Currency Exchange Update
As there have been significant changes in the currency markets over the last few days, I thought I’d drop you a line just in case you were thinking of exchanging currency.
I have kept this update to the main currencies. However, if you require a quote for any other currency types, please just email me here, or call me on the usual numbers, displayed at the end of this email.
Today, US markets have shown the Dollar making modest gains against the Euro and Pound, while the Yen has dropped across the board.
Euro to US Dollar: The Euro has lost some of the ground that it gained yesterday. After hitting a two-week high of 1.3785, the rate has dropped back slightly. Bear in mind that we were at 1.50 just a few weeks ago. If you have Dollars to change to Euros, you may want to talk to us even if you don’t need the money changed straight away. As long as you have a 10% deposit, we can secure the rate for the balance to be paid when you need the money.
Pound to US Dollar: We were at 1.63 Dollars to GBP a few weeks ago, but we’re now around 1.58. The rate was a little lower at 1.5625 yesterday. Likewise, if you have Dollars and want to buy Pounds, talk to us as soon as possible. If you have Pounds to change to Dollars, let us know what rate you’d like to change at, and we’ll contact you as soon as it reaches that level
The Yen has been the big loser over the last few days.
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The US Dollar to JPY has changed significantly since the low of 88.55 on Feb 12th. Today, the Dollar has strengthened up to 91.10.
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The GB Pound to JPY has shown the same improvement from 140.70 yesterday, to 143.65 today.
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The Euro to JPY was similar, from 122.30 to 124.85 today.
The Pound to Euro hasn’t shown significant moves recently. However, if you have a sum to exchange, now would be a good time to talk to me as we can either fix a good rate for you now, or elect to notify you when the rate reaches your preferred level.
If you have to send money by a certain date, please let me know and I will carefully watch the rates for you. The current Interbank rate for GBP:EUR is around 1.15
The UAE Dirham is, of course, tied to the US Dollar, so my comments on the current rates for the US Dollar apply to the UAE Dirham. If you have Dirhams to change to euros, pounds, or yen, the rate is with you at the moment.
Don’t forget, you can use our online buying facility for smaller amounts.
If you’d like to know more about buying online, have a look at this explanation where you’ll find a link to our site for online buying.
I hope you’ve found this helpful, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Good time to Sell Euros and Buy Pounds?
Some of you may recall my article on the 27th of January.. “Is this a good time to buy euros with pounds?” Well, it transpires that it was. Now the situation has reversed.
The Pound value has dropped against the euro, since that article. We had a case, this week, where a customer may not have been able to complete on his house purchase as the exchange rate had dropped so much that there was a shortfall of a few thousand euros on completion day.
This could have been overcome if the client had bought a Forward contract at the exchange rate that existed on the 27th of January. If he had done this, he would have been sure that he would have had sufficient funds for his property purchase.
So,…. Is it a good time to sell euros and buy pounds? Probably. No-one can say for sure, but it would appear that the pound is as weak as the euro, when compared to the US Dollar and the Yen. The eurozone is still dragging the Greek finance problem around and the Pound is still suffering from a wave of poor economic results. So, some would say that the Euro and the Pound have levelled off. Experience shows that this staus quo rarely remains for long.
The easiest way to look at this is; if you need to change your money at some point and you need to achieve a certain amount, then you have these options:
- Exchange all of your Pounds for euros at today’s rate. This is called a SPOT Contract. It ensures that you fix the rate today and you get your money transferred, to where it needs to be, in good time.
- Exhange some of your Pounds for Euros and risk the exchange rates going in your favour by the time you need to have the rest of the money changed. This is HEDGING in its simplest form. It does mean you can sleep at night, safe in the knowledge that you’ve made sure you don’t lose too much if the rates don’t go your way.
- Exchange your Pounds for Euros, at today’s exchange rate with just 10% deposit. Then pay the balance when you need the money in the future. This is called a FORWARD Contract. This is the way that most of my clients are now exchanging their money. By paying just a 10% deposit, our clients can relax, safe in the knowledge that they have the right amount of money for their property purchase.
Of course, this doesn’t just apply to Pounds and Euros. It applies to any tradeable currencies. It also applies to much smaller amounts than usually needed for property purchases.
Contact me here, for some free advice on how to get the best currency exchange rates to suit your circumstances.
Why use a Currency Broker for your Business
It’s likely that you’ve already used our Currency transfer services for your own personal use.
Maybe you bought, or sold, a property overseas, or you need to regularly transfer money to pay for bills abroad. Some of our clients just use us to occasionally transfer their wages.
However, few are aware that we have busy section to our business that deals entirely with business transfers.
Why use a currency broker, rather than your business bank, to make transfers overseas?
They are all the same reasons that you used us in the first place!
- We offer better exchange rates
- We transfer to most countries for FREE
- We are currency exchange professionals.
Currency exchange is all we do, so we are well positioned to aid your business. We don’t just save you money on costs. We help you to make money by aiding you to manage your business risk better.
How do we help you to manage your business risk when trading overseas?
Fluctuations in local currency can have an impact on your profit. If unfavourable changes in currency levels occur between your decision to commit to a contract, and when you have to pay for it, then your business will lose margin.
There’s a simple remedy. Buy a time option forward currency contract and fix the rates for a reasonable period. This could be for the duration between your tender acceptance and the moment when you may have to pay for goods or services. Your profit margin is then fixed and you can go about your business… what you do best.
We can also help by micro-managing the currency purchases that you make. We don’t charge for this service, it’s what we do all of the time for clients! We can then alert you when the rate has come close, or achieved, to what you desire.
Payroll services for staff overseas.
We have many business clients who now ask us to make the payroll transfers for staff overseas, each month. Some are happy to simply make the payment on a particular date each month, but most prefer us to keep an eye on the rate for them with a one-week window at the end of the month. We then contact our clients as soon as the rate seems to have peaked, so that they can take advantage of the best rates available. This isn’t something a bank offers.
In addition to Free currency transfers, we offer:
- Better exchange rates than the banks
- A dedicated currency dealer
- A Rate Watch service
If you are already using us for your currency exchange, consider how much we could help your business to retain profits in these difficult times.
Please contact your local currency dealer at GCEN here to discuss our business services further.
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Keep Your Currency Transfers SAFE
With the recent behaviour of Banks, it’s natural to consider the security of your money, when planning large currency transfers.
The good news is that, with GCEN, you win all the way!
We are one of just a few Currency Brokers, registered as a businesses in the UK, with Financial Services Authority registration. This gives our clients greater security. Our FSA number is: 504346
There are a few other considerations when choosing who to make your foreign exchange transfer through:
Is the Broker Established?
You need to make sure that the Broker you prefer has at least 3 year’s of audited accounts behind them. This indicates that their auditing accountants are reasonably happy for them continue trading on the basis of them being a viable business. GCEN now have many years of trading and the auditing accountants are Berg Kaprow Lewis and our accounts advisors are Grant Thornton.
Experienced?
You need to be confident that your currency dealer has the relevant training and experience to handle any size of currency transaction. This is where some brokerages differ. However, this is where Brokers differ greatly from Banks.
Most currency transactions at banks are handled by a teller, who has little, or no, experience in foreign exchange. This is not to suggest that something may go wrong with your transfer. It’s more likely to be a poor exchange rate on your deal. This can cost you many thousands.
Specialist brokers will use their experience to help guide you to the best deal available. At GCEN, we regularly train our dealers and will also provide a “Rate Watch” service for clients who are waiting for a particular rate, but don’t have the time to sit and watch the exchange rates.
Looking after your interests.
By using a broker, you’re more likely to receive a specialist service, when compared to the Banks. Currency dealers are more likely to be up-to-date with all of the changes in the currency market. This is likely to include pre-negotiated deals by the brokers with the banks to save their clients from the crippling receiving fees that banks charge when clients just simply transfer from their own bank.
How is the money protected?
As we mentioned earlier, GCEN are regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK and are registered as a money service business, with an appropriate registration number. GCEN are also regulated by HM Revenue and Customs ( with a Money Laudering registration number: 12137189). Finally, a reliable broker will keep your money safe in client accounts, which are entirely separate from their own business accounts.
GCEN is a commercial currency broker based in the United Kingdom, with overseas offices in Dubai, Spain and Portugal.
Contact your local GCEN currency dealer here
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Florida Property Agent joins Globalprops
property in Florida for sale with Globalprops
Gatehouse International, a UK based real estate agent has joined Globalprops. Gatehouse General Manager, Helen Powell, is delighted to be the the first real estate agent with Florida property for sale, to join. “We have used GCEN for our own currency transfers, and those of our clients in the past. Globalprops offers a new dimension for us. We will be able to work more easily with other estate agents in Florida by using the free website that GCEN has provided”.
The Multi-listing-service, mls, that the free Globalprops sites offer, has benefitted most of the European estate agents that are hosted with Globalprops.
“We are convinced that we will now have a market edge over our competitors as the IT team behind Globalprops have clearly demonstrated their capability to place websites on the first page of the search engines”, said Helen.
View property in Florida for sale here…
Worried about the state of the Pound?
How will the low Pound value, against the Euro, affect International Estate agents?
Over the last week, we have seen the pound decline in value against the Euro. This has started to affect sales that estate agents have agreed some time ago.
Buyers are pulling out of the deals claiming that the Pound has lost so much value, that the properties they agreed to buy, some time ago, will now cost them many more pounds.
This was avoidable. Sadly, many clients chose to ignore good advice to fix the rate at a given point some months ago when the rate was around 1.17 euros to 1 Pound. They are now faced with getting around 1.08 Euros to a Pound. When put into context, with a house purchase of 200,000 euros, that´s a difference of 14,245 British Pounds!
Your buyer will now have to choose between:
- finding the extra money
- buying another property that´s 14,250 GBP cheaper
- pulling out of the purchase altogether
What can Global Currency Exchange Network do about this?
There´s nothing we can do about the current exchange rate, but we can help by:
- constantly reviewing the rate and calling your client as soon as it rises sufficiently to mitigate the perceived loss
- register the clients for what we call a “Limit Order”. This is an agreed exchange rate that the client will be happy to buy their Euros at. In this case, it could be 1.10 euros to 1 GBP. We then call the client as soon as the currencies hit this rate and they have the option to buy at that moment. (More on how we do this later)
- We register the clients for what we call a “stop-loss order”. This is a point at which the client has the option to buy the currency so that the loss doesn´t get any greater. Using this example, this could be set at 1.06.
How to avoid all of this in the first place?
If you send your clients to us as soon as you have them appointed, we can discuss with them ways to improve their current perceived value of the Pound against the Euro. Of course, we will offer a better rate than any bank. In addition to this, we don´t charge for the transfer or any commission.
Using this example of a 200,000 euro purchase, a bank is likely to offer a rate of 1.06 euros to the pound and we would offer 1.08. The bank is likely to charge a commission of 30 euros and a transfer charge of up to 60 euros. Finally, we have negotiated that the local banks in Portugal and Spain won´t charge their usual recipient fee of 1% (2,000 euros). This represents a difference in charges of 2090 euros PLUS a rate difference of 3494 pounds
So by using GCEN, your client would be likely to save 5346 Pounds.
Quite a difference and likely to create a more stable sale / purchase for you
One last way to avoid this:
If the clients are introduced to us early enough, we can offer what we call a “Forward Currency Contract”. This is ideal for everyone. The client will only have to part with just 10% as a deposit (20,000 euros in pounds equivalent). After that, they have fixed the rate and can relax as their only commitment is to part with the balance on the date when the currency deal matures. This is usually set for a month after the sale is anticipated to go through. The client can complete the deal early by sending us the balance money and the property deal can go through on time.
We´re here to help you with your sales. Feel free to call one of us anytime if you think we can help.
Alison in Portugal, Marie in Costa Blanca, Lucy and Emma in Mojacar.
Contact your local currency dealer
Get the best exchange rates available today.
NO COMMISSION…
NO TRANSFER CHARGES…
BEST BUY and SELL EXCHANGE RATES.
Contact your local currency dealer:
Lucy and Emma in the Mojacar Office, Spain
Marie in the La Zenia Office, Nr Torrevieja, Spain
Contact Marie at Global Currency Exchange Network
Contact Marie Etherington at GCEN, Global Currency Exchange Network in La Zenia Torrevieja Office in Spain
Call the Costa Blanca Office using a UK number: 0844 734 3299
Call the Mojacar Office in Spain: 0034 966 760 117
Email Marie at the Costa Blanca Office
Contact Lucy and Emma at Global Currency Exchange Network
Contact Lucy and Emma at GCEN, Global Currency Exchange Network in, Mojacar Office. in Spain
Call the Mojacar Office using a UK number: 01622 817954
Call the Mojacar Office in Spain: 0034 950 615 319
Contact Alison at Global Currency Exchange Network
Contact Alison Daun at GCEN, Global Currency Exchange Network in The Algarve, Portugal Office.
Call Alison using a UK number: 01622 815201
Call Alison in the Algarve: 00351 282 768 136
