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Guest Contributor: Ben Mitchell

Disclaimer: Please be sure to thoroughly check the credentials of any financial service provider before changing money or arranging bank transfers, and be aware of any risks involved.

If you’re about to move to a new home overseas, the last thing you’re likely to think about is how to your going to get your money transferred over.

However, as if there isn’t enough to worry about when you’re moving abroad fluctuations in the exchange rates can make a huge difference to the amount of money you end up with.

Fluctuating Exchange Rates

Transferring large amounts of money from one currency to another involves more variables than is often widely acknowledged. The currency markets are amongst the most fickle in world, with the relative value of currencies subject to change because of a broad range of factors and variables – from natural disasters in the East, to political developments in the West.

When you’re sending money overseas these fluctuations in the market can see the value of your funds change by as much as 10% over the course of just a few days. That’s a significant amount of money in anyone’s language.

Top five tips for moving your money overseas:

1) Ensure your exchange rates are competitive. Brokers compete with banks to offer superior exchange rates, often saving people hundreds or thousands of pounds.

2) Plan ahead. Look ahead at the known costs and ensure that these costs are covered. Fix these costs in sterling using ‘Forward Contracts’ or ‘Currency Options’ at the time of setting the budget.

3) Assess your foreign exchange provider. As you would for any other business before entering into an agreement, carry out the due diligence on your foreign exchange provider. Are they FSA authorised? What is their balance sheet like? Are your funds held in segregated client accounts?

4) Keep up to date. To make an informed decision about foreign exchange transfers, some brokers will keep you up to date with exchange rate movements. Fluctuations in the market can have a huge impact on the amount you end up dealing.

5) Don’t believe everything you read in the press. Remember that a wild statement about which way a currency is going gets media coverage. Small exchange rate movements don’t make stories.

Ben Mitchell is a financial services expert based in the U.K. His email is Ben.Mitchell@worldfirst.com