Holidaymakers could lose £1.5 billion on exchanging foreign currency this year
How Brits travelling abroad can get the very best value when exchanging their money for foreign currency.
- (1888PressRelease) January 15, 2014 - AS SAVVY SAVERS get online to book bargain breaks abroad, research reveals that hard-pressed holidaymakers will lose up to £1.5 billion this coming year in confusing foreign currency deals offered by banks and money exchange bureaus.
Exchange rates have rocketed to an average of 4.6 per cent at major currency changers in the past year, meaning travellers will lose out by a typical £135.77 per household.
The amount is equivalent to one month of home energy bills for the average home in the UK.
The bad news for travellers comes as millions of Britons start to think about their summer breaks, while others jet off on city breaks and fly to exotic climes for some winter sun.
Research by peer-to-peer currency exchange service WeSwap.com shows that the average adult traveller spends £583.56 on a single trip abroad and enjoys more than two foreign holidays per year. However, due to hidden charges and inflated exchange rates at major currency bureaus, the significant sum of £59 per person is lost every year using exchange services at the bank, airports, the Post Office and other bureaus on the high street.
About 26 million people will travel abroad from the UK this year and spend £33 billion buying foreign currency.
The research among 1,000 people reveals that £1,488,252,930 worth of consumers' cash will be lost due to hidden charges and unseen elevated exchange rates.
Last summer six in 10 (59 per cent) holidaying Brits admitted to not understanding travel money exchange rates and believed they lost out on money as a result.
Furthermore, 50 per cent of Britons used their debit or credit cards up to five times while abroad on low cost items such as a cup of coffee (12 per cent), a bottle of water (7 per cent), a sandwich (11 per cent) and even a poolside cocktail (6 per cent).
With debit or credit card charges of up to three per cent, as well as flat fee transactions of about £1.50, a refreshing cocktail can doubles in price.
Money exchange services on the high street are typically charging between four and seven per cent above the mid-market exchange rate.
Those based at airports are usually around 12 per cent but can be as high as 17 per cent, while those at hotels can be just as high.
WeSwap.com offers travellers an alternative way to exchange foreign currency. It matches people going on holiday with those returning from abroad and swaps currencies directly at the standard exchange rate.
It charges commission of one per cent, claiming to save the average UK household up to £106.26 on foreign currency per year.
Jared Jesner, founder and CEO of WeSwap, said: "This research has proved that people are confused by currency exchange rates, which is unnecessarily wasting everyone a lot of money.
"We believed the fees being charged to travellers were unfair, but up till now people did not have an alternative.
WeSwap co-founder Simon Sacerdoti said: "The best way to get a good deal on travel money is to find a fellow traveller going in the opposite direction to exchange with and WeSwap allows that to happen on a much bigger scale for the first time."
For further information, please contact the WeSwap press office team on:
T: 020 7 632 4800 or E: WeSwap ( @ ) threepipe dot co dot uk
Notes to Editors:
Research conducted by OnePoll on behalf of WeSwap in September, 2013. The 1000 survey respondents were UK adults aged 18+ who had all been on holiday abroad this summer.
About WeSwap
Founded by Jared Jesner and Simon Sacerdoti, WeSwap is the first ever person-to-person travel money exchange; a new and 'social' way to get hold of your holiday currency. WeSwap is the ideal product for the social media age, offering an alternative way for people to get hold of their foreign currency.
WeSwap matches you up with other travellers heading in the opposite direction and then swaps the currencies. By not having to go through banks or other expensive retail outlets, it works out to be a much cheaper and more personal way to exchange money.
WeSwap believes in simple transparent pricing and by cutting out the middle-man the community of users is guaranteed the best possible rate. Rather than pay up to 13% with other currency exchange services, WeSwap will charge you just 1%. Alternatively, if you introduce someone to WeSwap then the two of you can swap currency together for free, for life, at the pure mid-market exchange rate with no fees at all.
WeSwap is quick, safe and easy to use. Simply set up an online account at www.weswap.com and once your details have been verified and security checks carried out, you can load from your bank account or debit card to your new WeSwap account. Then simply select the currency and amount you want and when you need it by and WeSwap will find you a match.
Once a match has been secured your WeSwap account is loaded with your destination currency. You access the funds in your WeSwap account with your WeSwap Prepaid MasterCard®, which you will be sent as soon as you sign up. This card uses the appropriate currency for where you are using it, and is completely free to use online or at point of sale which means you dodge additional charges often incurred by using a debit or credit card abroad.
The WeSwap Prepaid MasterCard is issued by IDT Financial Services Limited. IDT Financial Services Limited is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT).Its cards are issued pursuant to license by MasterCard International Incorporated. MasterCard and the MasterCard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated. IDT Financial Services Limited is a regulated bank, licensed by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Gibraltar, under the Financial Services (Banking) Act 1992. Registered Office: 57-63 Line Wall Road, Gibraltar. Registered No: 95716. Directors: M. Fischer, J. Raanan, D. Spier, T. Streatfeild-James. All communications should be sent to WeSwap.com Limited, 6 Spectrum House, 32-34 Gordon House Road, London NW5 1LP.
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