It does not get more international than Cayman Islands. With 50% of its permit holders being foreign residents from 144 different countries. Clean beaches, a tax haven and now also a covid haven boasting fewer confirmed cases and deaths than almost anywhere in the world, make it one of the best places to live in, if you have the cash, but you are probably aware of that.

What, surprisingly, isn’t as common knowledge as you’d expect it to be in the world’s foremost expat island, is how to transfer money abroad to and from Cayman for cheap, and how international money transfer services work. This guide will try to address international bank transfers to Cayman, and from Cayman to other destinations, and will focus on the unique circumstances in Cayman.

Why not conduct my international money transfer through a bank?

Making a SWIFT money transfer through a bank to a different bank account abroad is pretty easy to do. Some archaic banks will insist on the customer presence at the branch to sign relevant papers, others can accept such orders via email, and some (better) banks enable you to transfer money overseas through their online system. It’s all pretty straightforward other than the various details you have to insert, but that aspect is very resolvable especially if you are transferring the money to a business or a corporation. 

With that being said, banks are expensive for international money transfers. They are beyond expensive at times, they are exorbitant – making use of the fact a lot of their customer would opt to their money transfer services by default, so they’re levying superbly high fees.

What’s “expensive” in that regard? Approximately 2.5% on average in the UK, USA, Australia and EU in markups, as well as £10-15 in fees (or dollars, Aussie dollars, Loonies, depending on the country of origination). By markups what we mean is the difference between the actual currency exchange rate as per central banks, and the “international money transfer exchange rate” offered by banks and money transfer service providers. Taking 2.5% over a sum like £30,000 which is somewhat of an average amount for living expenses means £750 pounds in just markups. In the same fashion, that means $29,000 in fees over a transfer of $1.16 for property purchase (which is reported to be the average cost of a residential home in the Caymans, as per the New York Times).

Paying $29,000, which is probably $24,000 MORE than what you could pay with an alternative provider to money transfers to the Cayman Islands is utter insanity, in my view, but still so many people fall into the “convenience trap” or into the false premise that non-bank money transfer services aren’t as safe as banks.

Using a money transfer service for an international money transfer to the Caymans

The cost-effective bank alternative is definitely an international money transfer service. These services are essentially brokerages who have multiple bank accounts abroad and a lot of liquidity, and they bypass SWIFT by simply charging one account in one currency and then crediting another account in another currency. If you need to transfer pounds into dollars, for instance, you could pay for it through a domestic transfer in the UK of pound sterling, and then the recipients’ account will be credited for the Euro amount by the service provider.

If you did not understand the above, don’t worry – what you really must to know about international money transfers by foreign currency providers is that they offer significantly better rates than the banks and don’t charge any per-transfer fees.

Additional values of such services such as moneycorp, the oldest and one of the most respectable brokerages in this space include dedicated currency experts who serve as your single Point of Contact, hedging options, business payment systems, an online system, and app, and above all just a friendly voice on the other hand. A lot of expats and businesses can appreciate that soft touch and that would actually be more meaningful to them than the rate they’re going to get (granted that it’ll be significantly cheaper than the bank’s offering in any case).

How do different money transfer currency services differ from each other?

There are quite a lot of companies offering a similar offering to the aforementioned moneycorp. If you search google you will find a variety of companies offering international money transfers to Cayman Islands, and from the Caymans. All boasting cheap money transfer abroad, no transfer fees, business expertise, professionalism and so forth, and the truth is that it’s possible the majority of these services are in fact good.

These are the names you would bump across today if you want to transfer money abroad – Azimo, TransferWise, Currencies Direct, Currency solutions, Halo Financial, Global Reach Group, XE money transfer, Lumon, WorldPay, World Remit, OFX… and the list goes on.

You can break down these options to two distinct groups (and a few companies which are in between). On one hand Wise leads the pact for online focused international money transfer with that “personalised service”, and on the other hand you have companies like XE which offers online trading but also has specialists available by telephone.

Each one of those types of companies matches a different type of customer looking to conduct an international money transfer. It boils down to the level of savviness and understanding of the market conditions, how much one can trust an entirely-online process when it comes to large sum payments, and a lot of other factors. There is not necessarily a right and wrong when it comes to services offering international money transfers, other than the fact you must verify customers left positive reviews about the company, and you verified it is properly regulated with the FCA.