I got my bags packed on a roll heading out there and I'm ready to go looking real good

in my passport photo.

Amateur Traveler episode 408 today the Amateur Traveler episode 408. Today the Amateur Traveler talks about desert, oasis, and unexpected

ruins as we go to Sudan. Welcome to the amateur traveler. I'm your host Chris Christensen. Before we get into

this week's interview I do have two news stories for you and this time they're

both about banking and their odd stories. The first one comes from Cuba. Cuba

cut off all travel from the US. And the problem was that they couldn't find a bank that

would work with them. That's right, they couldn't find a bank that would work with the entire country to process the visa fees that are collected and routed to Cuba.

That may or may not be related to another story about banking, which is that Americans are renouncing their U.S. citizenship in record

numbers.

And by record numbers, usually that number is about 500 a year and has jumped to 3,000.

And the reason for that is that new regulation that is supposed to keep people

from hiding money overseas and not paying US taxes because the US is one country that does

tax you even if you live overseas, has made a number of foreign banks decide they

simply don't want to take the money from U.S. expats, and so some of those have decided to renounce

their citizenship. For links to both of those stories check out the show notes

at amateur traveler. I'm my own sponsor again this week for amateur traveler again

again if you're thinking about getting a new credit card check out amateur traveler

dot com slash credit cards for credit cards that are good for travelers.

You'll find on what I use there, which is the Chase Sapphire card.

You'll also find some good deals in terms of airline miles who get if you sign up for a new card.

Amateur Traveler.com slash credit card.

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