Paying by bank funds transfer

I had to do a bank wire transfer for an apartment in Paris, with the balance to be paid in cash upon arrival. I bank with a credit union and 2 1/2 years ago I had to pay $70 to do this. I would have found somewhere else to stay if it was entirely up to me, but I was traveling with 2 other people. Splitting the cost 3 ways it wasn't too bad.

Bob,

This is new to me, but since i fly solo, and havent stayed everyplace, it could be something new.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

you could always ask if they will take your Credit card.

happy trails.

This article might shed some light: http://www.mybanktracker.com/news/2013/04/18/wire-transfer-fees-2013/

I use wire transfers for a lot of things, but for fairly large sums. The fifty bucks or so it'd add to the cost of a stupid room would sure as heck queer that deal and send me looking for other digs for the night.

I had to do this for one of my hotels. It was the only way they would accept and it was a pain in the a** and added $50 to the cost of the room. I only did it because the room was quite cheap and I was going to be there for 4 nights so it didn't push the price out of competition with other places, plus I really wanted to stay there. This isn't real common anymore but happens some times with small places that don't take cc's and haven't got on to Paypal yet.

You'll have to see what your charges will be for the transfer and see if it's worth it to you, only you can make that call. It could still be better than starting to shop around again for another place.

I do recall seeing on here a website where you can set up fund transfers for free (or very little cost) but I don't remember it and I don't think you're likely to find it here by searching - until they get the search function working properly. Maybe whoever posted that will see this thread and post it again.

Don't do it, Bob. Find another B&B which will accept your credit card to reserve and not demand payment up front. I googled logis-de-france.com and up came this hotel in Chinon. Hotel Boule d'Or. Looks terrific to me.

Bob, it's so easy to find someplace else. Money transfers are not cheap and many local banks just don't know how to do it. I bank with BofA and my local branch didn't know how to do it. The cooking school in Florence we signed up for was requesting the transfer. We finally emailed that we would pay cash upon arrival or we would need to cancel. They agreed and we did pay cash upon arrival. We will never do money transfers.

Thanks all,
You've confirmed what I thought (but couldn't yet check). I'm not sure what, but something's definitely amiss here. Clearly, a bank transfer is not the way to go. Not sure why they'd even suggest something like that. I'll look into this further. The place comes with lots of positive reviews on tripadvisor and elsewhere.

I will amend my previous post to say the bank transfer I did was for a deposit on the room, not the whole amount. I agree that if I had to send them the whole amount in advance like that I might have thought twice. However, if the place is well reviewed and not some unknown I would think the chances of it being a rip-off are slim and I don't think it's something to get bent out of shape about.

Transfers in themselves aren't really amiss, but paying 100% up front isn't worth it. Transfers are a cultural difference. In Europe bank transfers are so common that our German renter told us back in 2007 that Germans don't even own checks anymore. However, it's not the way we, or our banks, do business, but 99.99% of Europeans are unaware of the difference. So the transfer in itself isn't suspicious, but paying 100% to hold a room is unacceptable to me.

You might try the wonderful Hotel Diderot in Chinon.

Since I regularly encourage people to check out XE Trade, I'm probably the person of whom Nancy wrote.

With XE Trade money is taken from your checking account by electronic transfer. There are several options from which to choose: 1. Have a bank draft made payable to the party of your choice and have it sent via regular mail. There are no fees for this. 2. If you get the proper bank account information from the landlord, you can have the money deposited directly in the landlord's bank. Since this is not a wire transfer, again there are no fees. 3. Do a traditional wire transfer for which there will be a fee. Whatever method you choose, the exchange rate will be only slightly higher than the international rate on the day the transaction is initiated.

Like other posters, I would be reluctant to pay in advance for the entire stay. Perhaps the landlord will accept a deposit in the amount of the cost of the first night. If so, you could have a bank draft for the balance made payable to the landlord but mailed to your home. Then you could take it with you to France and hand it over in person when you arrive.

Yes thanks Tim, that's the one I was referring to. Glad you saw this post as I can never remember the name of that company. Think I'll copy it down now so I don't forget it again.

For our upcoming month long vacation I have been asked for deposits by bank transfer on three different occasions. I've never had this happen on past trips. I worked it out for all three without doing the bank transfer. After explaining my fees they have all agreed on other options. One I did PayPal ( I agreed to pick up that fee for around $5 which is billed on their end) and two accepted credit card to hold the reservation. Maybe if you explain the fees they will allow another type of payment.