It sure does take trust on both sides. When I was renting my house in France (and when I will again be renting it), I had to be so incredibly careful to make sure the renters could pay me appropriately in advance (I required 50% on booking and the balance 45 days minimum in advance of arrival date), plus a $500 security deposit. I was lucky - I had great experiences overall, but there were the NYC stock brokers who ran up an $800 phone bill in less than a week, and the Germans who broke a bed in half - it's VERY much a two-way street.

soogies, look in to the Andrew credit union. DebitNW has posted a lot here about it - I understand they have no fees at all and have chip&pin cards that are the equivalent of those in Europe. And, as a credit union, probably close to all of the advantages of the World Bank Credit Union (though I'm not sure anyone can match that - they're protecting the $$$$ of many of the richest, tax-free folks on earth - and no, I'm not one of them, not at all. I just happen to have lucked out in joining that credit union).

Thanks, St Cirq, I'll look into it.

I've had people hold my check in dollars until we got there and paid in the local currency. Then they gave us the check back.

Usually we've had the same experience as soogies. When we explain how difficult and expensive it is for an American to make a deposit in a European bank account, they say just pay me when you get here.

Actually, I have rented in Europe before but I have never been asked for cash.
The owner of the apartment will take cash for the balance upon our arrival. So, I feel good about that. Just a damage deposit up front by check.
Still a risk but I am feeling much better about it.
Now on to my lodgings in ireland and our itinerary.
yikes I am much later on this planning than I like to be.
Thanks for all the info.

I guess I don't understand what you mean by your risk. There's risk on both sides. If you want a sure thing, rent a chain hotel - that's probably the least risk of all.

What's the risk? The owner of the apartment is giving you real estate she has paid for!

Not quite sure what you mean about the not being able to locate the flat. Do you have the post code? If so that is all you need. Enter the post code on google and up pops the exact location. If the owner won't give you the post code - that would make me walk away. . .

lol, At Cirq, i think we're missing out - we only take a 25% deposit and we never take a security deposit!

so far, people have always fessed up and replaced what the broke with better.

touching wood now.

annhig, the stories I could tell I had one guy who stayed 3 months (I gave him a big discount as it was winter). At the end of his stay, he asked if he could deduct the price of the spatula he had to buy when he broke mine. Then there's the stuff renters leave behind; I once found a large dresser drawer stuffed with a dozen of the biggest bras I'd ever seen - seriously, you could have filled each of them with two basketballs. And once I opened the armoire in the kitchen I use as a pantry to find half a dozen Betty Crocker cake mixes, two boxes of Captain Crunch cereal, and four or five jars of grape jelly and peanut butter . And the only things that were ever stolen were a chain saw and my Duden's French-English dictionary, which weighed about 30 lbs. I still can't imagine what someone needed the chain saw for! They were headed back to the USA two days later; did he try to take it home with him, or was he planning on cutting down some trees on the way back to Paris?

THAT'S where I left my bras...

Please send them to:

Soogies
123 Main Street
Anytown, USA 12345

Thank you

If you'll pay for the shipping (and it won't be cheap - these babies have steel underwire)!

I imagine the risks the OP is thinking of are the kind of scams we've heard a bit about when a flat doesn't actually exist -- you show up and there is no one there and you have nothing. Or, if the place is falling down and only 1 BR when you've rented a 3 BR, something like that.

That's the only real risk, as if you change your mind, that isn't a risk that you can't manage, you shouldn't rent apartments if you don't think you really want to go somewhere and wont' go at that time. I think some people have the idea that if they show up and decide they don't quite like it, they will just leave and be out no money. It doesn't work that way, actually, although I am always surprised by the owners who ask for no deposit and no prepayment (there aren't many, granted).

Or the owners who take a check in a different currency and don't cash it but give it back -- are these owners really so dumb about banking that they don't know you could just cancel the check if you decided not to go?

lol, St cirq,

we have had the odd things left behind [some pants, for example, by which I mean the type you wear UNDER your clothes] and the aussie who got drunk and fell down the stairs, broke his ribs and ruined his birthday celebrations AND our night's sleep as we were awoken by the ambulance, and then there was the couple who were our first off-season renters who it turned out had met in the local psychiatric unit, who were both mad as a box of frogs as we discovered when we found the "art work" they left behind, but apart from them, our experiences have been pretty positive.

so far!