People send worldwide money transfers for a variety of reasons, but one of the most common and growing markets for international transfers is migrant workers who remit money back to family in their home country. Countries such as India and the Philippines have large populations living and working abroad, where they can earn better money for their skillsets than they can at home. If you’re in the position of sending remittances home in order to help your family build wealth, it’s important to understand how transfer fees and rates can impact your efforts over the long term.

The Advantages of a Cost Effective Worldwide Money Transfer Service

When transferring money from, say, the UK to India, a currency conversion needs to take place. The exchange rate at which this conversion is calculated will have a big impact on how much real ‘buying power’ comes out the other end as your Pounds turn into Rupees and are transferred through to your Indian bank, for instance. There is also typically a transaction fee attached, which again can have an impact on how much you actually manage to get home. Often, differences in these rates and fees between services can seem minor – but it’s important to take compounding into effect.

The Compounding Effect of Saving on Transfers

It pays to remember that the dollars and cents you manage to send home will be going into savings or investments that grow in a compounding way. A dollar today will be worth $10 at some point in the future, if saved and allowed to compound (depending on the interest rate you can get). That means that a fee of an extra few dollars on your transfers is not just a few dollars – in the long run, a small percentage point in extra fees can mean hundreds or thousands of dollars of lost interest on your savings.

Lower Fees Help Build Your Family’s Wealth

So it pays to think about fees and rates in these terms: every dollar you can save with a more affordable remittance provider means an extra $10 for your family at some point in the future. This is key to building real wealth for your family and providing a more secure future. In addition to keeping one eye on world forex markets (so you know what a fair exchange rate is for the currency transfers you need to make) you’ll need to be clued in on what the typical fees are for transferring back to your home country. Countries such as India and the Philippines now have very reliable remittance infrastructure in place, so it’s reasonable to expect low fees on transfers to these countries. At OrbitRemit, we like to keep things simple with very low, flat fees on all transfers and upfront, transparent exchange rates.

To learn more about transferring money abroad with us, visit OrbitRemit or check out our India Remittance or Philippines Remittance info pages to find information more specific to your destination country.