Afex Money Transfer Review

Company Information and Credibility

Company Size:  

Associated Foreign Exchange, Inc. is an outlier in the currency exchange industry. Founded in California in 1979, AFEX has multiple offices around the United States, Europe, and Australia, with plans to expand into Asia and beyond. The company also has dozens of physical locations in metropolitan areas like New York City, where people can walk in off the street and trade dozens of currencies instantly.

AFEX also serves corporate and even international treasury clients. AFEX is on the cutting edge of making international currencies increasingly fluid, for every financial purpose. The company trades more than $15 billion each year and employs hundreds of people all around the world.

On the other hand, there’s little evidence to the quality of their retail money transfer services. There are very few reviews in general about the company, which makes us believe they specialise in  corporate FX, and cash currency exchanges. The only objective information we got on the company is from Glass door reviews like this one,  discussing about how archaic and non-agile the company is.

Regulated By: 

IRS, New York State Banking Department, California Department of Financial Institutions (US); FCA (UK); VQF (Switzerland); ASIC and AUSTRAC (Australia); MiFID (EU)

Awards: 

? Deutsche Bank “Straight Through Processing Award”, five years in a row

Conclusion: 

AFEX is a large and varied currency transfer company. They work at every level of finance, but mostly on currency exchanges and national treasuries FX. One of the largest companies in the world in their niche.

On the other hand, there are some negative opinions about the company by former employees, and absolutely no client reviews attesting for the quality of service they provide retail customers.

Client Feedback

Research:

Absolutely nothing we could find. We did find reviews of some of their Foreign Exchange Bureaus and it definitely seemed 31 clients did like the company (here’s the one that got most reviews on Yelp ). Nothing besides that.

Update: One negative review on our website.

Conclusion:

We’ve left Afex with a passing grade of 60 because of their positive cash exchange reviews. We feel they could have done very well on that perspective and perhaps become one of our most recommended providers for Americans, but sadly the firm does not seem to nurture and push towards client reviews like its competitors (Transferwise has 18,000 reviews in 5 years of existence).

Exchange Rate & Fees

Research:

Fees: Nothing is stated on the site, but we have found information (that we need to verify) that there are no fees above the $5,000 mark, and $10 per transfer below it.

Exchange Rates: We’re using our intuitive knowledge of the industry to assume Afex has the potential of offering anyone with superb rates. A company of this size, with $15Bn exchanged every year, working with national treasuries, banks, and multinational corporations, have very wide flexibility. With clients this size, they are presumably able to profit from even ultra-tight margins.

Limits: Unknown but we assume they would deal with any size of the transfer.

Conclusion:

Has the potential to be the cheapest bar none for very large transfers, but we have no client feedback to verify that assumption. Also, the $10 fees are something we don’t like.

Global Reach & Service

Research:

• Dedicated Dealer: Yes.
• Offices: Australia, Canada, Channel Islands, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States
• Ways to approach: Email, Telephone (local in most countries), Callback form.
• Translations:
  German, French, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian.
• Accepts clients: Internationally
• Currencies Handled: 78.
• Client reviews: No feedback

Conclusion:

One of the most global companies, with most translations, local service numbers,  and local offices. Service online and via dedicated dealers. Again had the potential to get a straight 100% score if there were client reviews to attest for its service.

Additional Functionalities

Hedging & Corporate FX:

We are absolutely sure a company the size of Afex, transferring as much it does, working with high-scale clients like national treasuries can supply a lot of value beyond what other companies would. One obvious thing is the fact Afex is a registered member of SWIFT, so in theory, its actual money moving costs should be lower and reflect in their offering.

Beyond that, the site mentions the standard stuff – Consultancy by a dedicated corporate FX dealer, spot contracts, forwards, limit orders. We expected a lot more than that.

App:

None.

Conclusion:

Standard+ offering for Businesses (from the information they provide…), nothing for retail clients.