You might not be aware of this but when you send money abroad you stand to either lose or save money depending on how you do it. The amount you can save or lose depends largely on the amount of money that you’re sending, for higher amounts you can lose or save hundreds if not thousands of pounds.
Why? It’s all about exchange rates. Exchange rates change all the time and so obviously you’ll want to send money abroad whenever the exchange rate is most appealing. There are all sorts of factors that affect exchange rates, from political stability to rates of inflation and current account deficits.
Exchange rates may also vary depending on however you send your money. You might view this as hidden charging, so whilst a company might have no or low fees they will load the exchange rate and earn money that way. With this in mind, it definitely pays to shop around for the best exchange rates, especially when you’re sending larger sums.
Other entities have more obvious fees, and these can cost you. Companies should be upfront about these fees and you should again shop round for the best low fee money transfer deals. You might also pay extra for something like fast international money transfer, however there are many situations where you will be prepared to do this for the extra service.
