Sending money to someone in an oversees country, whether it be Columbia or Australia or Germany, is a bit more complicated than sending money to someone domestically.
It’s also a bit more expensive. Unfortunately, you don’t get to send money for free. Each bank or exchange firm has different exchange rates and fees that they will charge you, and if you aren’t aware of some basic strategies to reduce the amount of these fees, you’ll end up paying a lot more than you really should.
Here are the top three budgeting tips for when you send money internationally:
Tip #1 – Find An International Transfer Service
Even though banks are definitely the most common choice for making an international transfer, there’s a very good reason why international transfer services are still in business and doing well: they’re cheaper.
Banks can charge around the $50 mark for making an international payment, and oftentimes the bank on the receiving end will also charge an equal amount. While this isn’t that big of a deal if you’re sending a very large sum of money like $50,000, if you’re sending a much smaller amount like $500 it certainly is an issue.
While credit cards are also an option, they will typically charge anywhere from 1-5% of your transaction amount, which isn’t much better.
This is why sending your funds with an international transfer service will be a superior option for sending money abroad. Their fees are almost always much lower than banks or credit cards, in addition to having more competitive exchange rates.
Tip #2 – Send More To Save More
The more money you send internationally, the more money you will save. It may sound contradictory, but it’s a similar concept to how buying food in bulk at the grocery store can save you money.
The reason why sending more money will save you more money is because you’ll get a much better currency conversion rate. In fact, if you send a large enough transaction amount, certain companies may even waive the transfer fee completely.
Tip #3 – Keep An Eye On The Exchange Rates
Exchange rates can differ significantly by the company and are always changing as they watch the markets.
You can also ask your international transfer service to notify you through text or email when exchange rates have lowered to a more preferable amount. Just a difference of one or two cents can be enough to save you on a lot of cash.
Sending Money Internationally
Even though sending money internationally has never been easier than today, it’s still not exactly a cheap thing to do. Fortunately, there are ways to make the process cheaper, as this article has hopefully proven to you.
As you begin to set a budget for how much money you want or need to send internationally, keep each of these tips in mind because they will save you money.
