I'm heading over for a Buffalo hunt on Monday. I was going to take a Bank Draft to make the final payment. My Outfitter emailed me that her bank will no longer take Personal, Company or Bank cheques because they take 3-4 months to clear. Has anyone ran into this before.

We had it a time or two when we lived in RSA but you should be able to do it by electronic bank transfer.

I know a PH that once accepted a personal check from a US client and it took over a year to clear. That was probably 7 or 8 years ago. I have allways done wire tranfers and it just takes a couple of days to clear.

I have done transfers in the past, usually after I get back. This time she wanted the balance for the buffalo before I left SA. We are hunting on a neighbours property so she wanted cash or travellers checks. This was kind of a last minute request. I will do a bank transfer for anything else I'll get when I get back. She was a little slow the year, usually she has everything ready months ahead. Next time I'll pushed her to get things done sooner.

I have had a problem with a couple bank transfers from usa to africa. it seems there is some kind of home land insecurity detail that banks neglect to tell you. you must put an exact physical address of the receiving bank on the transfer.it took awhile for my pardner to get it though the bankers head in usa that the Kilimanjaro shopping center was the exact physical address that not all countries have building numbers and street address's zip codes' etc etc etc

All of my wire transfers have taken from 3 weeks to 2 months.

There is something wrong here.

All the money transfers I have done to different African countries - Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tanzania - have never taken more than 3 days.

In fact, I remember one to Zimbabwe which was there in 24 hours!

I have been paying off my taxidermy bill, in RSA using PayPal.

The money is in there account withing a day to two at the most.

The best news is I am down to less than $500!! Damn I have been paying on that forever!

A client just transferred money from the States to me, it took about 5 working days. I got an mail and a sms from the bank, I had to confirm the client, give a reason why the money must is transferred to me and they asked me a couple of security questions questions. 20minutes later the money was in my account. I also advised them that I had permission from SARB to receive foreign currency.

The info needed to do a transfer, the recipients full names, account no, branch clearance code, bank's swift code and the physical address of the receiving bank. I never had a problem receiving money from anywhere in the world. Touch wood.

Never had a problem and always get my money with in two or three working days.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
There is something wrong here.

All the money transfers I have done to different African countries - Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tanzania - have never taken more than 3 days.

In fact, I remember one to Zimbabwe which was there in 24 hours!

I have the same experience. The longest I've had to wait was 5 days. Typically it is 1 - 3 days. When I send money from my US account it is here the following day.

most transfers get here in 24hrs depending on what time there entered in to system in usa. if it takes more that three days something is wrong.

Cash or Travellers cheques can be cashed the same day.
Personal or Company Bank cheques take 3-4 months and a HUGE banking fee.
SWIFT wire transfers take 2-3 days to clear.

As a matter of interest, do you blokes in the USA get asked by your banks to explain what the transfer is for?

We do in Europe and bearing in mind how many dodgy stunts the bankers & politicians have pulled for their own benefit I REALLY bloody resent having to explain what I'm doing with my own money!

quote:

Originally posted by ddrhook:
most transfers get here in 24hrs depending on what time there entered in to system in usa. if it takes more that three days something is wrong.

Yep. It's usually 24-48 hrs. Only problem I had was with a specific bank in Zambia. They liked to sit on the money until the operator called to claim it. But that was a local issue.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
As a matter of interest, do you blokes in the USA get asked by your banks to explain what the transfer is for?

We do in Europe and bearing in mind how many dodgy stunts the bankers & politicians have pulled for their own benefit I REALLY bloody resent having to explain what I'm doing with my own money!

I just did this a couple days ago, from a out of town branch of my own bank. They pulled me into an office and seemed to bound and determined that I knew about all the email scams that come out of Africa before they would process the request. When I told them it was for a hunting trip, there were more questions but in an enthusiastic sort of way.

Responding to a number of questions here:

Shakari: No one has ever asked why I am sending a large sum to a third world country -- maybe I should ask that question and why my PH's don't bank in another country (but that's just me) (Homeland Security has never questioned me either -- I'm sure they are doing their job and realize this is just a deposit on a safari);

It has always taken a few days, in my experience, for the money to land. Believe me, that gives me some cause for angst;

It would make me feel somewhat better if the African recipients would, as a matter of course, notify me when they got the money. But that's just me.

In Europe and the UK it's law that you explain what the money transfer is for and they always say it's to prevent money laundering etc and I've even been asked to give a reason why I'm moving as little as E2000 from my UK account to my own Euro account....... bearing on mind how appallingly the UK & Euro banks have behaved over recent years, it bugs the shite out of me to have to justify every transfer I make.

The reason a lot of African based companies don't have overseas accounts is often banking restrictions in their own country either forbidding it or making it difficult to achieve.

I'm in Frankfurt, whe I left Calgary last night customs was pulling people aside and asking if they where leaving with more then $10000. Of course I was so had to show it to them and explain why. They even checked the travellers check numbers