AVOID THESE COMMON MISTAKES WHEN SENDING MONEY ONLINE
- Written by News Company
What if people saved just a few dollars on each of the thousands of money transactions people make every year?
With the ongoing globalisation and widely available internet connection we tend to conduct more and more transactions online. Whether it’s running an international business or purchasing goods from an e-commerce store based on a different continent, there are thousands of international payments made each day. These are some of the most common mistakes to avoid, which might save you or even your business some money on fees and exchange rates.
1. Not Checking Exchange Rates
Many platforms claim to provide “free” or “very cheap” international money transfers. However, they don’t tell you that they make money on the exchange rates when converting the currencies for your transfer. A significant markup on exchange rates can heavily impact the final costs for the transaction.
Imagine that instead of exchanging your 1USD to 0.9EUR, they will give you only 0.7EUR. That converts $1000 transfer to 700EUR instead of 900EUR your recipient was supposed to get...2. Not Researching The Best Available Option
The cheapest platforms at the moment change constantly and with how easy it is nowadays to send money online it’s worth checking once in a while how much the same transfer would cost at a different service provider. There are various convenient online tools available for money transfer comparisons, for example Wirly. All you have to do is put in your transfer details in their widget and the algorithm will automatically show you transfer costs at all of the available remittance companies. You can then either choose the current best offer or sort the list based on other features that are important to you such as transfer speed for example.
3. Not Verifying Reviews
You find a great looking platform, which offers free transfers and you give them all your money without checking first the real experience? Remember to read some customer reviews and do a quick online research to make sure there aren’t any catches. You will learn about any of the popular technical difficulties, transfer delays or hidden costs they don’t tell you about when signing up.
There are few popular review platforms like TrustPilot, Finder or the already mentioned Wirly. Try to check a few sources to make sure your chosen money transfer is the most reliable one. For example, here you can read a full article TransferGo review, breakdown of their fees and customers’ experience.Some of the other popular remittance platforms worth researching and their articles overview include: MoneyGram Review, Remitly Review, WorldRemit Review.
4. Not Paying With Credit Card
While it all depends on one’s available payment methods and sources, if you have a choice to avoid direct credit card payment for your international transfer do it. Most of the banks charge you additionally for processing such payment via a credit card and the remittance platforms can add up significant amounts to the total transfer costs because of that. The value is often percentage based.
That’s the few essentials to keep in mind which will instantly help you to cut down some unnecessary costs on international money transfers.
