Forex Group

There are many factors to consider when selling an overseas asset and possibly the final concern will be how to get the proceeds into your bank account in Australia. Forex Group can make that process very simple and provide savings that you would never receive from a bank.

Let's assume that you are now living in Australia and selling your home in London. Once the sale has gone through and the British Pounds (GBP) are in your UK bank account, you'll need to transfer the funds to Australia and have them converted into Australian Dollars (AUD). The process with Forex Group is simple:

1. Register Now by submitting your details online.
2. Once registered, you will be assigned a dedicated Account Manager who will help you every step of the way.
3. You will need to arrange for your British Pounds to be sent to a Forex Group GBP settlement account. This is organised through your overseas bank.
4. Once we have confirmed receipt of your funds, we will contact you. At this stage, you can opt to exchange the funds immediately, or you can wait depending on your view of the exchange rate. In any case, we will provide you with the exchange rate.
5. Once you instruct us to convert your foreign currency into Australian Dollars, we will transfer them into your Australian bank account and the transaction will be complete.

How to compare exchange rates

Exchange rates can be confusing at the best of times yet alone when the only previous time you may have exchange currencies is on a holiday. In any case, it is important to know how to compare the services of foreign exchange rate providers. These your bank or any of the non-bank providers. There are fees involved in this transaction and they include;

In the first instance, you need to know that a you want a weak Australian dollar. You also need to know what that means. For example:

In Australia, we express the AUD-GBP exchange rate from an Australian Dollar point of view. Hence, you will often see this expressed as 0.4132 or similar. This means that for one AUD, you will receive 0.41 GBP...

In the UK however, it will often be expressed the other way. That is, you will see the rate as 2.4576 which means that for every GBP, you will get $2.42 AUD.

To maximise the amount of AUD you receive for your GBP, you want a weaker AUD. So, 0.39 would be much more attractive to you than 0.45. To show you the difference, the table below shows how many AUD you receive for GP$120,000 for the two different exchange rates.

Figure 1: Exchange Rates from the Australian perspective

GBP Amount	Exchange Rate	AUD Amount
$120,000	0.3900	$307,692
$120,000	0.4500	$266,667

As you can see, the difference is huge. To illustrate the same example from a UK perspective, the rates are expressed differently, but produce the same result (notice that the higher the exchange rate the better your return which is the opposite when looking at it from the Australian perspective.)

Figure 2: Exchange Rates from the UK perspective

GBP Amount	Exchange Rate	AUD Amount
$120,000	2.5641	$307,692
$120,000	2.2222	$266,667

Forex Group does not charge you any commission but it is important that you read our Financial Services Guide for more information. The main fees involved in the process are:

• The Telegraphic Transfer fee charged by your UK bank to get the British Pounds to Australia (depending on your bank, they may charge in the vicinity of GBP$40).
• If you send your converted funds into your personal bank account held in Australia, we do not charge a transfer fee. However, if the Australian Dollars need to be sent elsewhere, there is a $25 fee.