Currency Fair Explained

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Many people who use money transfer services are familiar with TransferWise, a widely used international money transfer service. They offer the real exchange rate, next day money transfers, and their platform is both widespread as well as easy to access and use.

However, a new market player is up and coming in the online money transfer world – Currencyfair. CurrencyFair and TransferWise are similar in many ways. Both business platforms are geared to service both expatriates and low-income migrant workers, and they both offer the ease of a fully online journey. This simple, straightforward money transfer platform is exactly what most people are looking for. There’s no fuss, very few fees, and they know their money will transfer safely to wherever they need it to go (either to themselves for living abroad or to a family member or loved one living internationally).

So, what’s the difference?

CurrencyFair has an edge, though. They offer a peer to peer format, as well, which allows for individuals to buy and sell currencies between themselves rather than going through the money transfer service. This peer to peer marketplace is helpful for many reasons. Mainly, by focusing the money transfer transaction between two equally privileged peers, the transaction becomes decentralized. This allows almost a complete transparency in transfer pricing, and the pricing is generally significantly lower than when the money transfer goes through the third party transfer operation.  If you still more assistance read here about how international transfers even work.

Operations such as CurrencyFair and Transferwise also allow this entire process, as well as any other money transfer processes, to take place online – no bank visits to pick up transferred funds or any other offline work needs to take place. For two people who are trying to transfer money and get the best rates possible, taking out the third party transfer operator gives them the low-fee, high-security option they’re looking for.

What else does CurrencyFair bring to the table?

In addition to their unique peer to peer marketplace, CurrencyFair also ensures a range of low percent fees. With either a fixed or a low range percent fee, usually between 0-1%, it’s a significantly lower cost option for users. These fees are reflected in their peer to peer market as well as their other money transfer services.

Any amount can be sent, as well. Rather than being limited to specific high or low limits with other money transfer service companies, peer to peer transfers allows users to send any amount they need without being concerned about fees or processing charges.

Additionally, the sign up and general application use is significantly easier (and thus its enormous popularity with expats everywhere). To sign up with many of these peer to peer marketplace companies all two people need are Facebook accounts or valid email addresses with which to contact each other. Between the low fees, transparent costs, and ease of use, peer to peer transfer platforms are widely appreciated by users. Companies like CurrencyFair have a 90% satisfaction rating, on average.

CurrencyFair also offers a unique eWallet feature. Unlike TransferWise and several other money transfer marketplaces, CurrencyFair allows users to keep any amount of any supported currency in accounts using their system. This increases the ease of transferring and further simplifies the process.

What are the downsides?

While peer to peer money transfer marketplaces are certainly excellent for the consumer, that’s not to say they don’t have their drawbacks. The primary issue with these markets, as far as the consumer is concerned, is that to monitor the exchange rates in order to truly get the best deal requires your full attention (or for you to be a currency exchange expert). This is because, without the third party regulator, there’s rarely a way to lock in the exchange rate. This means that by the time you fund your transfer, the rates could have fluctuated and you’ll be transferring less than you intended due to increased exchange rates.

These marketplaces are also inconveniently priced for the money transfer industry. After all, an average of a .5% fee doesn’t make for an impressive profit margin. Not like their traditional competitor Western Union anyhow.Furthermore, the definition of peer to peer money transferring is a little unsteady in many situations. Technically the way its set up is supposed to always match a Buy Order with a Sell Order.

This can be limiting if a user doesn’t know exactly how to predict the market and foreign currency rate fluctuations. However, if you are an expert, CurrencyFair is a highly attractive option for peer to peer trading. Most experts have a large amount of FX and are ready to make money on their trades by carefully monitoring and selling based on the best possible market rates.

While peer to peer currency trades may not always be set up exactly as CurrencyFair and other similar marketplaces are currently, for now they come with their highs and lows for FX market traders. If you are a trader expert, or are looking for a low-fee option for transfers that may or may not offer the absolute best market rates at the time of your trade, the peer to peer marketplace is worth giving a try.
 

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