But, while ‘last minute’ plans are great for holidays and flights, there are some things which, as tedious as it sounds, are best arranged as far in advance as possible.  You might prefer to grab flights for a weekend away at the last minute but probably wouldn’t drop everything on a trip to the Himalayas and start to scale the west face of Everest in your deck shoes. Unless you have a death wish, an undertaking on his scale requires plenty of forethought, years of intricate planning, not to mention a decent pair boots. And forethought and planning are what you must be well practised in during your planned move to another country. 

From the visa application to the accommodation arrangements and from the packing and moving of your household furniture to the arrangements for your pets, there is always something else to add to your ‘to do’ list and in my experience, most migrants have more than one ‘to do’ list as well. In fact a list of ‘To do’ lists might come in handy.

When so many matters have to be considered within the migration process, it is no wonder some things get left to the last minute. One item that is often left to the last second or even left off the list altogether is the small matter of converting your funds into the currency of the country to which you are migrating. This is such a major chance to save money if you plan the conversion early enough. Sadly, because most migrants don’t have this fact highlighted to them early enough in their plans, they leave the currency exchange until they are closing their bank account in their home country and just instruct their bank to move the funds en-mass to the new destination. 

And banks are delighted when this happens. It means that the last act of their departing client is to write them a blank cheque. By instructing their bank to send their Sterling to Australia or their Dollars to England, the client is effectively allowing the bank to set their own exchange rate. If you are ever unfortunate enough to be in this position, just watch the bank clerk very closely; you will see Dollar signs appear in his eyes and hear the unmistakable sound of a Las Vegas jackpot siren behind him; corks will be popped and streamers released as the bank makes yet another killing..

And the reason for this euphoria will be the fact that your funds will be converted at the ‘Rate for the Day’; an exchange rate which approximates the rates tourists get for small cash amounts and which conceals a huge profit margin. Unless customers question the exchange rate, this is the rate that they will receive….or suffer to be more precise. This will immediately secure a profit for the bank of up to 4 percent and that profit is funded by you. I’ll leave you to calculate the loss you would incur on your funds. 

If you want to arrive in your chosen country to start your new life with as much spending power as possible and you really don’t want to make your bank any wealthier than it already is, then all I can say is, take a moment early in your migration plans to write ’Halo Financial – currency exchange’ on the top of your ‘to-do’ list.

Hopefully I can persuade you to think about exchanging your funds in a way that benefits you rather than the bank and you will be amazed at just how simple it can be to save money, hassle and risk with the right assistance. 

There are two major ways to get the best of the currency market. 

First it is best to buy your currency as near to the level at which banks trade with other banks. This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, called the ‘interbank’ rate and is as attractive as the rate can get. Obviously banks trade with each other in very large volumes so each transaction will usually be in excess of £10,000,000 ($18.5 million). It would be great to be able to get the same rates as banks agree between themselves but realistically, as few migrants can boast eight digit wealth, only the very wealthiest can expect to receive the interbank exchange rate. However, a specialist currency dealer like Halo Financial will be able to get you very close to this level and certainly far closer than the bank’s ‘rate for the day’.

Secondly, and far more importantly, timing your transaction effectively will reap fantastic benefits. The reason for this is that the currency markets are hugely volatile and that volatility creates excellent times to buy currencies and excellent times to sell. The trick is in knowing which is which and that is where the expertise of a currency specialist pays real dividends. 

2006 is proving to be one of the most volatile times for the currency markets in many years and the main reason for this volatility is the expectation for the path of interest rates in the US, Europe, Japan and the UK. However, whilst volatile prices are loathed by share markets, currency markets thrive on the ups and downs of the exchange rates. - Article Continued Below -