How to pay your deposit
To help make our holiday prices easier to understand for travellers all over the world, this website displays many different currencies.When making a booking, we can work in UK Pounds (GBP£), US Dollars (US$), Euros (€) or South African Rand (ZAR). Tell us which of these currencies is best for you and we'll send your quotes in that currency. Then, when we make a booking for you, we'll agree a price in that currency. This currency and price will remain fixed regardless of how the world's exchange rates vary. Thus you always have the peace of mind of knowing exactly how much your trip costs in your currency.
Your deposit depends on how soon you are going to travel:
- If your trip is more than 10 weeks away, then you only need to pay the deposit when you book. Your balance can be paid separately, later: it needs to reach us (cleared in our bank) at least ten weeks before you travel.
- If you are due to travel within 10 weeks of booking, then you need to pay for the whole trip when you confirm the booking. In this case, follow the instructions below for paying your deposit, but amend the amount to reflect the cost of the whole trip instead of just part of it.
Payment options depend on your booking’s currency:
Price agreed in UK Sterling (GBP£)
Your deposit is *usually 20% of the value of the trip, subject to a minimum value of GBP£600 per person. The best way to pay for a trip in GB Pounds is:- Direct bank transfer in GB Pounds to Expert Africa’s Sterling account, held in the UK. Online banking makes this particularly easy.
Find our bank details on your private pages on our website – and always double-check them before use with a phone call to an Expert Africa team member whom you know. Bank charges are usually minimal, but please cover any from your side to ensure that we receive the correct amount.
- Personal cheques from UK bank accounts are accepted without any surcharges, but please allow 5 working days for cheques to clear.
- Online payment: use the ‘Log in’ link in the top-right corner of our website to access your private pages or to set up an account if you don't already have one. Once you have signed in, click ‘Authorise’ to authorise your deposit payment. Payments can be accepted by Visa or MasterCard.
Price agreed in US Dollars (US$)
Your deposit is *usually 20% of the value of the trip, subject to a minimum value of US$900 per person. The best way to pay for a trip in US Dollars is:- Direct bank transfer in US Dollars to a US Dollar account, held in New York.
Find our bank details on your private pages on our website – and always double-check them before use with a phone call to an Expert Africa team member whom you know. Bank charges are usually minimal, but please cover these from your side to ensure that we receive the correct amount.
- Online payment use the ‘Log in’ link in the top-right corner of our website to access the private pages of your Expert Africa website account. Once you have signed in, click ‘Authorise’ to authorise your deposit payment. Payments can be accepted by Visa or MasterCard.
Credit cards (billed in US$) are accepted. Debit cards denominated in US Dollars are usually processed like credit cards denominated in US Dollars. Travellers are sometimes charged substantial commissions (4% in one case) by the banking system, and these charges are impossible to predict. Hence we recommend that you check potential charges with your card provider before making the transaction, or you pay by direct bank transfer.
Beware: if your credit or debit card is not billed in US dollars, then your card company is likely to charge you an additional direct charge for making a "foreign currency transaction". These charges vary depending on the card provider, so read your credit agreement's fine print before paying this way. Additional charges made by card providers are typically 3%. - Cashier's checks arranged at your bank and typically cost about US$30-40 to issue, plus mailing costs. Cashier's checks are the best form of cheque because they clear faster through the bank system than personal checks. Although this makes a cashier's check is the best type of check to pay with, we are charged for cashing it, so US$40 should be added to any amount paid by cashier's check to cover our bank charges. Full payment made by cashier's check must be settled 14 weeks before travel, as on occasion they can take up to four weeks to fully clear through the banking system.
- Personal checks in US Dollars are accepted provided the check for full payment is received by us 18 weeks before travel. Personal checks can take up to eight weeks to completely clear through the banking system. Regrettably for this reason, we cannot accept a US Dollar personal check for any bookings made within 18 weeks of the travel date.
Price agreed in Euros (€)
Your deposit is *usually 20% of the value of the trip, subject to a minimum value of €700 per person. So by far the best way to pay for a trip in Euros is:
- Direct bank transfer in Euros to our Euro account, held in the UK. Find our bank details on the private pages of your Expert Africa website account – and always double-check them before use with a phone call to an Expert Africa team member whom you know.
Check with your bank that this payment will remain in Euros for the whole transaction, between your bank and ours. It should not be converted into any other currencies on the way. Bank charges are usually minimal, but please cover any from your side to ensure that we receive the correct amount.
- Cashier's cheques arranged at your bank and typically costing about €30-40 to issue, plus postage. We are charged for cashing cashier's cheques, so €40 should be added to any amount paid by cashier's cheque to cover our bank charges. Full payment made by cashier's cheque must be settled 12 weeks before travel, as on occasion they can take up to four weeks to fully clear through the banking system.
- Personal cheques in Euros are accepted provided full payment is settled 18 weeks before travel. Regrettably, we cannot accept a Euro personal cheque for any bookings made within 18 weeks of the travel date as this will take six to eight weeks to clear with the bank.
You (the cardholder) are then likely to be charged two sets of extra fees. Firstly, the exchange Euro/US$ exchange rate used by the card processor is unlikely to be favourable. Secondly, you will be billed not only for the transaction, but also often for an additional charge for a "foreign currency transaction", which is typically 3-4%. These additional charges can easily add up to an extra 5-6%, which is why we do not recommend this method of payment.
Price agreed in South African Rand (ZAR)
Your deposit is *usually 20% of the value of the trip, subject to a minimum value of R12,000 per person.
The only way to pay for a trip in Rand is by Direct bank transfer to one of our Rand accounts. Find our bank details on your private pages on our website and always check them with a phone call to an Expert Africa team member whom you know.
Check with your bank that this payment will remain in South African Rand for the whole transaction, between your bank and ours. It should not be converted into any other currency on the way. Bank charges are usually minimal, but please cover these from your side, to ensure that we receive the correct amount.
*Usual deposits of 20% vs. the odd exception
As we’ve noted throughout our information above, the ‘usual’ deposit needed to book one of our trips is 20%. This is the deposit required for the vast majority of our trips and it allows us, and our partners in Africa, to hold the space for your trip securely until your balance is due.As we all remember, 2020 and 2021 were difficult years. In Africa, Covid restrictions led to some empty camps and financial hardships. Most camps are now getting back on a normal footing, but one or two were hit particularly hard. Some are now asking every new booking to furnish them with a greater deposit than ever – and this even includes our bookings.
So if your trip contains any of these specific camps, we’ll need to ask you for an enhanced deposit. Typically we’ll ask for 30%. So far, we’re pleased that less than 1% of our camps are taking this approach: that’s only a couple out of the 1,000-or-so camps that we work with.
For the vast majority of our trips, which don’t contain any of these camps, the deposit required remains unchanged at 20%, as usual.
Naturally, we’ll make these odd exceptions as clear as we can – by flagging up the issue on the ‘Full Report’ page of each affected camp and by highlighting the need for a 30% deposit in any quote which contains any of these camps. So if we don’t flag this up to you on our website or when quoting, you should assume that the deposit due for your trip is our usual 20% deposit.
Please ask us about this if you have any questions.
