How to save money on international transactions?

By Editor1SYS | November 16, 2019 0 Comments

In today’s age of globalization and much easier access to the Internet, which allows us to connect with people from all over the world, we tend to handle international businesses more often. If a product is not available in your local store, you order it online. Even if the producent sends this item from another continent. You can easily set up your own online company and have customers from foreign countries. You can as easily hire someone from the other side of the world and cooperate with them. However, each country has its own financial system, therefore it costs a lot to send money overseas from one bank to another. In this article we will explore ways to send money online cheaper, so that you can develop your business faster or order products cheaper.

Doing business internationally

Nowadays, it’s quite easy to start your own business. With just a computer in your room and head full of good ideas you can connect to people from all over the world. Whether you are an influencer who cooperates with international corporations, or maybe an independent businesswoman crafting your perfect ecommerce shop and taking first orders from abroad, you constantly send and receive money from various places.

After taking a quick glimpse at offer from popular mainstream banks for overseas payments, the fees go from $9 up to $20 in some cases. What’s more, in some cases you need to pay in order to receive a transfer from abroad. This can have a tremendous impact on your budget and income. What if you need to make a small payment of $10. Are you going to pay another $10 just to send this transfer? Or maybe a startup offered you $100 to promote it in your social media, and $20 will be conducted from the payment to cover your bank fees.

There is a whole market of remittance and business-oriented online independent platforms, which let you handle your finances internationally for the fraction of these fees.

Online remittance companies

The offer is literally endless – it is both an advantage, but also disadvantage. It is easy to get lost among thousands of offers with every company claiming to be the best and the cheapest to use.

• Compare the competition

First of all, you should find out what you really need in terms of storing, sending and spending your money. There are platforms, which act as multi-currency wallets. That way you can receive and send payments in all of the world’s currencies and store them in one place. Moreover, you can receive a plastic card connected to such account and spend the money in physical shops.

Other platforms specialize in providing the cheapest international transfers. They help you plan regular transactions such as your employees payouts or invoices for other companies.

Each platform has its own benefits and features. Some places offer extra fast transactions, which your recipient can receive in few minutes. Others have low fees, but the transfer can take up to a week to be delivered.

It’s good to research and compare the different companies. For example, there are websites such as Wirly.com which gathers information about financial companies, personal and business accounts and lets you sort them based on ratings, costs, safety and so on. Moreover, you can simply put your transfer details in their compare tool and you will see how much it will cost to send the same amount of money in different remittance companies.

• Watch out for exchange rates

It’s also good to compare and look into exchange rates offered by these companies. You may be lured by cheap transaction costs, but there will be a “hidden charge” in a form of poor currency conversion rates. Your recipient will receive only a fraction of what you though you are sending, as the company put a high markup on swapping the currency.

• Don’t use credit card

In most cases, if you want to finalize any transaction with your credit card you will be charged additional “card processing” fees. They are often percentage-based, so for large payments it can quickly add up to significant amounts. When purchasing products online, you can use PayPal’s card check out, as it much more convenient and secure. If you issue an international payment with one of the online remittance platforms, remember to pay for the transfer with a regular domestic bank wire and not by credit card to avoid extra costs and processing delays.

Best way to send money internationally?

There might not be a single platform, which can be described as the best place to send money online. For example, PayPal is one of the most popular online payment processors, yet sending and exchanging $100 with them costs around $4.99. Same transaction using TransferWise would cost only $1.71. And it is just one example. There are thousands of offers and it’s best to research and compare the options before making a transaction or setting up your business account.

It’s also essential to read some customer reviews to learn what may be the advantages and drawbacks of each platform. With the help of compare tools and by sorting and researching the companies based on which features are important to you, you should be able to find the perfect way to manage your online finances cheaper.

After that, you will quickly notice the amount of money you’ve already saved on all of these transaction fees and currency conversions.