What are my options?

The first thing you need to decide is when does the money need to arrive?

If the answer is "as soon as possible" then you'll probably want to use a spot contract. With a spot contract you can convert your money at the current exchange rate allowing you to make an immediate overseas payment.

If on the other hand the answer is at some point in the next few weeks or months, then there are a couple of options available to you:

• Using a forward contract. A forward contract allows you to lock in a guaranteed exchange rate on a fixed future date so that you can budget effectively for that payment today. This will require a small deposit to be paid.
• Using a FX order. With an FX order you can ask us to target a particular rate for you and notify you when it is available. Obviously this doesn't guarantee that rate, but if you expect that market to rise then it may be a good option (you can also set a minimum target that you don't want to rate to fall below if you are worried about downside too).

Great! Now you just need to tell us where to send the money to. We call these beneficiaries.

What banking details will I need?

The information needed to set up a beneficiary can vary from country to country - especially if you choose to send it via a more cost effective local payment network.

Generally speaking though, most beneficiaries will require:

• An account holder name
• An account number or IBAN - short for international bank account number
• A BIC / SWIFT code - essentially a routing code

You only need to set a beneficiary up once - you can make later payments to them without having to enter their details again.

And that's it!

Payments are sent as soon as possible and often arrive the same day (depending on where in the world you are) but typically within 1 to 2 days.

What's wrong with my current bank account?

Okay, lets imagine that you live in the UK and have a GBP bank account with any of the high street banks. Now let's imagine you receive a payment into that account that originated in the US and that was sent in USD. You're probably going to notice a couple of things.

• The full USD amount wasn't credited. When money is sent cross-border the banks that touch the payment typically charge a fee. Sometimes to the sender, sometimes to the beneficiary, sometimes to both.
• The exchange rate used to convert the USD to GBP was terrible. High street banks typically change around 2% to 2.5% to exchange incoming payments. Which is really bad.

The same is true if you're in the US, Singapore, South Africa, basically anywhere.

How can a Flowbrite currency account help?

At Flowbrite you are issued local named bank accounts in the US, Canada, Europe and the UK, plus a named multi-currency account in the UK for every other currency. The benefits to you of having these are:

• No receiving fees for local payments in your local accounts. As long as the money arrives via a local payment network you'll get the full amount.
• You control when to exchange the money. And you'll get fair, fixed and transparent pricing, all agreed upfront.
• When you send the money you can send it locally. We can pay out to over 50 countries using local networks so the beneficiary will probably get paid in full too.

Our online platform is pain-free and simple to use, but if you ever have any questions you can always just pick up the phone and talk to your account manager too.