The UK is home to many, many financial services companies. Among them is Key Currency, a Truro-based money transfer service provider that serves most of Europe on cheap FX transfers. So, who are Key Currency, what do they offer that a bank doesn’t, and what are their downsides if any?
Who are Key Currency?
Key Currency was founded in 2015 with the simple mission of outcompeting banks on cheap international transfers, with their strategy being to keep operating overheads low and pass these savings onto the customer. Clive Cooke, who has been a director of a FTSE 1000 money broker (Exco Plc) is the current Chairman of Key Currency. They are currently FCA-regulated and have won various Best Currency Exchange Service Providers at the AVFN International Finance and Online Personal Wealth awards.
What services does Key Currency provide?
Key Currency is a money transfer company, meaning that they allow users to sign up and use their platform to send money across borders, much like a bank transfer. But, unlike a bank transfer, they do not charge hefty wire fees, have poor exchange rates, and take a week to deliver the funds. Instead, they’re cheaper and much faster.
Looking at the Key Currency reviews, they are not only fee-free but offer competitive exchange rates. Given that high street banks in the UK regularly take 3-5% of the transfer amount as their profit from the exchange (known as margin or spread), plus a £30 fee, the money customers save by switching to Key Currency is substantial.
But, it goes beyond cheap and cheerful transfers. The army of professional staff that Key Currency has trained are experts in everything to do with foreign exchange, which leads us to the other side of the business.
You can do more than just send money. You can schedule and time it, you can hedge it with forward contracts, and you can even organize business FX payments and solutions. Rate alerts can be set and businesses can control their currency risk and overseas supplier payments through various services. The good bit is that Key Currency helps you with all this, for free!
Market analysis is also provided by the team, meaning you can gain free market insights and get transparent quotes easily to inform your currency handlings. Or, you can be an ordinary retired citizen looking to send their pension abroad.
With the help of Key Currency reviews, here are the major Key Currency pros and cons.
Pros of Key Currency
- Professional, experienced, and polite staff
- No minimum transfer volume
- No wire fees
- Free dedicated dealer
- Big presence in Europe, particularly the UK and Spain
Cons of Key Currency
- There is no mobile app unlike its bigger competitors
- Not available in the US
Should we use Key Currency instead of a bank?
The answer to this question is both yes and no. For sending money overseas, it is absolutely advised to avoid high street banks and instead opt for Key Currency. Or, you could find another money transfer provider that has the same objective, but appeals to you more (i.e. one with a mobile app). The money that can be saved on a £100,000 transfer into Europe will likely be in the low thousands.
Secondly, we should look to Key Currency for more sophisticated FX products like hedging. This isn’t even a matter of weighing up the options either, as high street banks simply do not offer the option of forward contracts to ordinary customers (although they do to large corporations). So, when investing overseas or dealing with overseas suppliers or customers, a money transfer company like Key Currency is a must.
The drawback here is that they’re not a bank. Whilst this proved to be advantageous in a lot of areas, it does mean they’re not licensed or regulated as if they’re a bank. That’s fine, but we may not get the same deposit insurance protection and high standards of security that a bank does. This isn’t to say your money is at risk of course, as they’re still regulated by the FCA, but it means a bank is the absolute safest place to deposit large amounts of money.
Secondly, money transfer companies do not offer banking products like debt and credit cards. So clearly, we’re not ready to throw away our bank account just yet, but there’s nothing wrong with taking your business to different platforms depending on which one is the specialist for any given need. Not relying on one-stop shops like banks means you can use them for what they’re good at, and avoid what they’re bad at.
Banks can’t offer everything in a competitive way, and neither can Key Currency. And, as for the other money transfer companies, Key Currency is clearly competitive in its services, and the only area where it falls short is in not having a mobile app. This leads us to believe it’s a good option for businesses, investors, and individuals to transfer larger amounts, but isn’t ideal for digital nomads, holidaymakers, and general day-to-day petty cash dealings.
Key Currency information
The KeyCurrency website can be found on keycurrency.co.uk with the (British) telephone number being +44 (0)1872 487 500.
UK Office: St Piran House, Truro Technology Park, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2XN, United Kingdom.
Email address: [email protected]
The opening hours of Key Currency are between 8:30am and 5:30pm from Monday to Friday; 9:00am to 12:00pm on Saturdays; Sunday closed.