Currencies

No matter your reason for needing to transfer money, whether you’re buying a car in Germany, an investment property in Dubai or moving to the Philippines, Smart Currency Exchange can help organise your currency transactions. For large transactions – a chateau in the Dordogne or a second home you might one day retire to on the Costa Blanca – Smart should be your first call. For smaller bills too, whether property taxes in Thailand or maintenance bills in Morocco, contact Smart.

Understanding currency fluctuations

Being able to transfer your money into a diverse range of currencies is only half the story. You also want to work with a company that understands the global currency markets and will take the time to share its expertise with you.

Smart has been in the money exchange business for over a decade, helping thousands of clients and transferring over £5 billion in currency around the world.

Nobody can predict currency movements with any certainty, but we are committed to sharing our knowledge with you, via up-to-date content and our range of tools and services. Our traders will work with you, whatever the currency, to create a currency strategy to suit your individual needs and time frames.

While it’s not possible to prevent these fluctuations, it is possible to protect yourself from the risks they present. Firstly you can protect your currency by in-depth knowledge of the global currency markets. The world’s currencies are affected by the same underlying economic factors. These include monetary policy, inflation, consumer confidence, GDP and the balance of payments. In order to stay ahead of what the markets might do, your personal trader will monitor these areas on your behalf. In terms of our major currencies – sterling, euro and US dollar, here are some examples of matters affecting how the currencies perform:

Sterling (GBP)

Your trader will look at monthly decisions on interest rates made by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPE). Monetary policy enacted by the Bank of England plays a role in movements. The UK’s Consumer Price Index released by the Office for National Statistics is a good indicator of inflation rates. Consumer confidence also affects rates, so it can help to examine the Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index (NCCI). Your trader will keep an eye on GDP reports, and on the Balance of Payments, which monitors how the UK is interacting with the rest of the world. House prices are a good indicator of economic confidence in the UK, as is the success if the services industries that the economy relies on.

Politics always seems to be in a state of flux. What will happen next? The pound doesn’t tend to like extremism of any stripe, but is Centrism in retreat and what does this mean for the pound?

Above all this, however, is the ongoing saga of Brexit, which will influence strongly for many years.

Read more about making Sterling transfers

Euro (EUR)

The European Central Bank controls the monetary policy of the Eurozone. They hold a monthly press conference where they make announcements on interest rates, monetary policy and the economy as a whole. Your trader will watch the Euribor rates – interest rates imposed on euros held outside of the Eurozone. The data that’s most likely to impact the euro tends to come from Germany, the Eurozone’s largest economy. Key data from Germany includes GDP, inflation (HICP and CPI), unemployment and industrial production. Political instability can have a big impact on the euro, especially in the Eurozone and in Russia, where Germany has a lot of investment.

If the euro moves, the Swiss Franc usually follows. Watch out for PMI too, the Purchasing Managers’ Index. If purchasing managers are confident and buying to stock up in factories and shops, the economy is looking good and the euro should be buoyant.

In politics the sands are always shifting as new presidents come and go, and each country has to deal with its own internal politics.
We discuss all this, every day, in our Daily Market Update.

Read more about your Euro payments

US dollar (USD)

The daddy of all currencies. But is America, and the dollar, going to be great again, or was it already?

We will keep you informed of every development that could affect the “greenback”. Announcements, or even hints of announcements, by the Federal Reserve Board (“the Fed”) and the US Treasury are pounced upon by currency traders. We’ll let you know too. Any statistics and reports released by the US Census Bureau or the Bureau of Labour Statistics are valuable indicators that market movements might be imminent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases US GDP data on the last day of each quarter, while retail sales and industrial production are closely monitored because of their key role in the strength of the US dollar. Even such apparently arcane data as “non-farm payrolls” shows strong patterns in the biggest economy in the world, by far. When the US economy sneezes, as they say, the world catches a cold.

As currency market fluctuations are regular and can be quite severe, it’s important to stay informed so that you make your transfers at the right time. When buying property, even the smallest of fluctuations can quickly push that home in the sunshine thousands of dollars or euros out of your price range. Smart Currency Exchange work with you to determine which of our services best meet your time frames, budget, and transfer needs. We can help you to manage your budget and avoid risk, to lock in the price of a property or a one-off purchase and to manage your regular payments, to make sure that currency fluctuations don’t end up losing you money.

Read more about buying or selling US dollars