Good morning everyone and welcome to the first edition of 2014. From the whole team at MyCurrencyTransfer, we wish you a happy, healthy and successful year to come.
In today’s episode, we’ll discuss 5 currency New Year’s resolutions that you can make. It will lead to more pounds in your pocket and a more economical way of dealing with your currency.
Ditch the bank
Banks take a chunky £100 on every £2000 international money transfer you make. How come? Well, they add pretty big markups away from the ‘real’ interbank exchange rate. Always remember the golden rule:
“The closer the exchange rate you are offered is to the ‘real exchange rate’, the better the deal.”
Forget offers of 0% commission, it’s simply a marketing myth and in no way represents free international payments.
Opt for an FCA regulated broker
We’ve done extensive mystery shopping over the past couple years. The overall cheapest way to make an international money transfer is to use an FCA authorised and regulated foreign exchange broker. Not only will they offer you much more competitive spreads than the bank, but they will also be able to offer a personal service over the phone.
Want to trade online? No problem. There’s a raft of innovative peer to peer companies such as TransferWise, CurrencyFair & Kantox who will let you execute online at bank-beating exchange rates.
Ditch the airport bureau
Next time you go on holiday, plan a little in advance. Every week, our sister site MyTravelMoney.co.uk runs a mystery shop. We’ve found that airport bureaus apply markups of over 10% away from the ‘real’ exchange rate. That means the true cost of a travel money order is £50 on every £500 worth of foreign currency you buy. Buying currency online for home delivery or airport pickup always, always works out overall cheapest.
Get two quotes. It’s better than one.
Whether you are emigrating, making overseas property payments or sending money to friends and family – SHOP AROUND. Getting two quotes is always going to be better than one. Don’t settle for the first deal you stumble across.
Haggle. Haggle. Haggle
If you are trading over the telephone, never underestimate the power of haggling. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how far currency brokers will fight to secure your business. Ask straight up if they can tighten the rate a little bit.
So, those are 5 very important currency New Year’s resolutions.
Now, we’re also delighted to announce the launch of #mycurrencyq
At MyCurrencyTransfer.com, we can’t get enough of customer feedback and answering your questions. So today, we are launching our own concierge service on Twitter. Simply follow us @mycurrencytrans and tweet us any question you like, using the hashtag #mycurrencyq
As always, if you have any questions or comments which you want to email in direct, my details are [email protected]
Sofia Kluge on Google+
