We are living through a communications revolution that has made it easier to live, work and conduct business around the world than ever before. So it should be just as easy to pay a supplier in China, send money to family in Australia or buy property in the US as it is to send an email.
However, with fast moving currency markets and hidden money transfer costs, exchanging currencies and sending money overseas can all too often be more hassle than it should be.
This is where the Irish Times International Money Transfer Service can help. Provided by foreign exchange experts Moneycorp, the service offers bank-beating exchange rates, low fees and expert guidance on the market.
Moneycorp's exchange rates are typically 2-3% better than the rates banks offer for international money transfers. This can mean savings on your transfers. If you exchanged £5,000 into euros you would typically receive or generate €200 more with Moneycorp - if you did this every month that would equate to €2,400 saved over the course of a year.
And the transaction fees are often much lower; €5 compared to the €20-€40 a bank usually charges to send money overseas. So if you were making transfers every month with Moneycorp, you'd pay as little as €60 a year, instead of as much as €480.
However, some of the biggest savings that Moneycorp can deliver are on the foreign exchange market itself. Exchange rates are known to move constantly and quite often in dramatic fashion; for example, the euro has slid from a high of US$1.39 at the beginning of May 2014 to US$1.36 by early June 2014, meaning you could have seen an extra $300 on a transfer of €10,000 if you had exchanged at the right time.
To help you exchange at the right time Moneycorp assigns every customer a personal account manager who will be able to provide expert guidance on the market. They can also offer you specialist exchange services, such as "market orders," which can automatically target a better exchange rate not currently on the market for your transfer, or "forward contracts," which allow you to fix at today’s exchange rate for a future transfer.
Amongst the most useful aspects of the service for those with international commitments is that Moneycorp gives you a holding account for 40 different currencies. This makes it very simple to receive and make payments in different currencies and convert one to the other.
For example, let's say you live in Ireland; you work in the UK with earnings in sterling, and have a holiday home in Florida, as well as a son out in Australia who might occasionally need some help courtesy of the bank of mum and dad.
When you are paid in sterling you could transfer this into your Moneycorp account and hold it there to be exchanged as you see fit or when the market rates are in your favour. This means that from this one account, you could regularly exchange your money into euros to cover your Irish living costs, US dollars for your holiday home bills and Australian dollars to help out your son when he needs it.
You can manage this all online with Moneycorp's easy to use online payments system. This means you can trade any time of the day or night, track your payments and keep the details of your transfers all in one place. Of course, your personal account manager is only a phone call away.
Moneycorp makes sending money overseas simple. It's easy to save hundreds, even thousands on your international money transfers with bank-beating exchange rates, expert guidance and convenient access over the phone and online.
It’s simple to send money overseas when you open a free no-obligation account with Moneycorp. Speak to an expert today to see how they can help.