Every day the traders at Smart Currency Exchange save their customers hundreds of thousands of pounds by helping them buy and move currency at the right time to suit their financial situation and needs.

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This article interviews one of Smart’s best traders, David Comber, who has been with the company a number of years; he knows everything there is to know about making the most of your money and how you can save money when buying currency or sending money abroad. When asked, David explained how he saved one client a lot of money, and how he did it…

David, you’ve worked for Smart Currency Exchange for a number of years, what is the most money you’ve ever managed to save one of your clients? As far as I’m concerned, any saving is a good saving, after all that’s what I’m here for! But on a serious note, there was one lady who was moving an extremely large amount of money, we’re talking over £1 million, and I managed to save her a huge sum of money when she moved her currency.

What advice did you give the client when she enquired about moving money? My client called and explained she was purchasing a property in France; she needed in total €1,900,000. She explained that the rates were at a good level but as she didn’t need to send the money abroad for a further 6 weeks, she was worried that the rate would have changed. It was then that I suggested she take out a forward contract. This is when the client is happy with a current rate but doesn’t need the money right away. The forward contract allows the client to purchase the currency at the current rate, but use it in the future. So if the rate has taken a fall for the worse, the client still gets to transfer money at the better rate, hence saving money.

And what happened when the client eventually moved her money, did she make a saving? She most definitely did! A few weeks later she called me again, ready to move the funds. I checked the rates for her again there and then and the rates had dropped by around 2 cents. That might not seem like a lot but if you remember she was transferring nearly two million euros. We worked out that if she had not taken the forward contract and had instead purchased that day, then the euros would have cost her around an extra £35,000. That is a lot of money to lose for the sake of 2 cents. Needless to say she was really grateful to have had the option of the forward contract.

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The pound has made gains against the euro over recent weeks, making the average last-minute trip to the Eurozone some 7% cheaper for British travellers than it would have been last month. Anyone depressed by the cold and the snow can jet off south to sunnier climes for less as a result.   David Comber  Continue Reading…

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