Taxes, notary fees, agent’s fees and legal fees – when the extra costs that come with buying an overseas property start to mount up, they really can make your eyes water.

 

Article written by The Overseas Guides Company

Did you know though, there is a way you can actually save money on an overseas purchase, reducing the costs of both your property and those annoying fees and taxes, rather than landing you with another bill? The simple answer is to make any payments from your UK account to a foreign bank, which you’re likely to need to do to when you pay for your property, through a currency exchange specialist rather than asking your UK bank direct.

Sadly, a recent survey by currency exchange specialist Smart Currency Exchange showed that nearly 40 per cent of readers wouldn’t use a firm like theirs to send money abroad, therefore missing the opportunity to make some serious savings – often worth more than the value of the conveyancing fees they’re having to pay! If someone offered to pay your conveyancing fees, would you say no?

Currency exchange specialists save their clients money by exchanging their pounds into a foreign currency, and vice versa, at a better exchange rate than that offered by high street banks. For example, Smart Currency Exchange’s rates are typically between two and four per cent better than a bank’s.

Too many overseas buyers are not aware of this other way to send money to a foreign bank account and, unsurprisingly, your bank won’t tell you about it! And it’s easy to do. Once you have registered with, for example, Smart Currency Exchange, you simply transfer pounds into their segregated client account in London, having agreed a competitive, better-than-bank exchange rate with them, and they then ensure the required amount of foreign currency arrives in your designated overseas beneficiary account, much as a bank would, only quicker and at less cost to you.

Smart Currency Exchange doesn’t charge transfer fees on any transactions worth £3,000 or more, and even on lower value ones the fee is minimal compared with banks, which charge whatever the value of the transfer.

If you’re looking for a way to make savings when you buy an overseas property, especially if those extra buying costs are higher than you first thought, Smart Currency Exchange can help you. To find out more, download their free report by clicking here.

For information about buying property abroad or emigrating, visit the Overseas Guides Company website.