Foreign Exchange Services for Businesses

Corporate financial controllers, relieve yourself of some of the financial burden today.

If you are the financial controller in your business, you may be interested to know that many corporate clients are using a relatively small foreign exchange company and are retaining more of their profits today, than their competitors.

How?

They are using the services of a specialist currency conversion business to buy, or sell, their currency in a pre-planned manner. By doing this, the currency service provider is managing to shave off large amounts of profit that their usual fx supplier makes.

Because the currency exchange company only converts currency for physical delivery, they trade considerable volume every day. Because they trade large currency volume, they can buy at a discounted rate from their treasury provider, in this case, HSBC.

Bottom line? …. Buy your currency through a FX dealer who buys in bulk and use their discount to get a much better rate than at your own bank.

Most businesses don’t have the time to consider how much of a difference it would make to their bottom-line if they used a foreign exchange dealer, other than their bank. One phone call, or email, could save thousands on each transaction.

• Easy Online registration
• Dedicated corporate dealers
• Client segregated accounts
• Competitive transfer fees, in some cases, no charge.
• Inbound & outbound payments
• No contractual obligations

More information on FAQ’s for corporate foreign exchange transfers here.

Save your company money and make life easier.

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,

Currency Conversion – Trust Your Dealer

In these difficult times, you need all the help you can get just to keep hold of your hard earned money.

• You may be in business and have a need to regularly pay suppliers abroad.
• You may be an expatriate and have a need for a regular monthly payment to be transferred overseas.
• You may have decided to emigrate and have a need to move nearly all of your savings.
• You may have just decided to buy that, longed for, holiday home abroad and have a need to transfer your savings as a deposit.

Whatever your reason for moving money abroad and having to exchange the currency to another type, you need to choose your currency dealer wisely. This is mainly because there are usually seemingly small charges applied to the currency exchange deal AND some foreign exchange brokers will not give you the best rate available.

Yesterday, I even heard of 2 different banks who offered a client a rate of exchange that sounded competitive and confirmed that there would not be any charges by them for the transfer or at the receiving bank. In both cases, this was completely untrue! The clients dutifully told their managers to make the transfers. When they received their exchanged money, charges had been applied at both the sending and receiving banks in addition to a completely different rate of exchange being applied!

When each client visited their banks for an explanation, it was like the bank managers were reading from the same script. Both offered the lame excuse that they merely processed the exchange of currency. After that, the rate of exchange was applied by the dealing room whenever they got around to doing the deal. No explanation was offered to explain the charges.

If these people had used a professional currency exchange dealer, they would have had a contract with the rate of exchange on it and a full explanation of charges applied if there were any. They would have known exactly how much they would receive.

Why use a bank when you are protected by this form of contract? If you regularly make payments abroad, or need to make a one-off currency exchange try fx-foreignexchange.com. You will be dealing with professionals.

Specialist Currency Converters

Use a specialist business to make your currency exchange and save a great deal of money. Using a bank to transfer your money abroad can be a costly, as they tend to charge commission and a transfer charge, whereas most specialist currency exchange companies rarely make these charges.

In addition, a high street bank is likely to give you a worse rate of exchange than a currency broker can.

However, currency exchange brokers differ wildly, both in terms of service and value. Like all service providers, they offer services that are similar, but the differences appear subtle yet make a vast difference to your pocket.

Choose a currency broker that is interested in you, or your business. Most foreign exchange businesses will simply take your instructions to make the currency exchange, then transfer your money to the destination account. You need a currency broker who will take a bit more interest in your needs and will then advise on the best way to maximise the net amount from the exchange.

Here are some of the services that you could take advantage of by choosing a currency dealer carefully:

Regular payments:

If you have to make regular payments overseas such as a pension transfer, or maybe a mortgage payment, or payments to overseas suppliers, business partners, franchise operations for example, you could fix the exchange rate for as much as 2 years ahead. You could then set up the payments so that you can concentrate on other matters. The alternative is to use a dedicated currency exchange dealer, who can pick and choose when would be best for you to change your money. Neither of these services have a charge attached when you use fx-foreignexchange.

Stop loss currency exchange:

A “stop loss” contract lets you decide on a rate that you would be happy to make a currency exchange. We can arrange for the money to be exchanged as soon as a particular rate has been achieved. The money is bought automatically.

We can add to this service by placing your details with an individual dealer. That dealer will then contact you as soon as the agreed rate is achieved and you can then decide whether you wish to make the exchange. To take advantage of this particular service, you need to register with us first though as currency rates can change quickly and it takes a few minutes to register. Registration is free.

Fixed currency exchange rates:

For businesses, or individuals, that have to make a money transfer overseas sometime within a few months, it is possible to pay a small deposit and fix the rate of exchange, then pay the final balance nearer the time of the actual transfer.

This is great for cashflow and takes the stress out of situation because you will have already fixed the rate of exchange and have ruled out the possibility of losing a great deal of money if the rate becomes unfavourable. For example, just a few months ago, the rate between the US Dollar and the GB Pound was around 2.04 Dollars to 1 Pound. The rate today is about 1.78 Dollars to the Pound. This is fine if you have dollars to sell and pounds to buy, but imagine you wanted to buy 100,000 Pounds worth of Dollars. If you had fixed the rate in advance, you would have bought $204,000. However, at if you hadn´t fixed the rate and went to change the money today, you would have received $178,000.

The difference in the exchange rate would have resulted in a loss of $26,000 !

Why take the risk? If you are in business, contact us and we will be pleased to allocate you a specific dealer who will take care of all of your foreign currency transactions.

Our UK number is : 0044(0)1480 458400, or just go to CONTACT US.

For more information, please visit fx-foreignexchange.com

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.

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