Currency Exchange

As you probably know, my complete story about moving to Australia is available by clicking the link in the main navigation called “How to Move to Australia”. It comes in 15 parts with four extra entries at the end.

Looking back, it’s missing one part which should appear between Parts 12 and 13. Let’s do it now and call it Part 12a.

Exchanging Your Currency.

Somewhere between Part 12, where we sold our English house, and Part 13, when we bought our Australian one, Northern Rock sent Britain spiralling downwards into financial chaos by running out of money.

As we hadn’t completed contracts on either the sale or the purchase, all we could do was watch helplessly as the pound weakened against the Australian dollar.

I remember being in my local pub and whingeing to my friends that our new Australian house was going to cost us at least 10% more than we thought, thanks to the crisis. As I was confiding exactly how many thousands of pounds this was going to cost me, my friend Richard said….

“I’ve got no sympathy for you Bob, you should have locked in the exchange-rate with a broker to protect yourself against these kind of currency fluctuations.”

Don’t you just hate that?

“Nobody likes a smarty-pants!” I said. Or words to that effect.

But he was right, I should have.

How to Avoid This Mistake

The lesson I learned from this, is to decide who your currency broker is going to be, and decide early. Build a relationship with them, let them know your plans and setup your account. By getting your account set up in advance, if you need to act quickly, you already have everything in place.

If we’d have set up our broker, I’m sure we would have been in regular telephone contact with them. And when the financial crisis gripped Britain, their opinion at that time would have been extremely useful. It certainly would have been more useful than my smarty-pants friend’s advice which came when it was too late.

Yes, what I should have done was ask the experts!

I was recently contacted by a very friendly guy called Ian from TorFX. They are a relatively young currency exchange company who have developed into the fastest growing and one of the largest in the UK. They have capitalised on the fact that, these days, you don’t need big offices in London to do currency exchange deals.

So from their offices overlooking the picturesque coastline in Cornwall, with low overheads, they can work on slimmer margins than most other companies would care to, passing on the savings and benefits to their customers on the exchange rates they provide.

They are certainly much better than the banks, as you can see for yourself…………

But it’s not just the banks that they can beat, I’ve done my research and compared them against many of the major currency exchange companies; they can beat them too! I was so impressed, I decided to partner with them.

Just fill in this form to get a quote……

 

With so many different currencies, different amounts and exchange rates changing daily, it’s impossible to provide an exchange rate comparison chart here. So I would suggest you use the bank comparison tool above to see how much money you will get using TorFX as your currency exchange company. Then see what you can get elsewhere.

My guess is you’ll comeback to TorFX.

Case Studies

James and Josie Fairclough

James and Josie Fairclough moved to The Gold Coast from Bristol last summer with their new born child. They had an inheritance and decided they wanted a new life to bring up their child.

James worked for a well known high street bank, so was fully aware of the markets. He also knew that even though he worked for the bank, he could get a better rate of exchange by using an alternative payment service provider.

After doing a bit of research on various comparison websites, he opted to contact TorFX and was introduced to his own personal account manager who had him set up in no time. James worked out that by moving his £160,000 to Australia he would get a return of $247,300 compared to just $238,600 against his bank.

He decided to transfer the funds there and then on the day due to the opinion provided by his account manager that the Aussie Dollar looked likely to drop, which it did the following week saving him an additional $4,000 on the transfer.

Alan and Cheryl Bosworth

Alan and Cheryl Bosworth left Leeds for Brisbane in 2003 with their 2 sons and 1 dog. Initially they didn’t use a broker and went with their bank when moving their savings to Australia. This was purely because they were unaware that brokers existed back then and there weren’t that many in existence when they moved at that time.

Since the move they have regularly been sending back the equivalent of £800 each month to cover their UK mortgage, which will be finally paid off in 2015.

They used their bank to make this regular payment for a couple of years, but were getting increasingly fed up with having to pay $50 each month just in charges to move their money. They were also receiving the kind of exchange rate you’d get when buying holiday money, so they looked online for alternative ways to send money back to the UK. They enquired with several brokers before choosing the services of TorFX.

They have now had a regular overseas payment plan in place for over 5 years, receiving a lot better return for their money on the exchange rate and are saving over $500 a year in bank charges alone. They’re also one of the lucky ones who have also benefited by having a variable mortgage in the UK as well!

Testimonials

We had never had any experience with a currency broker so initially had  our doubts but the service we received in the months leading up to our relocation to Australia could not be faulted.

We received up to date emails on the status of the Australian Dollar and I could pick up the phone and speak to somebody direct, no switchboard or call centre. The rates they offered were always far superior to any our bank offered so from a financial perspective it set us up perfectly for our arrival.
The Callaghan Family, Sydney

Friendly, efficient and effectively saved us over $3,000 on our transfer! Highly recommended!
Simon Hughes, The Gold Coast

We didn’t really think about how we would get our money to Australia and just assumed we would move it with our bank until a friend suggested using TorFX. Probably the best decision we made looking back. Thanks very much for your time and patience.
Ron & Jean Hamsworth, Perth

A great service which we have continued to use when sending money back to the UK from Oz for our UK property mortgage. Will continue to recommend to friends and family who will hopefully be joining us soon!
Brian & Jill Swann, Brisbane

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