Currencies Direct Review

Individuals may sign up for Currencies Direct money transfer services from a number of countries.
 

What Currencies Direct offers

• International money transfers.
• Forward contracts.
• Limit orders.
• Personal account managers.
• Multiple currency wallets.
• Regular transfers (Conditional for US).

International money transfers - Use Spot Contracts to transfer funds as quickly as possible. Existing Currencies Direct exchange rates apply.

Forward contracts - Use forward contracts to lock existing rates for up to one year by paying a small deposit.

Limit orders - Target better than existing exchange rates. Currencies Direct carries out your transfer automatically when the rate reaches the desired mark.

Personal account managers - Get access to the same account manager for as long as you transact with Currencies Direct.

Multiple currency wallets - Hold balances in multiple currencies.

Regular transfers - Customers from the UK may set up regular transfers easily. However, Currencies Direct USA customers can carry out regular transfers only if they make payments using UK bank accounts.
 

What Currencies Direct doesn’t do

• Personal travel cards.
• Cash pickup.

Currencies Direct score

Offering more payout options and providing personal travel cards would help Currencies Direct improve its personal services score.

Which Currencies Direct business benefits might work well for you depends on the type of business you run and your specific requirements.
 

What Currencies Direct offers

• International money transfers.
• Risk management tools.
• Batch payments.
• Receive payments.
• Solutions for online sellers.

International money transfers - The quickest way to carry out a Currencies Direct international money transfer is through a Spot Contract. 

Risk management tools - These come in the form of forward contracts, market orders and options. They are provided by Currencies Direct Financial Markets (CDFM). 

Batch payments - Make multiple payments in different currencies through a single upload. This service is not available for Currencies Direct USA customers.

Receive payments - Receive money from international customers in GBP, EUR, USD and JPY collection accounts. However, Currencies Direct typically transfers this money into your business bank account. If you wish to use funds from your collection accounts to make payments, you need to meet specific eligibility criteria.

Solutions for online sellers - Use your multi-currency accounts to withdraw money from online marketplaces such as Amazon, Cdiscount, eBay, Groupon, Lazada, Overstock, Paypal, Rakuten, Shopify, Target, ToysRUs and Walmart.
 

What Currencies Direct doesn’t do

FX-optimized business travel card
 

Currencies Direct score

Currencies Direct Ltd. rates well for its business services. It can get an even better score by providing business travel cards.

Currencies Direct fees

Currencies Direct does not charge any fees for personal transfers. You might need to pay some fees when using its business services.
 

Currencies Direct exchange rates

Currencies Direct’s rates vary according to existing interbank/mid-market rates. It applies a margin on existing rates, which varies depending on the currencies involved and the transfer amount. The corresponding table indicates its margins when transferring from GBP to another major currency.

Are there additional Currencies Direct fees?

There are no additional fees for most of the personal transactions carried out through Currencies Direct Limited. In case you have to pay a fee, you find out about it in advance.

Business customers who use collection accounts to receive funds need to pay 0.1% of the total amount received as fees.
 

Currencies Direct score

Currencies Direct can improve its score in this section by increasing transparency surrounding its exchange rates.

What Currencies Direct does well
 

Signing up - You may sign up easily, online or over the phone.

Phone transfers - While you can set up transfers using the Currencies DIrect app or website, you may also speak with your account manager to set up transfers over the phone.

Payment options - Payment options vary depending on where you live.

Currencies Direct UK and European Union customers - Bank transfer, GBP or EUR debit card and direct debit.

Currencies Direct USA customers - Check, wire transfer and ACH.
 

Where Currencies Direct could improve

Transfer speed - After Currencies Direct receives your payment, it can take 1 - 2 business days for the money to get to the recipient's bank account. The turnaround time can be more for exotic currencies.

Transfer limits - The minimum you need to transfer online is £100/$100. The maximum you may transfer online is £25,000. If you wish to transfer a larger amount, you need to do so over the phone.

Account verification - Currencies Direct requires copies of your passport and bank statement to meet compliance standards.

Currencies Direct app - The Currencies Direct app is available only for personal customers. In addition, a number of customer reviews on Google Play Store and Apple App Store highlight problems with the apps' functionality.
 

Currencies Direct score

Currencies Direct scores above average in this section. It can do even better by eliminating its minimum transfer amount requirements, by offering consistently quick turnaround times and by speeding up the account verification process.

What Currencies Direct does well

Supported destination countries and currencies - Send money to over 120 countries in more than 40 currencies.

Global locations - Currencies Direct has offices in the UK, Canada, India, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and the USA.

Customer support - Currencies Direct provides customer service via email, phone, live chat and social media platforms.

Multilingual website - Get website access in various languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Chinese and Korean.
 

Where Currencies Direct could improve

Local settlement accounts - As of now, Currencies Direct has local settlement accounts in GBP, EUR and USD. If you pay using any other currency, especially via SWIFT, you might have to incur additional intermediary bank fees.
 

Currencies Direct score

Currencies Direct scores well in this section. Increasing its number of local settlement accounts will help further, as these can bring down transfer costs even more.

What Currencies Direct does well 

Regulated

Currencies Direct UK - Authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Currencies Direct USA - Registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and with other relevant state regulatory agencies.

Currencies Direct Spain - Authorised by the (central) Bank of Spain.
 

Where Currencies Direct could improve

Trustpilot - There aren't many Currencies Direct reviews on Trustpilot yet. With around 10 reviews, the company gets an average score of 8.4 out of 10, and rates as Great. It scores 3.9 out of 5 on the Google Play Store, and averages at 3.7 out of 5 on the Apple App Store.

Exchange rate transparency - Customers do not know the exchange rate margin that Currencies Direct charges. While the markup is on the lower side, informing customers about it would help increase transparency.
 

Currencies Direct score

Focusing on improving overall customer experience so that is reflected in their reviews and making their exchange rates completely transparent would help their score in this section.