This guide is intended to help you select the most cost effective way to pay for your diving trip, while also asking you to consider helping us to minimise our collection costs.
One of the many benefits of booking your diving trip through Dive The World is that we offer a range of payment options to give you a convenient and cost effective way to pay. We recognise that international bank transfer fees, currency conversions and credit card fees can be a significant addition to your trip's cost. Most dive operators cannot offer the same range of payment methods. They often ask for payment in a fixed currency to a bank account in their country, or a credit card payment with a surcharge to cover their collection costs.
When you make your booking with us we will send you a Provisional Booking Held Notification. This form will tell you the amount you need to pay. The amount will be expressed in the currency used by the trip provider (the source currency) but you do not have to pay in that currency. The form includes details of the payment methods that we accept - bank transfers/deposits, bank card payments or PayPal. For many customers, this is all the information they need to make their payment. However, if you have any doubts about what is the best payment method for you then the following information below might help you make your decision:
We encourage customers to pay by domestic bank transfer/deposit where possible, to minimise banking costs. If your bank account is denominated in any of the following major currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, NZD, SGD, ZAR, or THB, you can avoid currency conversion costs (usually 1-2%). If you do need to convert currency, simply convert your own currency to that required using the current day's market rate of exchange on the Oanda website.
Dive The World accepts bank payments by the following methods:
Please note that if your payment is for a relatively small amount, e.g. under US$ 500, then it will probably be more cost effective to pay by bank card.
Dive The World accepts bank card payments using an on-line encrypted payment facility provided by Pomelo Pay. You can pay by Visa or MasterCard. Click on the relevant link in the email that we send you and follow the simple instructions on the website. Please have your full bank card details and billing address handy, together with your telephone number and email address.
We can accept card payments in USD, EUR and GBP. You should select the currency your card is denominated in to avoid credit card currency conversion fees (usually 2.5%). Should the use of a foreign exchange rate be necessary, you will be first advised of and then charged the amount at the bank's rate of exchange.
We are charged collection fees for receiving bank card payments. Dive The World accepts this fee and, unlike many operators, we do not pass it on to our customers. We want you to choose the payment method that is most convenient for you.
Pomelo Pay uses 2-step authorization (aka 3D Secure/3DS verification, which is mandatory in UK and the EU). The security might be a password, SMS code, mobile app confirmation, or automated telephone call. Sometimes clients fail to respond appropriately, and other times the bank's authorisation process might not activate properly. This could be caused by a pop up blocker, an incompatible device or browser, anti-virus software, or a non-trusted ISP/internet connection. In these cases the use of Google Pay or Apple Pay (through the Pomelo Pay website) has been known to fix the issue. This is because they are considered pre-authenticated and tokenised payments where the user does not have to pass 3DS (since they already authorised their card on their device) and hence there is a better success rate. Other ways to fix 3DS issues include the use of a different device, browser, VPN, or different connection, to solve the problem. Ensure to select payment in your local currency (USD/EUR/GBP).
Most payment problems are caused because your bank declines the payment. They do this as a routine procedure to protect you and themselves from credit card fraud. This is a very common outcome when the card holder is trying to pay from an unusual location, with an unknown device, or when the payment value is large and unusual when compared to regular payments. USA clients in particular may have problems because their bank will regard a large international payment as higher risk than a domestic payment. Some USA bank account holders may also need to change their account settings to allow international payments. The easiest way to fix these types of issues is to call your bank and ask them to authorise the payment. They normally ask a few security questions and then request that you try to make the payment again.
Note also, we do not accept Diners, AMEX or Discover cards.
If you have a PayPal account you can pay directly to ours using our email address accounts@dive-the-world.com. Due to the high processing fees, we ask that you send payment in GBP only.
I couldn't fault the service provided by Dive The World. The staff were excellent, very friendly, very accommodating, very professional.
