How do you manage pension payments across borders?
Adventure. Freedom. Joie de vivre
These are some terms that will pop into your head when thinking about the greener pastures that retirement can present. You’ve worked for longer than you care to remember, so it’s only fair that retirement plans go exactly how you dreamed they would.
How to fund this new-found lease of life? Oh yes, you said it:
Pensions.
Pascal and Joan got in touch as they wanted to know how best to manage their money so they got maximum value from the exchange rate. We suggested they talk to Alliance official currency partners, Clear Currency, who take over the story…
“Being able to budget correctly was key for us"
So – how do you tackle pension payments across borders? It sounds tricky and, as we know, currency markets have a knack of throwing a spanner in the works but only if you’re approaching the task completely blind.
“We’d always wanted to downsize and move to France once our kids had moved out anyways,” remarks Joan, “but Pascal had a promotion, so we stayed a little longer and I suppose that eventually paid dividends with the lovely property we could afford in Bergerac!”
Pascal and Joan knew exactly what the amount in the pension pot was, and since they were lucky enough to settle the purchase of their new house in cash, the pension pot was purely for their monthly spend on all things retirement fun.
“Being able to budget correctly was key for us. We still had a lot of bits and bobs to buy for our new place and we wanted to make sure that we got enough bang for our buck on the currency exchange,” said Pascal.
"Clear Currency have been consistently reliable and proactive"
At this stage, your bank will often go missing. Where’s that help and support they selflessly promote? Nowhere. And those other Currency firms? They’re just too greedy to really care. But we’re a little different, and for us it’s all about helping you to achieve that dream you’ve always had. In the case of Pascal and Joan, we needed to give them the peace of mind that they would receive a consistent amount of Euros each month whilst also allowing them the flexibility to take advantage of a better rate in case it improved.
“Clear Currency have been consistently reliable and proactive in helping us. They recommended that we look at our costs on a three month basis, and secure 75% of that on a fixed forward contract. This meant we could have complete security over our pocket money for the month. The extra 25% we’ve been free to exchange as and when we like really, and Joan and I will only do it if there is a small improvement in the market rate. In reality it’s not money we absolutely need month to month, but it can be a nice bonus sometimes!” says Pascal.
Clear, eh? That’s what Joan and Pascal think anyway.