Save money on your overseas transfers and payments
If you use your high street bank to make payments overseas, then you may be paying more than you bargained for
There are a number of reasons people need to send money overseas. Common examples include buying and selling international property, or sending money home if you are working overseas. An increasingly connected world means that more and more businesses are conducting crossborder transactions too.
Whatever the reason though, many of us are unaware that using our bank could be costing us more than we expected. This is because of the typically unfavourable exchange rates that many banks offer.
On the other hand, using a foreign exchange specialist for international transfers could save you a considerable sum of money. This is the reason that City PM is partnering with foreign exchange experts, moneycorp, to bring our readers City PM International Payments. This service provides you with access to exchange rates that typically beat what you can get from many banks by around 3-4%. If you consider a transfer of £100k, that could equate to a saving of up to £4,000.
Even for the most financially savvy, the ups and downs of currency markets are tough to preempt and movements can catch us off guard. Imagine you were buying a property in Europe around the time of the UK elections. On 27th April, £1 bought you around €1.40. At that rate, a €250,000 property would’ve been priced around £178,500 in sterling terms.
But just one (often unexpected) event can impact the value of your transfer significantly. In the week leading up to the election the pound weakened due to increased fears of another hung parliament, and on 6th May, £1 would have bought you just €1.34. This meant that the same property in sterling terms would have been priced at £186,500 – costing you £8,000 more.
With the right guidance though, there are things that can be done to protect yourself. moneycorp will assign you a personal account manager to assist with your international money transfer. Your account manager may talk to you about using a ‘forward contract’ to protect yourself from negative exchange rate movements, by securing a rate for up to two years.
This is attractive to many of moneycorp’s personal and business clients alike. While the UK economy has generally performed better than that of the Eurozone, we have seen the pound strengthen against the euro. But sterling’s recent strength has meant putting the champagne on ice for many companies that rely on exports for their revenue.
In April, British American Tobacco announced that a drop in sales was largely attributable to the strong pound. And while British American Tobacco might be robust enough to absorb such a drop in sales, for many SMEs, currency fluctuations pose a threat to their ability to trade. So many UK businesses opt to protect themselves from adverse currency movements using moneycorp’s market expertise.
The service also offers our readers real convenience. moneycorp makes it easy to arrange regular international payments. Perhaps you are working abroad and need to transfer your salary back home. moneycorp’s Regular Payment Plan enables you to set up repeat payments at any interval, and fix the exchange rate on regular payments.
You will receive access to moneycorp’s onlne service which allows you to buy or sell currency and make transfers at any time, from anywhere in the world. Additionally, City PM International Payments customers get free online transfers.
Last year moneycorp conducted 9.2 million currency transactions and traded over £13bn in currency on half of its customers. moneycorp is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Auhtority for the provision of payment services and customer funds are safeguarded in segregated client accounts.
City PM International Payments provides our readers with competitive exchange rates, expert guidance, and convenience when transferring money between counties.
For competitive rates and the exclusive City PM offer of free online transfers, call free on 0808 115 3718