Banks charge non beneficiary clients a ‘hidden’ cost within the currency rate it offers to use proposing to convert your monies.
To reveal this cost, what you should do is, ask your bank for the two FX rates quotes for converting an amount, for both conversion direction (i.e. USD to GBP, as well as GBP to USD). These are both Bid and Ask rates for the pair. For example, you may be offered the rate of 1.2408 USD to 1 GBP wanting to buy GBP, and the lower rate of 1.2137 USD to 1 GBP wanting to sell GBP.
Now, take the higher rate of 1.2408 and divide it by the lower one, which is 1.2137. The result is 1.0222 reflects the full ‘spread’ between the Bid and Ask. The hidden cost you are charged is half this spread, which is 1.1%. To this you may have to add a conversion fee and also possibly a fee for receiving foreign currency in your bank account.
On the other hand, Currenge offers you, combined with its transfer service, FX rates prevailing, or even better rates, plus its conversion fee of 0.1% with a $20 minimum (please see an elaboration on the Currenge pricing page), and money transfer fees relevant for Currenge handling your conversion. These Currenge FX rates are usually based on narrow spreads as low as 0.1%.
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