Non-UK Bank Account holders - how to pay for your Kilimanjaro climb or safari

 

Once we have received your booking details we will request a non-refundable booking deposit of USD 150 per person plus the value of any additional or upgraded accommodation that you have requested. This deposit is usually paid by credit card via PayPal. The final balance of payment is payable either in Pounds Sterling or US Dollars 30 days prior to the climb or else in cash in US Dollars on arrival if you would prefer this.

 

- If you have not completed your booking more than 30 days prior to your proposed climb date please note that you will be required to pay for your climb in cash in US Dollars on arrival as bank transfers to East Africa can be subject to long delays and bad routings which can take some time to correct.

 

- Please also note that we are unable to accept credit cards and travellers’ cheques on arrival. Those wishing to pay by credit card are required to do so at least 30 days prior to their climb.

 

- To facilitate payment of your booking deposit we will email you a link to our secure payment pages on PayPal’s website that will guide you through the payment process. PayPal payments incur a 3.9% transaction surcharge for non-UK registered credit and debit cards, and we are required to invoice in Sterling using the day’s commercial dollar-purchasing rate for the conversion.** These two cost factors mean that while we are able to accept PayPal credit card payments for final balances also, we do not recommend this method for larger payments as the climber will effectively pay surcharges equating to around 6.7% of the value of the transaction, or around USD 130 on a 7 day Machame climb (when 2 people book together). This is obviously significantly higher than the USD 35 - 50 that one typically pays in bank fees when paying by wire transfer.

 

- Please note that PayPal’s security settings often disallow use of a credit card that is attempted to be used outside the country where that card is registered. PayPal’s naively programmed algorithms are able to determine the country in which you are currently located through the IP address of the computer that you are using. If you are travelling away from home it will therefore be necessary to request a relative to pay on your behalf or else for you to effect a wire transfer if your banking facilities allow international payments over the internet.

 

- If opting to pay your final balance by wire transfer this is payable no later than 30 days prior to your climb start date and will be invoiced in either Pounds Sterling or US Dollars. Please request an invoice in your preferred currency. (Due to exchange rate volatility non-US Dollar invoices can only be issued within three working days of the date on which you wish to pay your final balance).

 

When arranging the wire transfer please ensure that you instruct your bank to effect the transfer so as to arrive into our bank account free of bank charges. Should a climber’s bank be unable to effect these instructions, any outstanding bank charges incurred will be invoiced for payment in cash on arrival.

 

- If a climber has requested gear hire from Team Kilimanjaro this is to be paid in cash in US Dollars on arrival, please.

 

 

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** Note re PayPal: This is because PayPal do not allow offshore multiple currency merchant accounts. Were we to invoice in Dollars via PayPal, in order for TK to gain usable access to these funds (since none of our suppliers are payable via PayPal) we would be required to withdraw the US Dollar amount into one of our UK-based Sterling accounts, and in so do doing would be requesting PayPal to convert the Dollar amount into Sterling. The exchange rate conversion spreads that PayPal charge for such transactions are amongst the highest we know. To cover these high costs we would be required to increase our prices in such a way as to subsidise these inefficient transactions by effectively penalising other climbers who arranged payment via a more efficient transfer means, which we are of course reluctant to do.