Originally Posted by ceejay_za

I live in South Africa, but want to do a tour with an american tour company (they do specialised tours which nobody in my country does). They're quite happy for me to just pay the land portion and arrange my own flights, but they're a bit sticky on how they'll accept payment.

I expected to pay via credit card or swift, but they said they've had issues with that before and will only accept an international bank draft in dollars - they won't even give me their bank details. I've never used an international bank draft before, so I have a couple of questions:

1) it may be safer for them, but is it safe for me?
2) it sounds like I have to get a physical cheque from my bank, and then post/courier that to them - but isn't there a risk of it getting lost, and then I'm out the money as if I'd sent cash?
3) is this a reasonable request? It seems a bit dodgy to me, but maybe that's the way it works in the US?

I'd really appreciate any advice. I'd love to do the tour, but I don't want to take on too much risk!