Making Regular Payments

When you live abroad or own a home overseas, alongside the exciting new lifestyle there will be a constant flow of money between countries and currencies.

There are many reasons you might be sending regular payments overseas. Perhaps you’re paying a mortgage and homeowners’ association fees. You will definitely have maintenance costs, utility bills and local taxes. If you live overseas but have family “back home”, you might be sending school fees or helping with university costs.

If your income comes from abroad – such as investment income or a pension – constantly changing exchange rates will make accurate budgeting impossible. You can also find yourself paying a small fortune in bank charges.

Fortunately, there is a solution, an arrangement with Smart Currency Exchange. Smart is a payments specialist, authorised by the UK’s financial regulator, the FCA, and rated “Excellent” on Trustpilot for currency exchange and money transfer, with a rating of 4.9 out of 5.

We will keep your costs to a minimum and ensure you never miss a payment.

Making regular payments: Issues and solutions

There are three main issues with making regular payments into another country and currency. At Smart we have a solution for each.

1. Currency volatility wrecking your budget

Exchange rates change by the minute. It’s called volatility, and if you don’t allow for it your monthly bills change by the minute too. Suppose you have a beautiful holiday home in Mallorca which is costing you €5,000 per month in total for all the costs – mortgage, maintenance, taxes etc. If the exchange rate is €1.30 to the pound, it’s costing you £3,845 a month. But if the pound drops to €1.10 your monthly bill has risen to £4,545 and you are losing £700 per month. To avoid that risk, with Smart you could have taken out a Forward Contract, letting you lock in the €1.30 rate for the whole year. This not only avoids the risk of a serious loss of money, but ensures you have peace of mind that your bills will be met.

2. The expense of short-term solutions

Different financial institutions offer different exchange rates. Airport exchange bureaus offer notoriously poor rates, but we might accept that for the quick fix of getting a little cash for a weekend away. If you are making frequent but smaller payments overseas it is easy to get into the bad habit of paying too much, even with your high street bank.

As a currency specialist Smart offers rates that are always highly competitive, and you can lock in a rate for up to a year when making regular payments.

3. Don’t miss a payment

If international payments go missing, sorting matters out in another language and with another country’s bureaucracy can be agonisingly slow. Smart won’t let that happen. We offer a fully-automated transfer service for those smaller but equally vital payments. Most currency transactions can be accomplished easily using our online service, but your dedicated currency consultant will be available on the phone if you ever need him or her.

Hold onto your profits

We’ve talked about paying bills, but what about the nicer things, like money coming back into your account every month?

Renting a property can be highly profitable, or you may have investment income from a different country to where you live now. For those transfers, back to your primary account, Smart has a safe and hassle-free solution that won’t take a giant chunk out of your earnings.

Set up automated transfers from one country to your new location each month, using our Regular Payments Plan. Simply complete our short form to get started.