International Money Transfer Tips to Make Travel Easier

Are you going overseas this year? With smartphones and international payments becoming the norm around the world, you may want to harness the power of your Android to make payments in foreign currencies. Though some methods will convert into local currencies for you, you need to be aware of the pitfalls – and fees – that come with it!

Here are some international money transfer tips to make your travel to far flung locales that much easier.

Ditch the banks

Most of the time, banks and credit cards use the exchange rate that is in effect at the time the transaction is processed for that currency. This often makes the exchange rate worse.

Even worse, it has to pay a lot of fees and charges. Your credit card company may charge you an international transaction fee of between 1% and 3% of your funds. On top of that, they may also charge you a foreign exchange fee, which cuts into your money even more. On the other end, the payment processor may also charge a fee, which means you’ll end up with even less money. Instead, look for a company that specialises in foreign exchange transfers.

Use a dedicated foreign exchange

A dedicated foreign exchange company can help you keep as much as you can of your money by offering more versatile options than banks or credit cards. Foreign exchange bureaux often have lower, or no fees compared with high-fee banks. They may even execute orders such as “stop loss” or “limit price” to ensure you get more of your currency at the other side of the transaction instead of giving you whatever the market has set at the moment. Foreign exchanges can also help you navigate compliance issues such as IFTI reports with AUSTRAC if you are making large transfers (over $10,000AUD).

Set up Google Pay with travel cards

Though very much an emerging technology, you can load up travel cards and bring them with you on your Android device using Google Pay. That means even if your smartphone is stolen, it can be easily replaced by downloading a backup from the cloud.

Some “neobanks” such as Xinja or 86400 offer debit cards that have zero international transaction fees so you can rest assured you’re not paying to get access to your own money (although what rate you get will be totally dependent on the time and place of purchase.)

What about exotic locations such as Nepal?

There exists a variety of foreign exchange bureaux that operate in Nepal – which according to TravelSmart requires a bit of caution and foresight to really appreciate. Carrying cash and travellers cheques are not a great option due to the security risks. You should concentrate on using foreign exchange to do an international money transfer so you keep everything secure and to avoid paying as much as possible in fees and conversion rates as possible. The aim is to keep as much as you can on the other side of conversion!