Currency Rates

Currency Exchange and Currency transfers for your Property Purchase Abroad.

The Foreign Currency Exchange market is the world’s largest financial market, in excess of 1.5 trillion US dollars are being exchanged daily.

The process of Foreign currency exchange transfers couldn’t be easier. and as most services – money transfer is a free service with our Foreign Exchange partner.

However, be aware that some companies make charges for transfering money abroad.

Here is a simple 3 step guide:

Step 1. Open an account

Complete an application form and ensure you have usually two forms of ID: (1) photographic (2) proof of residence.

Step 2. Buy your currency

Speak to a currency dealer and they will give you the current market rate. If you are happy with the quotation they will buy the currency on your behalf. This trade is usually confirmed in writing by way of a deal receipt and usually provides instructions on how, when, and where to make payment for your currency.

Step 3. Get your currency

Once cleared funds are received by your dealer, they will promptly transfer your exchanged currency to any bank account of your choice, worldwide, the same day.

Other than just choosing any particular day to exchange your money, you could choose other dates to make the currency exchange. It may be that you have decided to buy a new property that won’t need the final balance to be paid until 18 month’s time. In this case, it may suit you to do a ’spot deal’ today for the deposit and arrange for a ‘forward deal’ for the final balance. By doing this, you will have just ‘fixed’ the purchase price to your home currency and will have ensured that you don’t get caught out by a weakening home currency, or a strengthening one in the country of your purchase. This can save people thousands.

Here are 4 basic types of transaction:

• Spot Contract
A spot contract is undertaken when you buy currency at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of the transaction and make payment within two working days. This transaction is typically used for deposit payments on property or for full payment if the funds to pay for the transaction are available.

• Forward Currency Contracts
A forward contract is undertaken when you fix the exchange rate now for a specific date from one to 24 months in the future. As an example, your final payment for a home abroad may be the equivalent of £100,000. You could fix that exchange rate today with a small deposit, and pay for the bulk of that transaction at the completion of the forward contract. To guarantee the exchange rate, private clients will have to pay for at least 10% of the value straight away (a margin deposit) and the balance on or before the maturity of the contract.

• Time-Option Forward Contracts
You may also reserve a time-option forward contract. This contract allows greater flexibility in paying. For example, a property developer may give you a date of December 2008 as an approximate completion date but may tell you it could take a bit longer. Your dealer may recommend that you set a date for your forward contract of February 2009 and you are free to settle that contract anytime before the maturity date with no penalty.

• Limit Order
Limit Orders allow a client to set the rate at that which they would like to exchange their currency. Our foreign Exchange partner will monitor the market for you and if the rate can be achieved, we will purchase the currency on your behalf. We would then notify you of the due date for your payment. This is particularly important for contracts of substantial value where a small currency fluctuation may have huge implications.
Getting Started

If you would like further information please call our Private Client Desk on 01480 458400. You may also register online with us. We will contact you to activate your account. In order to complete the registration process, we require two forms of identification. Please also provide us with a copy of your passport or driving licence and a utility bill, council tax bill or landline telephone bill with your address.

The value of your foreign currency can be fixed for a given period ahead. If you don’t wish to transfer your money now, you can book the rate of exchange now, for a date ahead.

To discuss how best to make a currency exchange into euros at the best rate, talk to a foreign currency exchange specialist. visit fx-foreignexchange,

Rush to Place Deposits in Irish Banks

The recent announcement by the Irish Government that they will make a public guarantee to all customers of all six Irish banks with their headquarters in Ireland, has rocked other countries.

It now appears that the inducement of a safe haven of an Irish bank offering a guarantee backed by the Irish government has started a stampede of investment transfers. This is not surprising when the financial world is currently a very uncertain environment and other governments offer much lower thresholds as guarantee levels for investors, should a bank foreclose.

With the British government now talking of raising it’s public guarantee to £50,000, the unlimited guarantee looks very attractive to high net worth individuals. Foreign exchange specialists have been exceedingly busy in the last few days, exchanging pounds sterling for euros and transferring the funds to Ireland.

The 6 Irish banks benefitting from this are: Allied Irish bank, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish bank, Irish Nationwide Building society, the Educational Building Society (EBS), Irish Life & permanent combined with the Permanent TSB.

The value of the euro against the pound can be fixed for a given period ahead. If you don’t wish to transfer your deposit money now, you can book the rate of exchange now, for a date ahead.

To discuss how best to make a currency exchange into euros at the best rate, talk to a foreign currency exchange specialist. visit fx-foreignexchange, or call 01480 458400.

Getting the Best Exchange Rate today

Getting the best currency exchange rate available today.
The steady decline of the Pound against the Euro has fuelled much debate over whether the currency exchange rate avaliable today, at about 1.26 Euros to the 1 Pound, is aiding the slow quantity of property bought overseas.

There are even several new initiatives to seemingly offering the best euro / pound exchange rate. Some developers are even offering to fix the exchange rate to 1.4 Euros to 1 Pound, so that a buyer of their overseas properties is perceptively not losing out on the exchange rate. The truth of it is that the price that you pay for the property is probably higher than you might pay if you just accepted the ‘Real’ exchange rate and negotiated a little harder on the price of the property.

Consider this: You are looking to buy a property at €200,000. Generally, you could raise a local mortgage of 70% of this, leaving a need to transfer 30% of the purchase price (€60,000) plus 10% to cover all costs (€20,000).
You will have to change enough Pounds to pay a total of €80,000 at some point.

• If you simply exchange Pounds for €80,000 at todays best currency exchange rate, (1.26), you will need £63,492 Pounds.
• If you take someone up on the offer of an exchange rate at €1.4 Euros to 1 Pound, you will need to change £57,143 Pounds.
• Clearly the better exchange rate will appear to make a saving of £6,349.

The question is… Did you get the best deal on the asking price of the property? Maybe, you could have negotiated more than £6,400 off the price?

In principle, there’s nothing wrong with these great exchange rate offers, but ask a few more questions of the builder. The builder may prefer to simply reduce the price. Try using an estate agent that is used to working on an International basis, like Gatehouse International, as they will be able to offer both types of exchange rate deals. You can then choose the deal that suits you most.

For the best currency exchange deals, get a free account with Global Currency Exchange Network and let us let you know when the best rates are available.

Buying Foreign Exchange

Is now a good time to buy foreign exchange?

For month’s now, the foreign exchange market has been a little nervous. With the right, professional, advice from a currency exchange expert, you can weather the storm.

As the whole Global foreign currency market is interlinked, an economic downturn in the United States can, and does, have an effect on the currency exchange rates between the US and wherever it does trade. As this is virtually every Country, the current economic downturn in the States has had detrimental effects on the Global economy. Equally, if the major lending bank in Europe hints that it will lower interest rates, as it just has hinted, then the Euro could weaken against the Pound.

While Global Currency Exchange Network don’t have a crystal ball, they can help to guide you through the maze and help to reduce the potential losses you make otherwise.

Is now a good time to buy?

Well, it depends on when you want the money available in another currency, and how much you can spare at the moment that the best foreign exchange rates are available.

Global Currency Exchange Network have a team of experienced currency dealers on hand to guide you through the process. In order to do this professionally, they will need some information. Particularly, the date when you need the foreign currency as they may be able to advise holding off buying the currency today. Sometimes, it’s better to buy currency at today’s price, but keep that price for a date at some time in the future.

This is particularly useful if you’re buying a property overseas and it won’t be built for another year, when you will have to make a large final payment. If you waited until the completion day to change your money, the foreign exchange rates may have gone against you, and in effect, the price will have risen by as much as
£10,000 when you make a comparison to the exchange rates from the previous year.
This system is just as useful to businesses. When a company decides to buy goods from abroad, they agree to pay in the currency that is local to the supplier. The rates on that day may give the business a potential gross profit on those goods of a fixed amount. If the exchange rates change in a negative way, between the date of ordering and when the business has to pay for them, the potential gross profit could be wiped out.

Most businesses hedge their bets by ordering the goods and fixing the exchange rate by asking Global Currency Exchange Network to ‘forward buy’ the foreign exchange for them at a fixed price. That way, they have peace of mind and relax, safe in the knowledge that the one thing that can’t change now is the exchange rate.

Global Currency Exchange Network are a commercial currency brokerage, based in the UK. We care for other people’s money and save clients vast amounts of money daily by offering competitive exchange rates, with no commission attached. In some cases, transfers abroad are free.
For a fast, safe, service go to our site and first open a free account. We will then contact you to discuss how we can help. Alternatively, call +44 (0) 1480 406080.

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Explaining types of Currency Exchange deals

Case studies of types of currency exchange transactions.

Before we show the examples, you may wonder why you would want to buy your currency in different ways. Every person, and each business, has different needs, Our function is to best match those needs to the best type of transaction that gives our clients the best value from the currency exchange.

Some people just want to buy the foreign exchange NOW. That one is easy, just call us, we’ll quote you a great FX rate and you do the deal straight away. However, some people ( or businesses) would prefer to fix rates for some time ahead. Well, Global Currency Exchange Network can do that as well. It gives the client peace of mind, that the rate is fixed and they can’t lose on a difference of exchange rates between now and the time set for the future deal.

There are various types of foreign exchange transaction. To help you through the maze a little, here are some examples of various different types of deals our currency exchange dealers can do for you.

Spot Contract: Mr Craven has just bought a property in Spain for EUR 145,950. His high street bank offered him an exchange rate of 1.245 Euros to £1GBP. We were able to offer Mr Craven a better exchange rate at 1.253. Mr Craven saved a vast £1167.60 just by using Global Currency Exchange Network.

Regular Monthly Payments: Mr and Mrs Williams have retired to their villa in Lanzarote, but they need to pay a small mortgage payment of 500 Euro’s per month and they have a regular monthly pension paid to them in the Uk, but they need it in Lanzarote. The total of the two amounts is £767 GBP.

The High street bank offered to make the regular money transfer, but advised them that some payments could take up to 10 days. And, as it was a relatively small amount, they would charge for the transfer payment together. Couple this with the additional charge that the local bank would make for just receiving the money, regular monthly payments were not looking like a sensible way to make transfers.

Global Currency Exchange Network don’t charge for the transfers, we have arrangements with most banks abroad so that the receiving charges are waived and, in this case we were able to offer a much better exchange rate. During the course of a year, Mr and Mrs Williams were able to save over £900.

Limit order: John has already bought his dream villa in Barbados. He loves it so much, he lives there most of the time! In order to sustain his lifestyle, he wants to exchange some Euro’s into US Dollars. However, the current rate of $1.585 to EUR 1 isn’t good enough. John isn’t in a rush to transfer the money, so he has asked Global Currency Exchange Network to put in a limit order to buy $25,000 when the exchange rate hits $1.61. John can now relax by his pool, secure in the knowledge that he will get the best deal and ‘Global’ will secure it for him as soon as the desired rate is achieved.

Forward contract: Jacqui has decided to have a new villa built in France. The total amount of money that she needs to transfer from the uk is €456,000 for the day of the villa completion. However, completion isn’t due for another 12 months and Jacqui is concerned that the exchange rates between the GBPound and the Euro will not change in her favour over the next 12 months.

In order to protect herself from fluctuations in the exchange rate, Jacqui has us to place a Forward Contract for her. This involved Global Currency Exchange Network buying her Euros for her at the price on that day, as a forward contract, at 1.278 EUR to 1 GBP. The price subsequently dropped to 1.234 EUR when she would have needed to exchange the money on the completion day.

Jacqui saved €18,240 ! Enough to buy a new car when she got to her new villa.

Stop Loss Order: Simon regularly imports goods from America for his Ebay business at about $25,000 each time. The exchange rate at the time of placing his last order was $1.935 to £1 GBP. This equated to £12,920. However, Simon was convinced that the dollar would weaken. He wanted to limit the cost of his goods to £13,000 and still have the flexibility of possibly buying his Dollars at a much better rate.

Simon instructed Global Currency Exchange Network to put in a Stop Loss Order to buy €25,000 at the exchange rate of $1.923 / £1 GBP to fix the worst price he will pay to £13,000. If Simon is right and the rate changes to $1.96 / £1 GBP, he will have saved a great deal of anxiety by fixing the worst price to him, but also gained around $925 on the exchange rate.

Global Currency Exchange Network are a commercial currency brokerage, based in the UK. We care for other people’s money and save clients vast amounts of money daily by offering competitive exchange rates, with no commission attached. In some cases, transfers abroad are free.
For a fast, safe, service go to our site and first open a free account. We will then contact you to discuss how we can help. Alternatively, call +44 (0) 1480 458400.

More articles on Foreign currency terms explained, currency exchange for businesses

Top Tips for the Best Exchange Rate

Getting the best currency exchange rate is easy when you know how.

Here are our top ten tips…..
1. Talk to a specialist currency broker as soon as you know you are going to need to purchase currency. That way you will have time to secure the best exchange rate.

2. Find a Company who where you can choose who you deal with. If you get on, the dealer will always be there for you.

3. If a Currency exchange company charges a commission up front, be wary. Try another broker.

4. Set a realistic target for your exchange rate. Your Currency Dealer should explain Read more

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Currency Exchange and Currency transfers for your Property Purchase Abroad.

The Foreign Exchange market is the world’s largest financial market, in excess of 1.5 trillion US dollars are being exchanged daily.

The process of Foreign exchange transfers couldn’t be easier, and as most services – money transfer is a free service with Read more

Saving money on Currency Exchange

Save Money On Currency Exchange.Gatehouse International has partnered with a well known Foreign Exchange dealership in order that our customers can have the benefit of the Best possible rates at any time, with the least inconvenience.

We aim to provide the very best exchange rates, therefore saving you money. Our Foreign Exchange partners will designate you your own currency dealer who will guide you through the whole transaction and explain Read more