Are you the type of business traveller that browses for a good deal before booking a hotel room? Or maybe you even try to use public transport over taxis, where possible? That’s great, but all of that hard work can go to waste if you end up falling for a simple trap that could mean you inadvertently put your business out of pocket. It’s called DCC and its collectively – and unnecessarily – costing companies £99m. The DCC trap DCC, or Dynamic Currency Conversion, is offered by restaurants, hotels, meeting places and via ATMs overseas, giving those picking up the […]

With the government‘s long-awaited White Paper now published (a 98-pager which sets out the sort of relationship the UK wants with the EU after Brexit) and debate on the Chequers deal in full swing, many businesses are trying to plan a course for what might lie ahead come 29 March 2019. Preparing for the unknown Less than a third of UK business leaders have carried out contingency planning on Brexit, according to a survey this summer by the IoD. EU & Trade Analyst at the Institute of Directors (IoD), Claudia Catelin, said that of those IoD members that were contingency […]

Businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs. Well, here’s an easy one – stop your business travellers from ever exchanging currency at airports. Planning your currency is an important part of travelling for work and business travellers who don’t plan ahead could end up getting ripped-off before they’ve even stepped on the plane. An investigation into exchange rates on offer at UK airports in July showed business travellers leaving their currency exchange until the last minute, and relying on airport exchange desks, could lose over £100 worth of Euros for every £500 exchanged. Some airport currency exchange desks […]

Investor and entrepreneur Matt Haycox learnt the hard way about the ill-effects of jet lag when travelling for work. He says: “In the early days, jet lag would kill me, and I wasn’t giving my businesses the best version of me, but instead a tired and underwhelming shadow of myself. This often resulted in poor decision making and communication.” He is by no means alone. A study by Kayak and Airbus found that jet lag costs UK businesses £241 million a year through mistakes made by jet-lagged staff. According to its findings, jet lag affects travellers for an average of […]

You work in a busy finance department of a fast-growing company. You receive an email from your CEO, asking you to make a large payment from the business bank account – and to do it ASAP. It’s for an important, time-sensitive deal. You quickly scan the message, one of many filling up your inbox. Perhaps you don’t notice that the email address isn’t quite right. The chief is getting impatient and sends you a chasing email soon after, piling on the pressure. It’s urgent – have you made the payment yet? You don’t have time to really think through the […]

Businesses venturing into overseas markets need to understand how best to make and receive payments in different currencies. Below we answer some of the most common questions being asked about international currency transactions. How do multi-currency business accounts work? Businesses that trade across borders normally need to hold accounts in more than one currency, or face the costly process of constantly converting money to and from Sterling. Multi-currency accounts are intended to simplify this, by enabling businesses to manage all their day-to-day business banking and international money transfers in one place. They make it easier for businesses to be paid […]