Dilemma of a Self-employed freelancer

digitraveller

Hey,

I am self employed and with the recent Brexit I've been thinking about how far my money will go. Here's the situation. I am paid in US dollars mainly, paid into my UK bank account. The bank convert it into pounds. I am working remotely, so live all over, currently in Budapest, but will spend time in Europe and Asia within the next 12 months.

The advantage of the situation is that i am receiving more money because of the weak Pound, but when it comes to withdrawing money abroad, I suspect that I am going be losing money. I cannot work out if I am better or worse off in this situation. What do you think?

Secondly, I've been told that Citibank have an account that you can have as Pounds, Dollars of Euros. Not sure how that would benefit me. I currently do not pay any transaction fees abroad because I have a bank account with N&P.

Any thoughts on how I might get the best out of my money at this time?

DomRavioli

You continue to be paid in dollars, as you currently get the best rate.

Not sure why you would want to have a bank account in a non-native currency - that would only be useful if withdrawing US currency and not UK currency.

Keep your UK account as normal (with US dollar payments) and have a look at the overseas cards (both credit and debit) for travelling.

You may not have a transaction fee but it likely you have currency loading, which is based on the exchange rate the bank offers for withdrawals and payments.

digitraveller

Thanks Dom, just want to clarify the last point - I'm with Norwich & Peterborough and they do not charge me for card transactions or cash withdrawals abroad. What is currency loading? When you say bank, do you mean the bank that I am withdrawing the money from, or my bank?

I was just wondering if I could save money another way, but by the sounds of it, I am in the best situation possible under the circumstances.