Brazil by bus

Keep in mind: If you book bus tickets via BrazilBusTravel, you will pay app. 40 % more. We ended up paying 80 US for a 45 dollar trip just being too ignorant to walk to the bus station (where you can buy the tickets with credit card, too)! When asked their reply about their price : "Brazillian government taxes 25% on foreign transactions, exchange risk spread 15-20% and fraud insurance 10%". These extra charges are not visible on their web site. From now on we walk to the bus station. Or take a helicopter...

Thanks Palohevo, great tip.

What ?
Bus tickets are sold at the bus station ?
Its outrageous that nobody told me that before.

Thats outrageous. I cannot believe that bus tickets can be brought at the station.

On a serious note, you are using a third party to book tickets therefore you will always pay more for your tickets.

Lol. Okay. To set the record straight, the Brazilian government charges 6% on foreign transactions, not 25%.

Either way, resellers will mark up the price, always. The same with the carnaval tickets. Sometimes it's reasonable (a 5-10% markup, or a 25 R$ administrative fee), and sometimes it isn't (these bus tickets, the carnaval tickets).

Thanks Palohevo, great tip.

Yes, quite a revelation that one can purchase bus tickets at a bus station. Leningrad Cowboys Go Novo Rio.

Take the Corisco challenge. Try searching the archives and see if you come up with less than 100 posts on bus travel in Brazil where the advice is to buy in person at the bus station in say 20 minutes.

Oh and Andrew is right, the government does not charge 25% on such purchases.

Really funny, wise guys (or girls). Of course a middleman will take his share, but 40-45% is outragious without a information about it on the page. Buying (not bringing, trent84) a bus ticket on a bus station and specially using CREDIT CARD is outrageous in many countries, you'll learn when you travel more.

This is the most amusing post in quite some time.
Definition of "naive". or The Gringo Tax redux.
(At least the OP didn't think his "big news" should be preserved in the FAQ.)

In Salvador, you don't even have to go to the bus station. Just call the bus company and for R$3, someone delivers the ticket and collects the money (the same rate as at the bus station) from your hotel/hostel front desk person, while you play tourist or go to the beach.

@corisco--#1 is one a yours. :-)

Strange as it might sound I'm not actually Finnish.

They don't teach number literacy in Oz?
(#1, the back patter, not the OP)

Now that I think about it a bit more, I don't think the government charges any taxes at all on incoming international money. The 6% is on outgoing money (not all, but most consumer transfers, such as cash exchange or card use).

Ontopic: I don't think it's very fair to make fun of the OP. Yes, this forum repeatedly advises people to buy tickets at the bus station, where it's cheaper. But this third party is clearly ripping people off with a huge upmark. I have bought plenty of bus tickets online, and get charged a minor administration fee. It is not insane to expect your service to have a cost, but that that cost be reasonable. The only thing the OP didn't do is verify the scruples of this third party service. Sure, he/she should have checked, but it's not a completely stupid mistake as some here are implying. Also, this post is clearly aimed at helping future tourists avoid this shitty service, something we should be applauding instead of bashing. Lets not act as if this is some glorious victory of Brazilian inventiveness. It's a shitty con artist who should be chased out of business.

But it might be useful for people new to Brazil to know that when you buy the ticket at the bus station a day or two ahead they will want to see your passport or a copy of it. I forgot to take the passport copy when buying a ticket at the Ouro Preto bus station to go to Rio a day later and so had to walk down the hill and back up again. Those of you who have been there will know that it's rather steep (and our hotel was down below the main square).

What would be the reason for not buying a ticket with no markup at the bus station?
Discomfort with the Portuguese language? Developed-world dependence on internet booking? Both?
IMO neither serves the traveler in Brazil well.

Failure to do sufficient due diligence to understand this, and then complaining about the result, is likely what frustrates experienced Brazil hands here.
The term Gringo Tax exists for a reason.

What is relevant to know is that no Brazilian leaves home without ID, by law iirc (correct me if I am wrong), in case of a police stop. (This has stuck in my head ever since my first trip, watching a friend set out to run the São Silvestre marathon with her ID stuck inside her baseball cap, wearing as little as possible and carrying nothing else.) Foreign travelers should understand that, perhaps unlike at home, this applies to them too.

Comfort? The ability to buy a ticket in advance without being at that respective bus station? While due diligence is of course something you can blame the OP for, there are plenty of internet services that sell those same tickets without a bizar markup. Not having to worry about buying tickets while you're enjoying your holiday is something people appreciate, and those online services offer exactly that. As an experiment I just went to that brazilbustravel site the OP used. Campinas - Rio would cost 54 USD. I then checked viação cometa's website for the exact same bus, where I can buy the same exact seat, also online, for 140 BRL. While the OP is mistaken in assuming that because he got ripped off online, all online sellers charge that markup, he is not wrong in stating he got terribly ripped off by a fraudulent website. While you need a CPF to buy directly from Viação Cometa, both clickbus and brazilbybus accept purchases from abroad without adding a 65% markup.

And yes, at the bus station, I believe that same ticket costs 125 BRL (did that stretch there and back for 250 just the other day), so you'll still have some extra costs from booking online, but that isn't the problem with this specific site.

You can call it a Gringo Tax, or a Stupid Tax, but that doesn't change the fact that this "service" is a shitty fraudulent website that has no right to exist.

Good advice here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J758GW3Bl58

Seriously Andrew, I don't think anyone's bashing the OP or defending the vendor who charged the mark up. The wicked will always be with us though and the only way to minimise the chances of being ripped off is to do a little basic research. The observation that one can buy a ticket at a bus station is hardly a revelation.

They don't teach number literacy in Oz?
(#1, the back patter, not the OP)

Yes, they call it numeracy, except in Queensland where it's known as 'that county thing'.

Again you continue to confuse my origins.

Bezerra da Silva was quite a keen observer of human nature, as his lyrics show.

However, anyone could do the same comparison of fares that Andrew did. If someone is willing to pay, it's not fraud IMO, any more than using a package tour. It's paying for convenience. Self delusion maybe. Naivety. The justification after the OP complained is what makes the transaction hincky, but who knows if that is company policy or some Brazilian employee spontaneously inventing something on his own. Customer service is a pretty unknown concept in Brazil, and many foreigners bang their heads against the wall in vain, insisting it should exist. If the OP is serious about his complaint, he should bring a case with Procon (but probably he won't put in that effort).

Instrução Normativa RFB nº 1611/2016 – money send abroad since 2016, January, 1 st has to pay 25% of income tax. Some other taxes together can change 25% into almost 40%. Travel agents and others are trying to come to a deal with the gouvernement to come down to 6,38% - take a look at www.braztoa.com.br – they are afraid this can make half milion people unemployed.

Your point is.

Now that I think about it a bit more, I don't think the government charges any taxes at all on incoming international money. The 6% is on outgoing money (not all, but most consumer transfers, such as cash exchange or card use).

Ontopic: I don't think it's very fair to make fun of the OP. Yes, this forum repeatedly advises people to buy tickets at the bus station, where it's cheaper. But this third party is clearly ripping people off with a huge upmark. I have bought plenty of bus tickets online, and get charged a minor administration fee. It is not insane to expect your service to have a cost, but that that cost be reasonable. The only thing the OP didn't do is verify the scruples of this third party service. Sure, he/she should have checked, but it's not a completely stupid mistake as some here are implying. Also, this post is clearly aimed at helping future tourists avoid this shitty service, something we should be applauding instead of bashing. Lets not act as if this is some glorious victory of Brazilian inventiveness. It's a shitty con artist who should be chased out of business.

Thanks, andrew, it is nice to see that there is somebody with brains on line, not just jokers (or BBT employees). Once again: arriving from Paraguay, we got the information that the bus prices are in Brazil far higher than in neighbouring countries. We were ready to pay more and avoid a trip to the bus station (let's call it Gringo tax).but not ready to pay double price, though in a hurry to get a certain bus to Floripo. The point is, that there is no information about these extra extra extra charges on their web site. That's all, just to inform further BrazilBusTravel website users, who will, as they mailed to me, try to improve their sevice. I do my best, too.

If the OP is serious about his complaint, he should bring a case with Procon (but probably he won't put in that effort).

Of course that's never going to happen. I'm not sure Procon even exists outside of SP, but even if they do make it to SP, you started talking about shitty customer service; Procon (and most other government organizations) are great at that! You really expect a tourist to stand in a poupatempo for a couple of hours to register a complaint about 50 USD or so, that Procon will do absolutely nothing with?! (probably especially considering that, being a poupatempo, the first question the bored desk clerk will ask after it's finally their turn is: "what is your CPF?")

EDIT: bwahahaha, talking about customer service, I found Procon's online service. It only accepts complaints during office hours. Rir pra não chorar!

But after verifying it a couple of times with different buses, I have now registered a complaint on ReclameAqui. Doesn't do much, but I saw they answered someone else's complaint there. So hopefully they see it and it scares the shit out of them. I looked at registering the complaint on Cadastur as well, but their online system doesn't seem to work.

I honestly don’t know who Procon works for; can’t tell if it stands for consumers’ rights or for unscrupulous, deceitful companies. It is hard enough for a Brazilian to file a complaint there, let alone for a tourist.

Which is why some warning about ticket companies like “BrazilBusTravel” (or whatever they’re called) wouldn’t hurt.

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