How working with an Independent Advisor can save you money and time.
Recently we have had many conversations with clients about how to transfer funds from one currency to another most cost-effectively. Typically if you are using your mainstream bank account, and transferring to a bank account in another country, you will be losing a significant amount, on every transfer you do.
Examples of this we have had recently would be a client transferring UAE Dirhams to an account in Canada to help fund their son’s university fees.
A client in Singapore transferring money from their Singapore Dollar account each month to pay for a mortgage they have on a property in Portugal.
Another client who was buying a house in the US while working in Munich and needed to pay 3 fixed installments in USD. His salary and cash were in Euros and this needed to be converted into USD.
Using your normal bank account in either the UAE, Singapore, Europe, Canada the UK, or the US to both send and receive funds will be expensive. A bank cannot also guarantee you a rate in the future and when you transfer between accounts you are likely to pay fees as well.
Typically banks in Europe are very expensive in terms of fees and also offer very poor conversion rates.
At Astra, a core part of the support we provide for clients is to help with all aspects of their personal finances including foreign exchange. [FX] We work with a handful of FX companies that are regulated and offer very competitive rates compared with banks. They are also regulated in multiple jurisdictions and offer security and confidentiality for each transaction.
FX companies are most often required when a client is buying a property and needs to convert funds to do this. With property being a significant expense the cost of using a bank as opposed to an FX company when transferring funds could be very significant.
If you are also regularly transferring funds from one currency to another to pay for a mortgage in another country or university fees using an FX company will save you a significant amount over a period of time.
Almost all ex-pats and International investors or businesses would benefit from working with a professional FX company. This is an example of one of the many ways that working with a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach can save you money and time.