We are renting a house for a week in France from Eurorelais, and they have been very difficult to communicate with. It takes weeks before they respond to emails and often the replies are in Dutch or some other language we don't understand. In any case, we have managed to rent a cottage; we've paid the rent, and now we find out that we also have to put down a sizeable deposit when we take possession. The only clue we have about how this is handled, is that you are supposed to give your bank account and IBAN number to the owner for return of your deposit. I am not sure how this would work for US renters.

We doubt the cottage owner will take a credit card. We could bring cash, but we'd rather not. We could write a check on an American bank in dollars (if the owner will agree to this), or perhaps cross out dollars & put Euros. But we don't know if IBAN numbers apply to American banks.

Any ideas or experience with this?

Hi L&E,

I think, but I am not sure, that the IBAN number is the routing number of your bank.

It is the set of numbers to the left of your account number.

It appears that they intend to return your deposit by electronic transfer.

Unfortunately, I don't think it is easy to make transfers between banks in Europe and the US...the only way I know is an international wire transfer and this usually costs about $40.

So..I'm still looking for a solution.

We rented two villas in Italy this summer and both required large cash (Euros)deposits upon arrival. At each they returned the deposits upon checkout.

The owner / agent came by at an agreed upon time on our last morning and checked the house, got the keys, presented us with pastries and gave us our cash back. We had to plan a little in advance to make sure we had the Euros but it really was not a big deal. We used the cash on our last day in Italy for a hotel near the airport, dinner and drinks and taxi to the airport.

The IBAN is a standardised European system for identifying account number, branch and bank (and, given its length, probably the bank's estimate of how much they can hike your charges before you squeal)

The US routing number, if I remember rightly, mere;y gives your branch reference. For a European to use it transfer money electronically, you also need to provide your account number and your bank's BIC or SWIFT code. In practice, you usually need the name by which your branch is known.

I really don't believe it is possible for US banking and European banking systems to relate to each other this way. I've contacted my banks in the US and I've been told the only way to do an international electronic transfer is via wire transfer which costs $40.

Hi L&E,

>We could write a check on an American bank in dollars (if the owner will agree to this), or perhaps cross out dollars & put Euros.<

The second part of your idea won't work. US banks won't process a check in Euro.

The first part is a good idea. Add 20E to cover the cost of depositing a USD check.

Of course, when the owner mails you a check in Euro, you will have to pay to deposit it in dollars.

How about getting the deposit in cash from ATMs when you arrive in Italy? You can have your bank raise your daily limit.

We finally got through to the owners of the house (who are Dutch, but speak English perfectly), and the standard thing is to bring cash and get cash, so I don't think we'll have any problem.

Glad it worked out.