If the outfitter has an account with a wire transfer arrangement at a bank it would be possible to do a wire transfer to him by phone. I do this occasionally although the actual bank policy is that the sender come in and sign. I often considered using a letter of credit for safari expenses. I require my overseas customers to use an irrevocable confirmed letter of credit and it nearly always works smoothly. Incidentally if you know what US bank is the intermediary and use that bank overseas wires can be nearly instantaneous. The delays are frequently from the bank initially receiving the transfer to the final receiving bank. The exception to this is countries like Mexico with poor confirming agreements, sometimes wires are delayed due to exchange shortages.

Sorry Ray, I can't agree with you. I transacted over 10K in T.C.'s last year in Tanzania at various times. I do agree that not all banks in Tz act alike and very possibly the bank(s) used by the ph's/outfitters you deal with didn't accept T.C.s for the reasons you state. However T.C.'s are accepted by banks throughout Tz.

For the proponents of c.c. payments, that would not work today in Tanzania! The majority of Banks will not transact with C.C. due to high Fraud activities. Besides, an outfitter that accepts C.C. will usually be charged a high commission (between 7.5 and 10%!!!) by the C.C. company. It would also take an average of 6- 8 weeks for them to be credited the money by the c.c. company unless they have an elctronic c.c. machine! The only disadvantage of T.C. is the fact you have to sign each and every check twice; once when being issued them and again when making payment. If you have a bill of 10K or more to settle with 100$ denominations, it ain't a fun thing to do.....A wire transfer is the easiest method and what is $25 - $50 or even $100 when amounts in excess of $10K are being transacted? At least you know your transfer is as "risk free" as cash, T.C., etc....

It is recommended to settle as much as possible of your safari fees beforehand and even pay a "deposit" for trophy fees based on an estimate. In most cases a reliable outfitter (and thesae should be known by now) can give you a pretty good estimate for this and the difference to be settled at the end of the hunt might be a couple of grand only.

Just my view of things....

I cashed a few thousand dollars in Traveller's Checks at the Impala Hotel in Arusha last year. They charged me 1% and made a copy of my passport.

Osama Bin Laden probably is carrying a passport with my name on it now, but otherwise it was really not a problem.

As a cash manager for a large international software company in Houston, I find it interesting to hear the experiences of the forum members on this topic.

The banking industry in the USA has historically been largely unconsolidated, with many individually chartered banks spread throughout the country. This was partly due to the history of banks being started to serve a local populace, and partly due to regulations in many states prohibiting multi-branch banking. It has only been in the last 15 years that the industry has aggressively been consolidating and building national networks.

If you have accounts at the big money-center banks and many super-regionals, international transfers are probably no big deal. If I tried to send money to South Africa from my small hometown bank in Oklahoma, I would probably create a stir that would be talked about for weeks. They are probably still talking about the time I called from an in-flight phone to send my Mom flowers on her birthday.)

It ultimately boils down to whether the sending bank and receiving bank have enough information (and experience) to correctly set up and complete the transaction. A small bank will likely send a wire through one or more correspondent banks before funds leave the US---then the transaction has to filter down to the right branch at the destination bank. Larger, international banks tend to have more experience with international payments, and fewer layers to send the payments through.

Ray's bank in Filer is probably now well trained in international commerce after being threatened with gilflurting or snarfle haltering.........


In my experience, even the big banks screw things up on occasion. ABN AMRO simply failed to send a $20M Euro payment for my company back in December, and I still don't think the bank know what happened.

Steve

The fees for a machine are significant. Also, the cardholder pays (on top of the aforementioned 2.5-3%) a "foreign" transaction fee of at least 2% and then there is also a significant fee for conversion from $US to whatever currency the PH recipient is using. Also, bear in mind, the 2.5-3% fee is in the USA. It very well may be more outside the USA.