One-off overseas payments
If you’ve made the big decision to buy something special overseas, we can help you with the currency transfer.
Whatever you’re paying for - a boat, horse, plane, piece of art, school fees - we can find the best way of transferring your payment and protecting your money from fluctuations in currency values.
Similarly, if you’re receiving a payment, we can help you convert the funds back to your home currency quickly and efficiently.
Minimise your risk
We’ll find you the best prevailing, or spot rates. We can also fix the rate you’ll exchange at, using forward contracts, so you’ll know exactly how much will arrive at the destination. Have a look at our Foreign Exchange Services for more information on other ways of minimising your risk.
Some examples of how we can help:
One-off transfer
Using a spot contract
Gloria Luard had to pay for a painting she bought through an auction house in France.
She tried without success to get through to her bank, and then found us online. She got straight through to someone who could advise her on how to transfer €7,000 (we always answer our phones within three rings).
Just as happily for Gloria, we also offered a better exchange rate than her bank, didn’t charge transfer fees, and guaranteed the funds would reach the French bank account within a day.
An hour after setting up an account with us, Gloria fixed the exchange rate and transferred the sterling equivalent to us online.
The next day, we made the payment to the French auction house, and they sent her confirmation a day later. The whole process took three days. Gloria worked out she had saved £30 in transfer fees, and £52 on the better exchange rate.
One-off transfer
Using a forward contract
Ralph Martin found a Sunseeker 66 Manhattan he wanted to buy in June 2010. He needed to pay €875,000 for it in euros.
He booked a forward contract with us in June, paying a 8% deposit, which locked him in to a sterling-euro exchange rate of 1.2210.
By the time the sale of the boat went through at the end of September, the exchange rate had moved to 1.1720. The forward contract saved him a total of £29,962.
The rate could have improved by September too, in which case the boat would have been less expensive.
But Ralph had budgeted to buy the boat at no lower than 1.21 – and fixing the rate in advance allowed him to do this, and ensured there were no nasty surprises on the day if the rates had gone the other way.
Equally, he could have decided to enter into a currency option, which would have allowed him to fix the rate and benefit on half the amount if rates had moved in his favour.
We’re the UK’s leading foreign exchange and currency transfer provider. We’re fast, friendly and we don’t charge commission.
Call us on 0800 542 7488, or +44 20 7801 1050 to see how we can help. Alternatively arrange for us to call you back.
