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Facts & Figures
About Global Reach
Global Reach is a currency broker that provides currency exchange services and money transfers.
Initially founded in Canada in 2001, Global Reach has now expanded to employ 200 people across 14 branches in 6 different countries.
They were originally named ‘Global Reach Partners’, and only serviced corporate clients.
Global Reach Partners merged with FC Exchange in 2016 to become Global Reach, making their services available to private clients too.
Once registered, you can either speak to their trading team to book your transactions or simply use their online platform.
They’re known in the industry for their tight margins, keeping their clients as close to the mid-market rate of exchange as possible.
Global Reach received financial backing from private equity fund Inflexion Private Equity in 2016, seeking to expand into even more territories.
What Services Do They Offer?
Global Reach primarily markets their services to experienced entities / individuals rather than novices.
With that said, they provide a more complex product offering than their competition:
For personal clients:
- Spot contracts
- Forward contracts
- Limit orders
- Stop losses
- Rate alerts
- Market analysis
- Online platform
For business clients, including above:
- Treasury products
- Risk management solutions
- Options products
- Batch payments
Compared to the likes of Key Currency and TorFX who provide a vanilla selection, Global Reach is far more advanced with their offerings.
They were even the winner of the Best Forex Payment Technology Solution in 2018.
Is Global Reach Safe?
Global Reach Partners Limited is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Authorised Payments Institution (504315).
Global Reach Markets Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA as an investment firm (526549).
Foreign Currency Exchange Limited is authorised by the FCA as an Authorised Electronic Money Institution (900205).
With all of their holding, subsidiary and sister companies regulated and authorised by the FCA, you can have no doubt that Global Reach is a trustworthy company.
To become financially regulated, companies must show that they’re safe, reliable and prioritise clients with their exchanges.
You can’t just incorporate a company and fill in a form.
It’s a rigorous process that only the most upstanding financial institutions can accomplish.
Being regulated by the FCA requires firms to separate their clients' money from their own.
These are what's called “ring-fenced and safeguarded” accounts.
If Global Reach fold, your money cannot be used to pay creditors and tie up the business.
Instead, they are simply returned to your account.
You can trust Global Reach with your funds.
Global Reach Rates, Fees & Costs
Global Reach makes their money by adding a small markup to the mid-market rate of exchange.
This marked up rate is then provided to their clients.
Essentially, this means that they give their clients a worse rate than what they buy the currency for themselves, and keep the difference.
This is known as ‘taking the margin’, and is standard operation in the industry.
Global Reach is known for their small margins taken compared to other brokers and banks.
Below is a table showing their average margin taken:
With the high-street banks averaging a margin of 4-6%, you can make substantial savings with your exchanges.
For example, if you transferred £500,000 into euros while the mid-market rate was 1.17, you would receive around €582,500 with Global Reach.
Most banks would give you around €555,000.
That's €27,500 extra!
Unlike their competitors, Global Reach charges a fixed fee of up to £20 when transferring less than £3,000.
Anything above this threshold comes with no charge.
At the end of the day, they're not a charity.
Global Reach Reviews
With Trustpilot taking up more and more of the market share in the reviews industry, Global Reach insists on using Feefo.
They are heavily reviewed with over 3400 comments and a healthy 4.8/5 rating.
86% of their reviews are 5 stars and only 1.3% are 1 star.
Positive Reviews
Customers love the communication, speed, efficiency and rates of Global Reach.
I personally haven’t seen another company with more positive rate-based reviews, which goes to show how competitive and tight to the market they are.
Given their swanky online platform, it’s of no surprise that their customers are also delighted with the service and speed of the payments.
There’s a lot of mentions for their trading team too, who are “personable, patient, professional and extremely helpful”.
Negative Reviews
Out of 3400+ reviews, only around 45 are 1 star.
There’s quite a few different things mentioned, with most comments coming down to intermediary fees or technology issues.
Intermediary bank fees are very common with international payments and are outside of Global Reach’s control.
You’ll be lucky to find a broker who can avoid them (try OFX).
Essentially, it’s a fee taken by the institution in between the sending and receiving bank, as a cost to facilitate the payment between the two.
It’s standard practice around the world.
Some customers were quick to comment about service outages.
Global Reach is known for their tech, so I wouldn’t be worried about a few bad reviews.
How Do Money Transfers Work?
Sending Funds to Global Reach
Moving funds to Global Reach requires a bank transfer.
Unlike Currencies Direct and OFX, they can’t accept debit cards.
Bank transfers are the quickest and cheapest method anyway.
They also can’t accept Spanish bankers’ drafts, like Key Currency can.
Receiving Funds From Global Reach
After exchange, Global Reach can send your funds to an account in any country, with a few exceptions.
There are a few ‘extremely high-risk’ countries like Syria, North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Somalia which are completely prohibited.
When sending funds, the standard payment networks relating to the currency and country are used.
This is to ensure the speediest transfers and save on fees.
The ‘Faster Payments’ method is used when sending GBP within the UK, ‘SEPA’ is used when sending EUR within Europe.
Everything else is usually processed as a ‘Single ACH’.
How Long Do Payments Take?
- SEPA - 0 - 2 hours
- Faster Payments - instant
- Single ACH - 24 - 48 working hours, depending on currency and country
If you pay them before the midday cutoff, you can expect same-day transfers.
Do They Accept International Clients?
Global Reach accepts clients from all countries considered ‘low’ or ‘medium’ risk.
This excludes the United States entirely due to state-specific laws and logistics.
In order to verify you, you may be required to provide proof of your identity and that you live where you say you live.
If you are based in the U.S.A and don’t have a residence elsewhere, Currencies Direct may be able to assist you.
If unsure whether you are eligible for an account, just call through to their friendly team and ask.
Global Reach Online Platform & Mobile App
Global Reach has developed an online platform with a number of different features and capabilities:
- Execute trades
- Make payments
- Trade information
- Transaction history
- Reports
- Multi-user functionality
Their customers love it, too.
It’s frequently brought up within their positive reviews.
As previously mentioned, their tech is award-winning, having won the Best Forex Payment Technology Solution award in 2018.
As of 2021, Global Reach has yet to release a mobile app.
However, their online platform is also optimised for mobile use and works just the same.
Summary
To put it simply, Global Reach is a reputable company known for their thin margins and impressive platforms.
Customers rarely leave negative reviews, which says a lot.
They’re FCA regulated and have been for years.
If you’re looking for business FX, look no further than Global Reach.
You’ll be blown away by their technology and additional business features, designed to cut your expenses.
If you’re just looking for regular personal exchanges, Global Reach is still great.
You’ll get some of the best rates available, with exceptional service.
If you're transferring less than £5k, check out our recommended Money Transfer Apps instead.
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