1. Bank to bank transfer

If you have an account in the Eurozone, this is the easiest option. Just transfer money into our bank account details* as below. If your account is not inside the Eurozone, you can of course still use our bank details below* to make an international transfer, but be aware that traditional banks often make mistakes, transfer the wrong amount, levy obscene charges and offer very bad exchange rates. We therefore recommend option 2 for those outside the Eurozone. If you still want to go down the bank to bank transfer route, then please make sure that all charges are to your account and that your bank sends the full amount outstanding in EUR, not your local currency.

NB: North American banks often have problems with bank to bank transfers (called wire transfers in North America). This is because their systems often seem incompatible with Eurozone banking or they are overly cautious or sometimes simply incompetent. For example, we have had anything from banks saying we are listed on their systems as cobblers (?!) to telling their customers we are frauds (with no evidence whatsoever). If this applies to you, please get in touch. You can also send  this document to your bank and then fill out this form please.

2. Wise (by card, transfer, ApplePay etc.)

Wise is a cheap and fast way to send money around the world without hidden fees. You can use your credit/debit card, a bank account, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SOFORT and many other ways to pay with this service, which also has very low charges (for you and us) and gives excellent exchange rates. All you need to do is create an account with Wise*, specify the amount you want to send to us in EUR, pick your own currency and then proceed. Depending on your home currency, you can then pay with your card, bank account, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SOFORT, etc.

*Creating an account with Wise means you will need to send in our ID and provide your details, as is standard when opening an account with a financial institution in the EU (where Wise is based). The process is entirely digital and usually your information is verified within a few hours and you are then ready to go. Use this link to start the account opening process.

3. Credit or debit card payment

Bank transfer and Wise are our preferred options, but you can also pay by debit or credit card (as you can with Wise) directly. To do this, simply enter your card details as requested on the expedition joining form or on www.biosphere-expeditions.org/pay. Note that each card transaction will incur a fee, which will be charged to your card by our system, and that fees vary widely (up to 4%) depending on the type of card. Note also that if you have paid by card before (e.g. a deposit), you can simply e-mail us to authorise charging your card again (e.g. for the expedition contribution balance), provided of course your card is still valid.

*Our bank account details

Our bank account name and number is Biosphere Expeditions, IBAN BE52 9670 2407 0009. This is all you need for a Eurozone transfer.

For international transfers from outside the Eurozone, your bank may ask for any combination of

♦ the account's SWIFT/BIC code, which is TRWIBEB1XXX

♦ our Irish HQ address, which is Biosphere Expeditions, 69 Main Street, Blackrock A94 N6D0, Co Dublin, Ireland

♦ our bank address, which is Wise Europe SA, Square de Meeûs 38 bte 40, Brussels 1000, Belgium

Note that Wise is an internet bank in Belgium (hence the BE in the IBAN), which holds the account for our Irish HQ. Also note that our account has a SWIFT/BIC and an IBAN code, which means that a National Clearing Code (NCC), also known as Routing Code, is not required.

Finally, if your bank does not let you set up a transfer to our EUR account details as above (it is often North American banks that struggle with this), then just send  this document to your bank and fill out this form please.

Any problems or questions?

Please just contact us via [email protected] or one of our offices.

If you are experiencing problems with paying by card

If you have tried to pay by card and your payment was declined, please read on for possible reasons and solutions.

♦ Your card issuer has determined the transaction is outside your normal buying pattern and has placed a security decline on the system. Contact your card issuer to have any restrictions removed and then try again via www.biosphere-expeditions.org/pay or e-mail us and we can try for you. This is the reason for the vast majority of declines and easily fixed by talking to your card issuer.

♦ You may have mistakenly entered an invalid expiration date or card number. Please resubmit the order via www.biosphere-expeditions.org/pay and ensure that the correct expiration date and card number has been provided.

♦ You may have exceeded your credit limit. Remember that it can take up to 10 working days from when your card issuer received its last payment from you until it credits your account. For that reason, you may not be able to make any additional charges to that account until your recent payment is posted with them.

♦ It may be that your bank is not allowing your account to be charged for internet transactions, or for transactions from Ireland or in Euros (these are the currency we charge in and the country we charge from). You may have in fact purchased on the internet in the past, but the vendor may not have an official internet credit card merchant account, as we do, so your card issuer was unaware it was an internet purchase. Please check with your card issuer concerning this recent order, stating that it is an internet transaction.

If none of the above help, alternative payment options are detailed above.

PayPal

Finally, if for some reason none of the above payment options work for you, then we have the option to receive payments via PayPal as a last resort. We prefer not to use this as the charges are obscene, but if there is no other way, then please get in touch and we will give you the details for this option.