Transferring your money to Spain, whether it is to pay your bills or buy a property is always a contentious issue. People are always astonished at the amount of money the banks take in transfer charges. Often two charges are taken off the same payment with both the bank in the UK charging to make the transfer and the bank in Spain charging to receive and credit the money to the customers account. These charges which can run into hundreds on large transfers are just the tip of the iceberg…

When it comes to foreign exchange rates the banks also do you no favours. Why should a company get a better rate than an individual when exchanging the same amount of money? Why when the bank already takes what is often a large margin on the exchange rate it gives you does it also charge you commission?

If this was any other industry, people would vote with their feet but for too long the banks have had a captive audience that left their customers with no where else to go. For too long banks have been held in high reverence with customers thanking and paying them to hold on to our money. But not any longer - with the emergence of Money Transfer Companies consumers can now shop around and look for the best deals on both price and service.

If you've heard any of the statements quoted below from your bank it is time for you to wise up and look at the alternatives:

* Your funds still haven't arrived, can you call back again tomorrow. * Those exchange rates are only for companies. * The charge for a telegraphic transfer in Sterling is £25 and Euro €40 * We can't reduce the £25 charge as we need to cover our costs. * We can't guarantee how quickly your funds will be transferred but we'll do our best to get them there as soon as we can.

REMEMBER - You have the right to shop around. You can negotiate interest rates and commissions and more importantly you can use other companies that are now providing the services that bank

s traditionally had the monopoly on.

These companies offer international transfers at vastly reduced rates compared to the banks. Their foreign exchange rates are much more competitive than you'll find on the high street and your money will get transferred and arrive at it's destination within 24hrs.

So how do they do it?

There's no mystery surrounding these better deals. The money transfer companies are simply capitalising on the banks shortfalls. They negotiate better exchange rates with the clearing banks because of the volume of business they have and pass on the savings to their customers.

And when it comes to the speed of the transfer again it's simple. These companies often hold balances in all of their global accounts and when you make a transfer from, for example, the UK to Australia, they simply take the funds from their Australian Account to make your payment.

And why you ask do the banks not do this?

Well they could - but as we all know for too long the banks have shrouded their operations in secrecy and led us to believe there was only one way to do things and that was their way.

Well not any more - now you can do it "your way”.

The bottom line is the banks are not your only choice when doing financial transactions. Shop around and check out the competition, you may be surprised at just how much money you can save yourself.

Michael Kelly is Chief Operations Office for www.sun-pay.com

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