How You’d Likely Transfer Your Money In The Future

With the world becoming more and more globalised, there is an ever-increasing need for individuals and businesses to be transferring money overseas. But the traditional methods of using a bank for overseas money transfers continue to drain our pockets with the hefty bank fees.

But the industry saw some changes in recent years. A number of new providers have come online to fill the gap for cheaper overseas fund transfers. Some of these, including brands like TransferWise, WorldFirst Money Transfer and CurrenciesDirect are making waves in the industry and helping individuals like you and I save tens to hundreds of dollars each year off money transfer fees.

With the rise of Fintech, we can expect the industry to evolve even faster, reach more people and make overseas money transfer a cheaper endeavour. Let’s take a look at some rising trends and how money transfer might change in the near future.

Our Money Transfer Top Three

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Use of Mobile Money Transfer

One of the biggest issues with money transfer is that you would usually need your recipient to at least have a bank account where you can send the money to. But what about the “unbanked”? According to KPMG, only 27% of Southeast Asia’s population has a bank account.  And some of the biggest remittance markets are right here in Asia.

Although with the current online money transfer providers, senders and recipients can sometimes skip the bank by having an online account. But what about sending money using mobile? It’s already happening. This makes it easy and convenient to transfer money in countries lacking in money transfer infrastructure so that individuals do not need to travel long distances to remittance agents. Recipients can use the money in their mobile account to directly pay at local shops and businesses, reducing the need to carry any physical cash.

Other services that we are likely to see include transferring money via social media and chat apps, which also means you bypass central authorities like banks, thus reducing any transaction costs.

Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency Fund Transfer

In recent years, we might have heard a lot of the following buzzwords – “Bitcoin” and “cryptocurrency”. In short, these work like virtual money where you can transfer and make purchases with anonymity. Because they do not belong to a single country, it is a “universal” currency that does not come with any exchange rate.

Because of these features, they seem to fulfil attractive criteria for overseas money transfer. You can currently buy bitcoin on several marketplaces called “bitcoin exchanges” and send bitcoins to each other digitally. While many saw huge potential for their use in the money transfer industry, some also called out its volatility and that it adds an additional layer of “exchange” when you convert currency A to bitcoin before converting it to currency B.

Faster & cheaper Bank Transfer

Bypassing the banks definitely makes money transfers cheaper. Very often, individuals find that banks levy multiple layers of fees on money transfers, including cable fees, exchange rate margins, and agent bank fees.

Currently, providers like Currencies Direct Money Transfer allows you to view live exchange rate and buy currencies before you transfer them at a later date. This single feature already allows you to achieve savings that you will not get from a bank. Others allow you to track your money easily and even offer same-day transfers.

With the increasing need for overseas money transfer, the industry is set to grow and consumers can definitely look forward to faster, cheaper and better services!