How to transfer money to an account on Cyprus as quick as possible?

Question

I am a Russian resident currently living on Cyprus. I should provide to local authorities a bank guarantee showing a reasonable amount of money.

I know about finances literally nothing, so I was quite naïve and just went to local bank and created an account. After it had been created I've been told that a non-resident on Cyprus can not just take some cash and put it to the account - all transactions must be cashless.

This was the first surprise. The second was that I can not just transfer money from Russia - I should inform Russian tax service about foreign account. The third surprise was that this actually can take weeks - I can not submit any form via internet, I should write a letter.

My question is: How can I transfer a small amount of money (~1000 Euro actually) to a bank account in Cyprus.

My first thought was paypal. But it looks like there are two issues which make this solution doubtful. First, there's no any card issued for my cyprus account - it will be issued after it will be money on the account. And I don't know whether it possible to attach a bank account to paypal, not a card. Second, as far as I understand, paypal temporarily takes 1$ for account verification, and I just have no a single idea how can I put quickly even a dollar to this account.

So I would really appreciate if someone more experienced will give me advice.

Answer 1

I can only imagine the regulatory difficulty you're going through, and for that I empathize.

First, bankers everywhere mostly do not know if a bank policy is due to regulation or internal rules. Other banks may be more flexible, but only the most reputable should be used.

Re Paypal, they first deposit 1 USD and then withdraw it, but things may be different in Cyprus. Also, Paypal now has debit cards, so if Paypal is permitted to issue cards in Russia then it could presumably be used in Cyprus. Again, local regulation notwithstanding. Paypal now has phone support at the very back of their site, so I suggest a call to them.

In countries that permit, Western Union can be used to wire money into an account from cash.

The Bitcoin route should be used as a last resort. You could wake up tomorrow losting 25% easy. The regulations are a distant second compared to this problem.

With all of the above methods, there will be varying delays from days to weeks.

Answer 2

You can transfer the money from your bank in Russia to Cyprus by sending a Wire Transfer. You provide your account number and SWIFT code for the Cyprus account to your Russian bank and pay the associated fees on both end for it and it will be done. No need to use Bitcoin or anything too complicated. I believe you are overthinking this.

Answer 3

Bitcoin can facilitate this, despite the risks associated with using bitcoin exchanges and the price volatility at any given time. The speed of bitcoin can limit your exposure to the bitcoin network to one hour.

Cyprus has a more advanced infrastructure than most countries to support bitcoin transactions, with Neo & Bee opening as a regulated bank/financial entity in Cyprus just two months ago, and ATM/Vending Machines existing for that asset.

Anyway, you acquire bitcoin from an individual locally (in exchange for cash) or an exchange that does not require the same level of reporting as a bank account in Cyprus or Russia. No matter how you acquire the bitcoin, you transfer it to the exchange, sell bitcoin on the exchange for your desired currency (USD, EURO, etc), you instruct the exchange to wire the EURO to your cyprus bank account using your cyprus account's SWIFT code. The end.

Depending on the combination of countries involved, the exchange may still encounter similar withdrawal limitations until certain regulatory requirements are resolved.

Also, I'm unsure of the attitude toward bitcoin related answers on this site, so I tried to add a disclaimer about bitcoin's risks at the top, but that doesn't make this answer incorrect.

Answer 4

If you are a Russian citizen a much easier and common solution would be a USD or EUR withdrawal from your Webmoney account to your Cyprus bank account. You will need to create a Webmoney account (www.webmoney.ru), get a primary certificate in your local Webmoney office in Russia (The list is available at the website), create WMZ (for USD) and WME (for EURO) accounts in Webmoney (done online). Then you can easily top up your Webmoney WMR (Rubles) account (created automatically) with Rubles, convert the sum into USD (According to the Webmoney rate, which is only slightly different from the official central bank rate) and then withdraw the money from your USD Webmoney account to your Cyprus bank account. The money will be transfered to your Cyprus bank account from UK Webmoney dealer. The transaction description would say that this sum is transfered according to the contract of sale of securities.

This method prevents any Russian regulatory authorities from seeing your transactions. And the best thig in Webmoney is that they have stable exchange rates and they use classic currencies such as USD, RUR, EUR, etc. Webmoney also has WMG accounts (Gold) and WMX accounts (Bitcoin). Non-Russian residents can also open a Webmoney accounts. You can get one even in Cyprus, by the way:)