What do you mean by that?

In one of the Thailand threads Charles Schwab was mentioned as a good option because you can exchange currencies and withdraw from ATMs without fees, however I don't think they actually have branches in Brazil. I think, however, HSBC may be what you were thinking of: they have branches in almost every country and you can easily transfer funds from your Brazil account to your US account, or wherever. Ideally you'd be able to open an account in the US, then add a Brazil account without doing anything extra. Which would be nice, I don't know if anyone's actually done that and succeeded yet. I'll need to contact HSBC. I would feel much happier if that were not the only option.

I dunno abt brasil, the way you wanna go about it is:
1. Ask what you need for a residency card and how it looks? Check if it is ok with neteller. If its not then:
2. Ask if u can get a local drivers license based on ur Us one, if yes get it. If no:
3. Tell them u wanna take a drivers exam, say u have no drivers licence or lost it. Pay and take exam. Drivers licences dont have nationality on it usually
So should work in almost all countries

This is to asnwer to Cafe Noir questions and general thoughts about the logistics of poker in Brazil.

It is a grey area about the legality of poker in Brazil. Poker is allowed in private clubs, where there can be no rake. This is legal. However, every single club charges a 5% uncapped rake, which would be illegal. But everyone plays, there is no problem with that.

About cashing out: neteller is a much better option than moneybookers. The easiest thing to do here, is to exchange your poker credits online with someone who will pay you in cash. Very very easy. The demand for poker credits online is much higher then the supply of poker credits (where winning poker players are the supply). When you exchange your poker credits, you NEVER EVER get a bad rate. The worst rate you can get is the official one. Now its 1.65 worst case (actual rate is 1.62), but you might get as much as 1.70, 1.80 or 1.90 on your money.

I do not know how hard it is for a foreigner to open an account, but I do not think that it will require all these documents that are being discussed in the topic. I think that with a passport, anyone should be able to open a basic checking account. Seems common sense to me.

I think 40s might not be giving right information for you guys.

Having a CPF is like having a Social Security Card is the U.S. I would say I am 90% sure that no one needs a CPF to open a Brazilian account. This just seems stupid.

You will need your passport, proof of living (not being a resident, just your lease contract) and that should be it.

I dont think anyone is a super hurry to move here or anything. So next time I go to the bank, I will ask at Itau (biggest bank in brazil) and bradesco (2nd biggest) how hard it is for a foreigner to open an account.

I should prolly go to these 2 banks within the month and I will post here.

Well.. ill try to make it clear and show my sources.

for example: http://www.bb.com.br/docs/pub/voce/d...taCorrente.pdf

here, in page 3 it tells how a foreigner open a bank account in Banco do Brasil (brazils first bank - 001)

"Foreigners can open an account in Banco do Brasil, as long they are residents in Brazil. They need the following documents:
ID document
CPF
Proof of income
Proo of residence
Foreigner national card - this may be, temporarly, substituted by other documents to make the process faster"

sorry about my english...but i guess i made it clear.

I will show an other source. HSBC, since its a global bank, its always good to mention too.. but i will be short in this one:

source: http://www.hsbc.com.br/1/2/portal/pt...tas-frequentes

just look at number 3 "CPF number"

where I can find a site that isn't only vacation rent, with pictures and prices of the houses?
just to have an idea of what kind of house I can get with the price I can pay

fmorgen recommended me this: http://www.portaldeimoveiscamboriu.c...?urlcode=64Ebq

it looks pretty good.. its in portuguese tho..

I am one of few americans who is already back online. I moved within days to Thailand, and now have my account back. however I am not planning on living here long term... since I already have my account open and running, I am looking for a place to go. This sounds interesting to say the least.

This link that 40s posted, http://www.portaldeimoveiscamboriu.c...?urlcode=64Ebq is the best one to look at places here in Balneário.

I would suggest you guys have some places in mind, but come here and stay at a hotel for 5 or 10 days to look at the places yourself. Also, consult with me whether a nice-looking apartment is well located or if there is some ´catch´ to it.

Filter like that,

Location leave it: 1- Santa Catarina, Balneário Camboriú, Qualquer Bairro
2- Apartarmento or Casa, I would strongly suggest an apartment more than a house. You can find some really nice houses, but will you probably need a car for everything. If you get an apartment, everythig can be done within walking distance.
3- Locação

Obs: choose ´locação´ only. That means regular rent.

I would also suggest you guys download from a torrent or something rosetta stone in portuguese. Very similiar language to Spanish (some knowledge os spanish will def. help). But its good to learn the basics.

Also, the prices shown as advertised on the site are usually negotiable and would probably be a little less than advertised.

Regarding the site for apartments...

Under ´´Qualquer Bairro´´ - go there and choose BARRA SUL, and then do another search with BARRA NORTE. This will save some time searching.

pretty interested as wellfor nov1

dude ya this is sweet

wow umn this place seems great

get back to me

kinda specific question: is this a good place for mountainbiking? especially single trail/offroad?

I dont know... You should probably research on google or bike forums.

summer 2009 i tried to open a bank acct at more than one brazilian bank with no success. had passport/reais/dollars/other form of id/local address from apartment rental. i needed the resident card thingy and those are very hard to get. i used citi, itau, banco real, hsbc (i was an existing citi member in the usa at the time as well)

dont think brazil is an option unless you set up a bank acct in another country (meaning you have your stars acct up and verified prior to getting there), or you have the 125-150k (or w/e it is now) to just "buy" residency


this seems like an amazing destination though

^ Do you know if you would have the same issue with HSBC as you would with Citi? That is, could you open an HSBC account somewhere else, then call up HSBC and tell them you want the Brazilian version of their service also?

About having a bank account:

If it is that hard to get a Brazilian bank account, this is what you can do and not need a Brazilian bank account ever:

Theoretically, it would be bad to have a Brazilian bank account and money flowing through it without any explanation to back it up. So not having a Brazilian bank account is actually not bad. You can do everything you want to with paper money, and buy whatever with you international credit cards when necessary.

You can just have your international credit card, which can be used at an ATM machine to get money in case of an emergency.

Your poker money online can be very easily exchange for Brazilian currency at any time. For that, you need to find a person who is looking for online money to buy. Because of this dynamic, there are ´´middle-men´´ who know a lot of people from both sides, and they are always, ALWAYS, looking for winning players who want to sell their online money for paper money. The demand is much much higher than the supply. There are deposit methods for Brazilians, but Brazilian fish want to buy more money online than they are allowed to deposit. Therefore, the need for these middle-men, which makes it extremely easy to turn any amount of online money into paper. By any amount I mean up to 5k online. If you want to turn 100k online into paper, it might take 2 weeks or 1 month.

I can very easily help anyone with that, and introduce you guys to these middle-men, very reputable, who have been doing this since poker got started in Brazil (5 years or so)

hsbc has premier services but those are for ppl 100k+ and i honestly have no idea about how those work. theres a lengthy discussion about hsbc in hsnl which you should check out


ive been to brazil and have stayed there for an extended period of time. youre right, there are plenty of ATMs and access to money was easy. i'm a member of some brazilian forums and i'm aware that the chip buying/selling is a huge industry so getting my money off wouldnt be a concern


the concern with the bank account, is as an american, pokerstars requires us to have a non-US bank account in order to open our accounts to begin playing with. that's simply not possible for poker players moving without a lot of liquid capital (<150k)



for ppl like prodigalson who already has a non-US account setup in thailand, or other non-US players looking for a chill vacation spot, this is an ideal grind spot. i just didnt want a bunch of americans to think theyd be able to roll up here and grind for 6mos with no issues

solid info there fmorgen- really helpful. Any more info about the area you could elaborate on? People generally friendly there etc.- are grocery shops decent? Seems like a pretty nice area

Just to add to this: While you're allowed to wire money to any account you want (as long as it's not US!) once your account is in order, you need a bank account in the country you're residing to send you a bank statement to confirm your account and get your ability to withdraw back. So you don't need to actually use the bank account for regular transactions, but to change your address to "Brazil" requires a bank account.

Hahahahaha can I come?

People are very very friendly in this town. Brazilians are already friendly in general. But I think that because this is a resort town, it makes people even more friendly than average.

Everything is very decent. About grocery, there are two big supermakerts, and many small ones. These 2 big ones, one is Wal-Mart (its actually a subsidiary of Wal-Mart called BIG), the other one is Angeloni, which is a big chain of supermarkets in the entire south region of Brazil.

Any more questions or concerns, just let me know.

Demorou pra vir hein Bruno!!! A hora que vc quiser, é só colar aí!!

Não sabe o que tá perdendo. Tem jogado bastante?

Abs!!