When you need to buy property abroad, understanding exactly how to make the payments for the property can be tricky. Obviously, you can simply go to your local bank, as many of us would instantly think of doing, and ask them to make a money transfer for the relevant amount of whichever currency is being used, which is the instant thing many of us would think of doing.
However, doing this is likely to end up costing hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, and when you are making such expensive purchases you probably haven’t got thousands of pounds to simply throw away.The reason it can be so costly is that a money transfer through a bank is essentially two transactions. Firstly, you are getting foreign currency exchange and secondly this currency is then being transferred to another account. Often both steps will involve charges, and you will often not know exactly what rate they are offering for foreign currency exchange.
This is not necessarily a problem though as there are plenty of other options when it comes to making such a money transfer. For instance, visiting a currency broker will almost certainly help you find far better rates and to make transfers at a far lower cost. Not only that, but you will also know exactly where you stand and you won’t find that money has been scraped off the top. It is surprisingly common for people to transfer money only to find that the right amount didn’t end up in the destination account. Even just a mere hundred pound of fees being taken out can mean that sales are not able to be closed.
So when you are buying property abroad, make sure you seek advice on the best way to pay for it and don’t end up both out of pocket and desperately trying to salvage a nightmare transaction.