Best place to exchange Brazilian reals to USD when leaving Brazil?

Hi Victoria,

Just like everything else here in Brazil exchanging currency is fraught with bureaucracy because of strict regulation by the Central Bank.

You can't exchange money at just any old bank branch, it must have a "Cambio". Travel agencies here can't do it either unless they're registered as Cambios too.

Your best, quickest and most convenient way is to use one of the several Currency Exchanges (Cambios) at the airport. Since your profile doesn't indicate exactly where in Brazil you are it's impossible for me to tell you if there is a Cambio located anywhere near you.

The rate of exchange you pay is going to be the same at all of them anyway, so it really doesn't matter where you exchange your reais, you will get exactly the same amount.

If you'd rather not do financial transactions at the airport for security reasons and you're in a major city São Paulo, Rio, Belo Horizonte then you may want to check out the webpage for Confidence Cambio and see if they've got a location near you. I've dealt with them a lot and they're quite helpful.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

Thank you, James! 

If you had an opportunity to exchange some BRL into USD at a rate of 4 BRL to 1 USD, would you? (The exchange rate as of this post is 3.84 BRL to 1 USD.) I will need some of the $ to spend while I'm in the U.S.

Also, what is the maximum amount of "undeclared" cash (in either BRL or USD) that can be carried on a flight from Brazil to the US? I believe that when entering the US, I don't have to declare anything if the amount I'm carrying is less than $10,000 US.  If there are two of us from the same family boarding the same flight, may each person carry $10,000 US? What about when departing from Brazil? Any information would be much appreciated as the information I found online didn't seem very reliable! Thank you!

Hi Victoria,

First of all don't forget that the R$3.84 is today's rate on the US (tourism) dollar. Why in the world would you pay more than that??? Is this an under the table, no hassles, exchange with somebody you know that would make that extra charge attractive??? (despite not completely Kosher)

You are allowed to take cash in an amount LESS THAN R$10 thousand (BRL) out of the country without charges, however any amount must be declared, so don't make the mistake of not doing so. The limit is exactly the same as for bank transfers.

Is there any way you can arrange for your bank here to simply make a number of transfers over a period of time, all for R$9999.00? Wouldn't that be much safer than risking carrying large amounts of cash?

Also, be extremely cautious if not dealing with a bank or currency exchange because there's probably more counterfeit US currency floating around in Brazil than there is counterfeit Brazilian currency.

Cheers,
James   Expat-blog Experts Team

My husband and I went to a local Caixa branch today and exchanged some reals into U.S. dollars at a rate of 3.96, but once the fees and taxes were thrown in, the rate of exchange was closer to 3.995.    Also, at this particular branch, they only allowed each person to exchange $1000 US at a time, so if we want to exchange more than that, we'll need to go back again tomorrow.

The exchange rate at Caixa was lower than the rates at Itau and Santander.

Hi, James,
How an american can cash his check  from  US treasure here in Brasil.
By the way Iam brasilian trying to help him, that is it.
Please, help.
tks.