Being a home owner you can often find yourself putting your hand in your pocket to pay for something when you least expect it, and being an overseas property owner is no different. But how is it best to make payments abroad?
We take a look at the best way to pay for regular bills for your property abroad or indeed other overseas payments that you need to make – perhaps mortgage payments or wage bills for example.
A currency exchange broker, such as TORfx, is a specialist broker who can offer competitive exchange rates and a dedicated international money transfer service.
TORfx’s Regular Overseas Payment Scheme (ROPS) is designed to take the stress out of ensuring that your payments are made.
Your bills can be anything and you need to be confident that your money will be transferred efficiently, on time and at the best overall cost to you.
Whether it’s ensuring the ground rent is paid, maintenance fees are serviced or that the mortgage is never missed, you are going to need to trust someone to help you and get the best exchange rate.
Often, particularly in Europe, people looking to buy a house with a mortgage will have to do this via a bank local to that country.
As such the repayments will be made in Euros, the cost in GBP, pounds sterling, to you on this can differ in accordance with the exchange rate.
You could set up a transfer of a set amount every month through your UK bank, but the exchange rate will be drastically different than that of such as TORfx.
And in addition you may be liable for additional charges for transfer, which are often around £30 regardless of how much you are moving.
The TorFX Regular Overseas Payments service, for example, is a highly cost effective and simple way to send money abroad on a regular basis.
The service is available for regular transfers of between £250 and £10,000 per month over a minimum period of 6 months.
TorFX can offer you a highly competitive exchange rate on your transfers, and charge 0% commission, saving you an average of 3% over the rates offered by high street banks.
In addition, transfers are free of charge, compared to a typical charge of £30 for most banks.
Once you set up the plan, you don’t need to do anything, the payments will be made automatically.
| Commission | Transfer Fee | Total Per Year | |||
| Monthly | Annual | Monthly | Annual | ||
| TorFX | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Bank | £30 | £360 | £30 | £360 | £720 |
| SAVING OVER 12 MONTHS = £720 | |||||
| *Based on a monthly transfer of £1,000 | |||||
With regard to your exchange rate, you have two options available:
Option 1 – Fixed Rate Regular Payments
If you require a specific amount of currency each month, (payment of a mortgage for example) you can fix the exchange rate on Euros or US Dollars for up to 12 months.
At the end of this period, you can review, and fix your rate for a further 12 months.
This means you know exactly how much currency will reach your account each month, avoiding the risk of fluctuating exchange rates.
Option 2- Non Fixed Regular Payments
This option allows you to take the prevailing exchange rate each month, resulting in a varied amount of currency reaching your account.
If you feel the current rate is very low, and likely to improve, this may be the option for you.
Whichever option you decide to use for your payments, TorFX for example will ensure that you receive an excellent rate of exchange, and your currency will reach your account on your chosen date each month.
If you receive a UK State Pension but are resident abroad you can also request that the money gets sent direct to a specialist foreign exchange company like TORfx who will allocate you with your own personal identification number that all payments in will have as a reference.
This will allow your funds to be easily identified every month, and when your funds arrive they will be sent to your designated account abroad, or sent at difference intervals, perhaps bi-monthly, if that’s more convenient.
A scheme such as ROPS ensures you the peace of mind in knowing that your account abroad has regular funds landing, without the normal stress and work that foreign exchange may have.
It helps to ensure that paying for anything anywhere in the world is as easy as paying for utilities through your bank here in the UK
Plus, with a currency exchange broker like TORfx, you can save money on exchange rates and the time involved every month – you’re mortgage may not be paid off for you but at least the process of paying will be a bit easier for you!