one gnarly problem for the books and we were so relieved to finally have a solution—though it took us over a full week to resolve (including Guatemala)!

Bottom Line:

All is well that ends well and for last minute trips to Cuba when you are already out of the USA, plan for cash well-ahead of 10 days!

A Note Gratitude To The Following Team: Aysha Malik, Shumaila Malik, Haroon Ahmad, my dad and mom--Saeed & Bhoomija Malik, Natalie Reynolds, and Dave Cattivera (and all other family and friends sharing our concern)! A special guilt-trip shout-out to my sister Ayesha and her boyfriend Mike who were not able to join us on this trip—you were missed!