Bank Transfers for Reservation - Ok?

Bank transfers are a legitmate way of doing business...even though it can be nerve wrecking wondering if the place you're sending it to is actually legitimate. Have you found reviews of this apartment from other travelers? www.slowtrav.com contains apartment reviews among other things.

How to do a bank transfer...the owner will send you the necessary account numbers. You take these to your bank and have them do the rest. If your bank doesn't know how then find a different bank. It's also not cheap. I just did a bank transfer to Switzerland for a Chalet rental and my bank charged $45 just for the service.

Bank money transfer requests are not uncommon in smaller places to stay, cooking schools, etc. in Italy. These smaller places just don't participate much in the secure website transaction business. Plus many don't even accept credit cards. It's cash all the way. Individual Bank transfers in the U.S. are not common at all (they are for businesses).

Your major bank can do the money transfer. But, to avoid mistakes, they hand you a strange looking form and have YOU fill it out. You will need account information from the Italy end. Also, expect to pay about $45 for the transaction fee on this end and about 15Euro on the other end. Money transfers are not cheap.

We had to go through this with our cooking school class. With our bank personnel not being able to explain the form (they had never done one), there were too many opportunities for a mistake. After a few emails, the cooking school agreed to permit us to show up with cash. These places are so small, cancellations without deposits are painful.

It is common. If you have a full service bank ask them for some alternative methods for transferring funds. We had the same request a couple of years in London. Bank transfers are for large sums of money which is why the fees are high. Our bank offered something called an International Bank Draft ( ??? don't really member the details). I think it was drawn on a corresponding bank in London payable to the bank of the person wanting the deposit. It was much cheaper in the range of 20 to 25. Ask you bank for assistance.

I suggest that you open an account with www.xe.com/fx. I use my account to send money to relatives in the UK and to pay deposits at B&Bs in Europe that don't accept credit cards. Money is taken from my checking account by electronic transfer, a bank draft is issued in the currency of my choice, and the draft is sent by US mail directly to the recipient I specify. The exchange rate is only slightly higher than the international rate on the day the transaction is initiated. There are no other fees. For faster service one can choose to do a wire transfer, but that costs extra.

For security reasons, setting up an account takes some time, but everything goes swiftly and smoothly after that.

I am not sure, but maybe you could open a paypal account and try it that way. Does anyone know if that would work? The Paypal.com website says they pay worldwide and it is very safe. I use it here frequently. The sender can use credit card and the receiver gets money. I just posted a similar question, as my rental for this summer wants my VISA number via fax or email for deposit of 30%.

I am getting ready to send the same type of payment for a gite in France. I have an account with Bank of America and they told me that there is no charge- only a 1% foreign exchange fee. I think it depends on what kind of account you have....

Sherry, interesting that BofA told you that there was no fee. They are the ones who wanted to charge me $45 on this end of the transaction for me. Both my personal and business accounts are with BofA. They are also the ones who absoulutely had not done this before and wanted me to go to a more regional bank. Oh well.

This is completely the norm. I think the most important thing is to be sure this apartment is legit. Do they have a website? How did you find the apartment? We did stay in a wonderful apartment in the San Giovanni area and it was really a reasonable price. It was beautiful and clean - we loved it. It was legit - see
www.cristalhome.com

We ha d to send a deposit to a gite this week. This gite is in the Burgundy region of France. I did some research and found out that Western Union was the the cheapest way for me to do it . The charge at Western Union is based on how much you send and the recipient has to have the control number you give them and then they go pick it up, usually at a post office. T he wierd thing is that the money is wired to the country- just France in this case and they could pick it up at any poste or Western Union Office. I was a wreck about it ,but it went very smoothly.The poste was very close for him and he was very impressed. The have not had any Americans before stay with them and he felt this was an easy way for him, anyway to get a deposit. He had to show a picture ID and give them the number I emailed him. Another odd thing about it was that I send it from my local Krogers grocery store,

I found that many of the apt. rentals in Italy took a deposit via paypal. You might check. That way you get a confirmation that the money was received. It was surprisingly easy to send euros via paypal.

I am so happy that I came across this website. I would like to thank each and every one of you for sharing your travel wisdom and savvy. This will be my first over-the-seas trip and you have given me such wonderful advice and peace of mind. Thank you so much.