CurrencyFair is the new, unique and smart way to ensure expats get more money on every currency exchange they make. This is due to its unique peer-to-peer exchange system, which means its customers not only get better rates than the banks, they also get exchange rates that are close to or even better than the Interbank rate.
London-based Hilary needs some Euro. Sylvain is in Spain and needs Pounds. They decide to swap. Hilary gets more Euro for her Pounds than she would at the bank, Sylvain gets more Pounds in return, and neither of them pays any commissions or charges.
Why is currency exchange never this simple and this fair? CurrencyFair took this concept and developed an internet-mediated peer to peer currency exchange model. For the uninitiated, a peer to peer model works by bringing together parties who want to exchange something, but who have no way of meeting.
You could do what Hilary and Sylvain did but your possible pool of people is probably too limited to find one who exactly meets your needs. So you end up going to a bank or a financial broker, who adds on fees and reduces the rate you get so they can make a profit. However CurrencyFair allows people to come together directly, cutting out the intermediary – and their commissions –in the process. In this way, CurrencyFairworks on the same principles as the example: that two people could agree on a ‘fairer’ rate – one that is better than either of them could get elsewhere – if they could meet. CurrencyFair allows them to meet, and then makes sure the transaction they complete is safe and anonymous. But it doesn’t interfere in the rates, which are set by CurrencyFair’s customers.
And as each buyer and seller will only agree on something mutually beneficial, Managing Director Brett Meyers claims CurrencyFair rates ‘are typically between 0-0.5% off the interbank rate, meaning they tend to beat bank exchange rates by at least 2-3 per cent.’
As an approach, it’s both simple and revolutionary.
Simple, in that it represents a natural evolution in the foreign exchange transfer business,through the application of new social media thinking and tools to the area.
Revolutionary, in that peer to peer models are fundamentally challenging traditional approaches. As customers become better informed, they have higher expectations of value for money. And with increasing consumer understanding of and trust in new technologies, they’re increasingly happy to try novel approaches if they think they’re going to better respond to their needs.
CurrencyFair also hands control of the trading process to its customers. CurrencyFair customers have a personalised account that allows them to trade at their own pace, monitor the live market in real time, change their rate and close a deal when they want. This also means that, when a particularly good rate comes up, they can grab it. CurrencyFair even claims that customers can actually beat the interbank rate on their marketplace, ‘which was basically unheard of before we launched,’ states Meyers.
CurrencyFair has married the latest in social media thinking with the workings of the modern currency exchange market and come up with a product that delivers a better result for consumers.
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