How can you pay all your overseas bills, without losing money?
Many ex-pats living abroad may have to move money from the UK abroad (or vice versa) and when doing so, changing sterling into another currency (or vice versa). This often has consequences that many people fail to understand and they run the risk of costly losses throughout the transfer process.
When transferring money between countries with different currencies, losses can occur through bank charges, poor exchange rates and bad timing. These losses can be avoided or at the very least dramatically reduced, by using a currency exchange and international payment specialist.
Specialists are able to provide better exchange rates than those offered by a high street bank. Where the bank often sets their exchange rates in the morning, specialists call into the market floor and get the best possible live exchange rate which is often 2 – 4% better than the rates listed at the bank. On £50,000 that’s a 1- 2k savings! Furthermore, specialists concentrate on one thing and one thing only – moving money. By doing this, they understand where fees are charged and how they can be avoided. Aside from good rates and fee reductions, specialists have options available that allow clients to create various money-saving strategies.
This all sounds good theoretically but what does this mean in reality? Let’s consider a pension, mortgage, and a property payment.
Pension
Tony moved abroad in 2007 and quite a bit has changed since then – especially the value of his pension. Lucky for him, in August 2008 he contacted a specialist and signed up for a Forward Contract. This allowed him to fix his monthly pension payments at €1.23/£1 for a value of €2,460. If he simply took the going rate, poor Tony would have received a decreasing pension payout to the tune of 15% by November 09.
Tony moved abroad in 2007 and quite a bit has changed since then – especially the value of his pension. Lucky for him, in August 2008 he contacted a specialist and signed up for a Forward Contract. This allowed him to fix his monthly pension payments at €1.23/£1 for a value of €2,460. If he simply took the going rate, poor Tony would have received a decreasing pension payout to the tune of 15% by November 09.
Mortgage
Sadly, unlike Tony, his neighbour Richard failed to talk to a specialist at the same time. His mortgage payment was € 700 per month. Richard paid his mortgage from the UK using sterling month by month through a bank. By November of this year, the cost had risen to £636. If he worked with a specialist, every payment could have been set at £569.
Property
The Streeters realised their dream of buying a property abroad in September 2008. The initial payment on the home was €163,575. The quote that they got from a bank was for a euro exchange of €1.19 to the £1. However the Streeters were smart and decided to go to a currency specialist and obtained a quote of €1.223 to the £1.The couple saved €4,414 on their euro exchange by getting better-than-bank-exchange rates.
The Streeters realised their dream of buying a property abroad in September 2008. The initial payment on the home was €163,575. The quote that they got from a bank was for a euro exchange of €1.19 to the £1. However the Streeters were smart and decided to go to a currency specialist and obtained a quote of €1.223 to the £1.The couple saved €4,414 on their euro exchange by getting better-than-bank-exchange rates.
Each individual case is different – that’s why it makes sense to talk to a specialist about your needs. Specialists cannot predict the rates or make them change in your favour; however, what they CAN do is to get you better rates than offered by the bank AND allow you to pick from various options that have the further possibility of saving you money.
Smart Currency Exchange Limited is the only international payment specialists in the UK that works specifically to help people moving money for property purchases or for regular payments such as mortgage or pension payments. To move money abroad or repatriate back to the UK, request a quote now to see how much you’ll save: www.SmartCurrencyExchange.com/quote.aspx
If you haven’t yet collected your FREE report from Smart on "Why Overseas Property Buyers Lose Money… and how YOU can avoid it" get it here.
May 7th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Very interesting. My house in UK is currently on the market and I intend, when sold to move and buy in the Javea area. Any advice will be very helpful
Thankyou
May 9th, 2011 at 8:52 am
With regard to the buying process you need to have a good estate agent,a good and independent lawyer and a good currency company like ourselves. You will find the following website very helpful
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com/
The more planning you do up front the better. Understanding your options with regard to currency is very important. The last thing you want to do is find that you have less money than you expected or you can’t afford the property that you want because the exchange rate has moved against you. Please call us on 0207 898 0541 and talk through your timing and expectations in detail