Advice sought re apartment rental transactions

[derrygal]

Hi

I have seen an apartment that I wish to book.

The letting agent has offered to accept payment either by cheque (Euro or Stg) or bank transfer to a UK or Portuguese account.

Can anyone advise the safest way to go about this - I'm a little wary of getting scammed but I really like the look of the apartment.

I have already sent a deposit (sterling cheque) to the Portugal address almost 2 weeks ago but apparently this has not been delivered!

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[Canada]

My advice would be to either stop payment on that cheque or have the bank follow up about the delivery of funds at the other end. We rented privately this year from a property manager and the only problems were the horrendous bank charges for the transfer at both ends.

[joanne]

When we send money we use signedfor international and have never had any problems, sent a parcel using this service last week and it arrived within 3 days, just pick them up at the post office.