There are many reasons which cause Brit’s to return to the UK after spending may months or years living overseas. Some return because of work, a contract may ave ended or a new one may have begun, others may return for family or because of financial hardship.
Reduced income
The recent fall in value of the pound has hit alot of Brit’s living abroad extremely hard, the weakening of the pound has caused serious financial problems for those whose lives abroad rely heavily on a British income. Expats receiving a British state pension will have seen their monthly income reduced significantly over the past 12 months. This has caused a vast increase in the number of British over 65 returning to the UK, they have been forced to sell up and transfer their money back to the UK.
Whether young or old, returning to the UK after spending time abroad will be pretty stressful. Not only do you need to think about where you are going to live but you also have a stack of paperwork which must be completed. HM Revenue and Customs will need to be informed for legal and taxation reasons. In the country where you had previously been residing you may have debts or other financial commitments which will need to be resolved. With all of this going on it may not want to spend time finding the best way to send your money home however in order to get the best deal and return home with the greatest amount of pounds in your pocket you must allocate adequate time to it!
International money transfer
You can transfer money home using either a bank or a foreign exchange broker. A bank will usually charge you a fee anywhere up to £30 for an international money transfer and the exchange rate you receive is likely to be a blanket rate that you will have little control over. The alternative is to use a foreign exchange broker where you will receive a completely different level of service whilst carrying out the international money transfer. Foreign exchange brokers offer a unique specialist service, a currency expert will be assigned to you and can discuss any questions you may have about your currency transaction. Not only will the foreign exchange brokers offer better rates and charge little/no fees for their services they will also give guidance on how the market is performing and help you sell your foreign currency at the best time. Foreign currency brokers offer a range of different foreign exchange contracts and will explain the different options available to you. unfortunately even the most highly regarded customers of the bank do not receive this level of service.
How do foreign exchange brokers make their money?
You may well ask this after reading that foreign exchange brokers rarely charge fees and offer fantastic exchange rates (especially compared to bank exchange rates.) Thanks to their enormous buying power foreign exchange brokerages make their profit from adding a very small margin to the exchange rate they offer clients. Due to the scale of transactions carried out by a brokerage they are able to obtain far better exchange rates than any individual could ever hope to achieve for themselves. The Foreign exchange broker then simply adds a little extra to that exchange rate and voila!…. profit for them and still fantastically competitive rates for the consumer!
To learn more about money transfer visit our money transfer guide and also check out our comparison table to find out more about the UK’s leading money transfer providers.
