Currencies.co.uk Money Transfer Review

Company Information and Credibility

Company size:  

With a staff of less than 40, Foreign Currency Direct is a small to medium sized operation run out of a single UK office. They are nowhere as big or well-known as their competitors like Currencies Direct (whose Foreign Currency Direct’s founder worked for prior to establish the firm), but not the smallest, and have been trading for more than 16 years now.

Like many other firms in this vertical, Foreign Currency Direct (Currencies.co.uk) claim to be focused on service. As a standard procedure, each client is assigned with his own dedicated account manager. They have more than 1,000 reviews by verified clients who seem to be happy with the service the receive.

What sets them apart from most operations is the fact they levy quite high fees for all transfers below £50,000, where most other companies have already completely neglected that revenue stream.

Regulated By: 

FCA, HM Revenue & Customs (UK)

Conclusion: 

Foreign Currency Direct appears to be a trustworthy service. It does not strike as anything ingenious and operates in the same fashion as almost all of its competitors, with the exception of charging higher fixed fees, and being a bit smaller than most companies we recommend.

Client Feedback

Research:

When we first conducted the search for client feedback there were very few reviews to be located online. Back in the day, ReviewCentre held about 30 client reviews of which 25% were negative.

Recently, the firm started working with Feefo, and were even awarded a golden star for the constant good feedback received by clients. Vast majority of these 1,000 reviews on Feefo are positive, with an average score of 4.8/5.

In addition to that, we discovered a few sporadic reviews over forums and discussion boards, some were good and some were bad.

Conclusion:

Even though there are some gruesome complaints, the vast majority of feedback is overwhelmingly positive. The firm has definitely took a leap forward from where it was a few years ago when we first reviewed them. Clients are almost unanimously satisfied.

Exchange Rate & Fees

Fees: £15 fee per transfer is one of the highest fixed fees have encountered among commercial FX companies. Not as expensive as banks, but expensive enough.

Exchange rates: As with the rest of the bunch, all quotes are individual, and more money transferred equals better exchange rates. It’s really difficult to say whether the rates they are offering are better or worse than the ones you’ll get somewhere else. They have reported to us that they have multiple liquidity providers, similarly to some of the larger companies, so we believe they can match. Many client reviews claim they do offer superb rates.

Limits: No advertised limits.

Conclusion:

High fixed fees which makes it necessarily more expensive than other companies for smaller transfers. When it comes to larger transfers we cannot say for sure, but based on client reviews they might be able to match up.

Global Reach & Service

Research:

• Dedicated Dealer: Yes.
• Offices: UK.
• Ways to approach: Email, Telephone, Call-bank form.
• Translations: No, but the staff does speak a few languages.
• Accepts clients: All besides American.
• Currencies Handled: 35
• Client reviews: 1,000 on Feefo, positive

Conclusion:

Currencies.co.uk is not as global as other currency firms are. With offices only in the UK (Buckinghamshire), limited number of currencies dealt with, a relatively small staff, and mixed opinions from clients – we consider their service and global reach to be sub-par in comparison with other companies.

Additional Functionalities

Business Hedging tools:

• Sport
• Forward
• Limit
• Stop Loss
• Combo

App:

No, but the site is mobile friendly.

Conclusion:

The 4 staple hedging tools, and a mobile-friendly site. Nothing unique compared to the services provided by better competitors, but not a bad offering and definitely satisfying for most.