Transferring money abroad? Consider using a broker

There's a recent good post to the Personal Finance forum where one of our members outlines the various methods for transferring money abroad. Most members will already know we work with a foreign exchange company to provide such a facility and they recently sent me through some material which outlines their services in more detail but also serves to highlight the benefits of using any good broker, namely that they:

• Guarantee to give better exchange rates than the banks

• Arrange forward contracts enabling clients to fix the rate for a future date (Example: 6 months ago clients could have bought EUR with a ‘forward contract’ at a rate of 1.46. The rate today is 1.26, a difference of 13%)
  

• Offer a 1 to 1 service from dedicated and experienced consultants to help clients manage exchange rate risk

• Provide a rate watch service and daily market updates

• Arrange regular transfers for pension, mortgage, salary payments

The last point (arranging regular transfers) is - to be honest - one I often forget to mention when discussing the value of foreign exchange services, I tend to concentrate on larger lump sums for house or boat purchases. That's a mistake on my part, though, there are clearly significant savings to be made in finding the best deal for handling smaller, regular money transfers too.

If you're planning on transferring funds abroad, it makes sense to see what a good broker can offer!