What is the mid-market rate?
Have you noticed that the exchange rate you see on Google or Yahoo is consistently different from the exchange rate offered to you by banks or typical money transfer operators? If you have, you would also have noticed that you consistently receive less at banks or typical money transfer operators. This is because the rates you see on Google or Yahoo are the real, mid-market exchange rates.
The mid-market rate is the midpoint between the buy and sell rates of a pair of currencies. This rate is typically only accessible to banks and large scale brokers.
How is it different from other exchange rates?
The exchange rates banks and other typical money transfer operators quote to you varies from provider to provider. This is due to their mark up on the exchange rate, also commonly known as the exchange rate spread. The larger the spread, the larger the mark up and the more they earn from you.
With banks and other typical money transfer operators, for the same currency pair, there’s a buy rate and a sell rate. If a customer initiates a sell trade, the buy rate is quoted and the customer would receive less. If a customer initiates a buy trade, the sell rate is quoted and the customer would pay more.
With mid-market rates, there’s only ONE rate regardless of whether you are buying or selling.
How to spot hidden money transfer cost?
Free transfers are usually too good to be true
There are many providers offering transfers that are ‘free’ or with ‘0 commission’, chances are the true fees of these providers are hidden in their exchange rates. With exchange rates constantly fluctuating, it becomes a very convenient way for these providers to hide their true fees.
Check the transfer fees and the exchange rate
How much a transfer really costs is made up of two things — the fees, and the exchange rate. So make sure you check both.
Always make sure to compare the amount you are receiving for the same amount that you pay to better identify the actual cost of your transfer.
What do you get at Curfex?
At Curfex, we offer you the mid-market rate, the only exchange rate with no markup and zero spread. We get our rates from currency layer updating real time. As different providers calculate their mid-market rates from different data sets, our rates might vary from the likes of Google, Yahoo, or Reuters, however the difference should be very little.
Our transfer fee is a simple and transparent 1% of your sending amount that will be clearly displayed in your transfer request.