We are planning on staying at an agriturismo and they have asked for a 30% deposit via wire transfer. My bank was unable to locate the SWIFT # in their system. I found information on the SWIFT.com website that stated that bank was not connected to the SWIFT network and could not be used in the header of a SWIFT message. Basically, the bank would have to do it manually and it may get lost or take weeks to track down.

My question is, has anyone had this problem? Should I go ahead and proceed with the transfer? Our vacation is in July so we have time in case the money gets "lost" but I'm paranoid about wire transfers since I've never done them.

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Hi A,

Contact the landlord about the problem.

Ask if he will take a check in USD for $50 more than the 30% and hold it until you arrive to give him euros.

The additional amount is to cover exchange fluctuations and his costs for currency exhange, bank fees, etc.

This has been done by many folks on this forum.

It's years since I used a SWIFT number to get paid with.

Every European bank, as far as I'm aware, uses an IBAN. That's a unique code that identifies the bank, the branch and the account number.

It's the only number I give foreign debtors these days: money arrives in my account the day after transmission (from HK or Australia) or in the worst cases (oddly, ALWAYS the US) never more than 5 working days later.

Hi C,

Thanks for the lesson.

>...in the worst cases (oddly, ALWAYS the US) never more than 5 working days later.<

That's because US banks are allowed to hold other peoples money for up to 5 days before making the transaction.

It used to be 3 days.

Last year we transferred money with a SWIFT code for apartments in Portugal.

I wish you luck as it was not a good experience for us. Although, I am not saying you will have the same experience.

If you decide to send the money, please be informed and ask about all contingencies.

Good luck. I personally would never transfer money this way again. But that is just me.

It was expensive to make the transfer on our end with our bank charges, and then one of the owners charged us again saying their bank charged them for the transfer.

At my bank, it costs $65 to put a trace on the money. So, because one of the owners said they did not receive it (they had and in a timely manner) I put a trace on the money. My bank actually forgave the $65 trace fee because they did not inform me there would be a charge before hand.

Sher, was the owner lying to you about not receiving the money, then? Did you end up staying at his place? That's the type of thing that always makes me nervous about such transactions.

I sent money to a chalet owner in France last year, using his bank's SWIFT code. My bank charged $40; his charged nothing. There were no problems at all; however it took ten days to get there, which puzzled me a bit.

Will Travel. We rented three apartments. The first went off without a hitch.

The second was the one that claimed she did not receive it. We had a photo copy in hand when we arrived. She apologized.

The third and last place did not claim she didn't receive it. She just claimed that she was charged another E17 for the deposit. She didn't have any proof and since we did not have hers traced, it was her word against ours.

We did end up staying at all three places and although the first two were wonderful, I would never go through wire transfers again.
On the third apartment, we sent $100. When all was said and done, we basically got only $61 credit BEFORE the exchange rate.

I recently looked into another apartment and they require Paypal. They also want to charge E20 for their fees on a E126 deposit. We declined.

Basically, unless they provide documentation for the fees, you have to accept their word. There are other ways to make deposits.

I was suspicious of the third person because the other two never asked for more money.