11 Tips & Tricks to Get The Best Value for Your Money Transfer

Everything you need to know about saving BIG on your Remittances

The remittance industry is growing exponentially year-on-year. The figures in world bank report say it all. In year 2015, a whooping $ 581.6 billion was transferred internationally. This amount is supposed to cross the mark of $ 610 billion in year 2016. Money transfer companies are making profit with this growth. In part 1 and part 2 of my blog series, I wrote about mid-market exchange rate and how money transfer companies offering you currency exchange at “0 fee” are still charging you indirect fee. In this part 3 blog, I’ll explain how you can outsmart their tricks and save more on your remittances. So, here’s how you can get the Best Value for your international money transfers –

1. Always Check Mid-market Rate: Be sure to check the mid-market rate or interbank rates before you go for currency exchange or money transfer. You can get it from Independent sources like Google, Reuter, XE, Yahoo Finance etc. This would help you judge is the money transfer exchange rates being offered are competitive or not

2. Check Remittance Fee: Always check & compare charges like commission, conversion fee and get an estimate of overall exchange charges beforehand. Check money transfer time, pay-in & pay-out options and other exchange parameters on a remittance comparison platform to get transparency for your money transfer. Get an idea about the fee slabs. Some money transfer operators levy a fee up to $500 or $1000 transactions only. In such cases you should try to send an amount above thresholds to get the maximum value out of your money transfer.

3. Compare Money Transfer Companies: Use a reliable platform to compare exchange rates offered by various banks and money transfer operators. Check who is offering you the best exchange rate and lowest fees options. Also try to compare differences between various pay-in and pay-out options. Some money transfer companies offer a better rate when you do an online bank transactions while other offer better rates when you use a debit card.This will help you find an exchange rate closest to the mid-market rate.

4. Choose A Safe Money Transfer Operator: Once you have settled for an exchange rate and other money transfer parameter, use a safe and authentic way to transfer your money. Check if the money transfer operator is reliable and safe. Read reviews of money transfer operators on websites like Trustpilot or Exchangerateiq.com to finalize an option.

5. Pay only for The Transfer Speed You Want: At times, you want your money transfer to happen immediately and that may cost you higher. Unless it is an emergency, plan to send money well in time so that you don’t have to bear extra charges. If you are not in rush to send money a slower service would often get you a better bang for your remittance buck. Xoom money transfer service is a perfect example for it, while it claims to transfer money to India in 4 hours, the exchange rates offered are usually lower than other services

6. Avoid Sending or Receiving Cash. Move online: Online money transfer is comparatively cheaper and faster than sending or receiving cash. You’ll also get much less value from your money transfer service if you deal with cash. You can save more on remittance fee and get good exchange rate online. This is simple, when you deal directly with a bank or money transfer company without agents or branches, they incur less cost and those benefits would be transferred to you as well.

7. Try New Services. Loyalty Doesn’t Always Pay: There are many remittance services available these days. By default you have a lot of regulation in place and most of these companies are safe and backed by good business practices. Due to competition, they offer competitive exchange rates and keep launching some or the other promotions. So, it will be a money-saver-strategy to try them out. You should always check reviews of money transfer services though, before sending money.

8. Hunt for Coupon Codes, Discount Codes, Promotions, Offers: Always look for discounts, offers and promotions for international money transfer. E.g. you will get offers to send money from USA to India from various money transfer services. You should leverage these to save money. In some cases you get added exchange rates; like a 15 paise more on every dollar. In other cases money transfer companies offer gift vouchers of popular online stores like Amazon etc. if you register and send money. Use these offers and schemes to maximize your return on investment.

9. Check Different Currency Options: For a lot of countries like China or Philippines, you have option to send money either in local currency or other currencies like USD or EUR. Check which option is better as per your requirements. E.g. when you’re sending money to China from USA, you can check money transfer options for CNY, USD or EUR at receiving country. This comparison in multiple receiving currencies will help you make better decision.

10. Try to Send Bigger Amounts: More money you send across, the better rates you get and lower is the fee. Rather than sending $200 every week, try to consolidate the amount over 3-4 weeks and send more than $500 or $1000 at one time. This helps reduce the overall fees for your transactions and some money transfer companies even get you higher exchange rates.

11. Know The Exchange Rate Trends: If you send remittances regularly to a specific country, you should keep a watch on the exchange rate. After observing the trends for some time, you will get a better understanding on its fluctuation and can plan to send your remittances to get maximum exchange rate. You can use a single discovery, comparison and money transfer platform – Exchange Rate IQ for all your remittance related needs.

Now, that you know about various tips & tricks, you can click below to compare various money transfer services to check mid market rates, offered exchange rates as well as fees associated with your money transfer.

Compare Remit Rates

On your next money transfer, do follow these tips to choose a money transfer operator with best exchange rate, minimum remittance fee and fastest transfer time. In my next blog of the series, I’ll explain how you can use an innovative remittance comparison platform to save money. So, stay tuned! Let us know if you liked these tips & tricks & share any other tricks that you follow to get the best value for your money transfers and save on the exorbitant fees.