Most Landas customers are dealing with dual currencies. On the one hand, they are now earning Australian Dollars, which is a nice, strong currency. But they likely have family commitments and some residual expenses, and maybe even a property loan in their home country.
So they need to transfer funds from their regular income or as one offs, back home. There are many ways to do this, and often we just use our bank. The problem is the banks charge extra fees, and provide a non competitive exchange rate, leading to a lot of waste.
If you end up sending say $5,000 home over a few months, and lost say 10%, that’s $500 is tax free funds you have wasted. These funds could have been either saved by you or made available to your family back home.
You can also lose time in a slow transfer and settlement process, which is another hidden cost.
Landas has partnered with Wise, a global online FX provider that can deliver a simple solution with substantial savings.
Wise is trusted all over the world. They process over USD 5 billion every month and save people and businesses USD 3 million everyday in hidden fees and costs. Currently Wise has 7 million customers and saves around US $1.5 billion for them each year.
In Australia, Wise is an authorised Electronic Money Institution regulated the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). This means it is required by law to keep your money safe by storing it in a low-risk financial institution – banks such as Barclays (UK), and Wells Fargo (US)
It’s all online, with no branches. But the key is they simply transfer your money at the Interbank Exchange rate, independently and publicly provided by Reuters.
This is like a wholesale rate, and you can review your rates below:
Reuters Interbank Exchange Rate
This means you are not paying a margin as you do with the banks and others, which can add up quickly.
We believe for example, this is the most efficient way to send Australian Dollars to the Philippines, particularly for smaller amounts.
You will pay,
- A fixed fee of about $1.57 (AUD)
- Variable fee of 0.58% of amount
- Example, $1,000 (AUD) to PHP
Your total fee will be $7.33 (AUD), converted at the mid-point of the Interbank Exchange Rate for AUD:PHP. On $1,000 (AUD) you would save approximately 2,100 PHP from the highest cost Australian Bank, or receive an additional 7% in PHP.
The basics of Wise is to simply set up a free account, then set your trade, and then transfer the AUD expense to Wise to fulfill the trade. You can even get your own Wise Card.
Simple steps:
- Register for free
- Choose the amount to send, see the fees
- Add your recipients bank details, where the money will be sent
- Verify your identity, may require a photo ID
- Pay for the transfer in AUD, by sending with a bank transfer, PayID, POLi, or a debit / credit card