We want to go to Europe from the East Coast by
Passenger Freighter (cargo) ship. We have identified a provider and ship. We have communicated by email are ready to book the trip for August. The Provider wants 25% of the money down now to book the room (with the rest 4 weeks before departure). They want the funds transferred into their bank account and will not accept a credit card. Does anyone have experience with this? Is this typical? We are concerned about transferring funds in cash even though everything seems to be legimitate - multiple forms/contract to sign etc. Please comment - we are just concerned about transferring cash. Thank you.
Posted by
OP
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
4 posts
Thanks, Steve, for such a quick response. The passenger cargo ship is the MCC Marine, Consulting & Contracting GmbH & Cie KG of Hamburg Germany and the ship is the Rickmers Antwerp (Philadelphia
PA to Antwerp Belgium). They have a website and sent forms with their letterhead. Have you heard about them? It would appear they are legitimate - but do you know of any other way to double-check, e.g. Department of Commerce or something like that? May be overly cautious, but want to be as sure as possible before we transfer funds. Thank you.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
MCC Marine has been around forever. They are either the corporate umbrella or a subdivision (forget which, there's been name changes, corporate reorganization, etc) of an outfit which has owned, built, operated, or cargo-brokered ships.
I wouldn't have any reason to believe that they would be anything less than completely legitimate. They are so large that passanger service would only be a little bit of gravey.
I wouldn't bother, but you might glean a little more information by looking at "James Merchant Ships" (book is expensive, on-line requires subscription). Or googling something like "german ship registry". The problem with the latter might be that the ship is not actually registered in Germany but in a "country of convenience" -- not an unusual practice with Panama and Liberia being probably the most common countries used. I'm sure it has to do with economics, but have no further knowledge.
I did something similar in the Pacific a long time ago and found it very interesting. Take lots of books.
Posted by
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
8293 posts
Ed, I believe it is JANE'S Merchant Ships, not James.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Typo. Obviously "Jame's All the World's Aircraft" doesn't exist either. Thanks.
Posted by
Pantego, NC, USA
1014 posts
Ask for references from passengers who have traveled before, preferbably from US.
Posted by
San Francisco, California, USA
446 posts
You didn't say if they wanted the money in Dollars, Euros, or whatever.
If they want Euros or some other European currency, I would open an account with XE Trade in Canada, a discount foreign currency broker -- well known to others here. If you buy your foreign currency from XE Trade, they can transfer it directly to many European bank accounts at no charge, using an electronic funds transfer (EFT). (In Euro Land it's called a SEPA (Single European Payment Area) transfer.) And, they also have a good exchange rate.
By contrast, if you go to a regular bank to arrange the transfer, you will not only get a lousy exchange rate, but incur a big fee for wiring the money to Europe.