I've been communicating by email with a suggested guide from Rick's book in Seville Spain. She we are organizing a tour of the city with her in January 2025 and she charges 150 Euros for 3 hours for my spouse and I. She stated she usually charges a deposit prior to confirmation of the booking which is fine. However she uses Pay Pal and I do not. Suggestions on what you might do in this situation? Thanks fellow travelers!
Posted by
Chicago
1139 posts
A PayPal account is not hard to set up. It can also very useful when a US Credit Card is not accepted. PayPal is not my first choice, but I have used it when setting up reservations and purchasing tickets in Spain within the past year. (other countries as well....)
You can attach your credit card to the PayPal account. This is often accepted when an attempt to directly charge the card is rejected. (PayPal company takes on the liability so the foreign merchant doesn't have to go through a US security system which often is incompatilble with European protocols.)
When everything was canceled due to Covid, I received several refunds via PayPal from foreign providers. Absolute God send in the chaotic circumstances,
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8058 posts
Signing up for a PayPal account might be your only option. She obviously has no use for a check mailed to her, she apparently has no ability to take Credit Card (despite the high recommendation from RS, to me that is a flag).
Many individuals in Europe use person to person bank transfers frequently, as well as for bills, but transfers between US accounts and European accounts is unnecessarily complicated and incurs cost usually. You might check with your bank for transfer options.
Posted by
Phoenix🌵
3076 posts
I ran into the same PayPal issue when I booked a horseback ride in Rome. I told her I don’t use PayPal and wanted to put the deposit on my credit card. She emailed me a link so the credit card went through PayPal. Was I happy? Not really because it didn’t feel secure. So I used my backup credit card; called my credit card; if there was a problem I didn’t want a problem with my primary card. I printed all receipts as a just in case. No ptoblems. The ride isn’t until September.
I think very small businesses don’t want to pay the credit card fees but know if they don’t accept credit card payments they will lose business.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9220 posts
Until 2019, my company was cash based or accepted bank transfers. For small companies the CC fees are simply too high. Did that set off red flags to anyone? Maybe, but that is just how it was. We did take PayPal, which turned out eventually to be a nightmare for us last year and I closed our account. They are inflexible and not a company we care to deal with anymore even though ease of use was a plus.
Some day, the US may finally start using a SEPA system which will make it easier for bank transfers around the world. They seem to be lagging a bit, yet keep those old fashioned paper checks around. Send me one of those and it will cost me 20€ to cash it and take 2 weeks.
Get a friend who has PayPal to do your deposit for you.
Posted by
Brooklyn, NY
4262 posts
We ended up using PayPal numerous times when our CC didn’t work. This past month we used it to purchase train tickets on the Spanish train line website Renfe when none of our cards worked.
Is it just another method of payment for Europe, no big deal.
Posted by
near San Francisco
5367 posts
I would far rather use PayPal than a payment link of unknown origin and security. If it perfect? Nothing is. But at least I understand the level of risk.
If you don't prefer to give your primary credit card to PayPal, perhaps you have a secondary one that you can use.