Most People Choose on the Wrong Thing
When South Africans go looking for someone to help move their money offshore, the comparison usually comes down to two factors: the advertised rate and whether somebody in a Facebook group had a good experience.
Neither tells you much. The advertised rate is a marketing number that may bear little relationship to what you actually receive. A positive review from a stranger tells you their transaction completed, which is useful information about a straightforward transfer and almost no information about what happens when something goes wrong.
The questions that genuinely distinguish providers are not about price at all. They are about structure – who holds your money, under what authority, with what obligations, and what happens if something does not go to plan. These questions take a few minutes to ask and the answers are usually revealing, because a good provider answers them easily and a poor one does not.
At FinSelect we would encourage anyone to put these to us, and to put the same list to everyone else they are considering. Here are the ten that matter.
Who Is Licensed, and For What
Are you an authorised financial services provider, and what is your licence number?
This is the foundational question. In South Africa, financial services providers are licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and issued an FSP number. That number is verifiable directly with the regulator – you do not have to take anyone’s word for it, and you should not.
A provider who cannot immediately supply a licence number, or who answers vaguely about being “regulated” without specifics, has told you what you need to know.
Are you authorised in both countries involved in my transaction?
Cross-border transfers touch two regulatory environments. A business licensed in South Africa but with no standing in your country of residence, or vice versa, is only half covered. Ask specifically what authorisation exists on each side and what it permits them to do.
Where the Money Actually Sits
Who holds my funds while the transaction is in progress?
Money in transit sits somewhere, sometimes for several days. Ask whether it is held with a regulated bank or authorised dealer, and whether client funds are segregated from the operating funds of the business.
Segregation is the point. If client money is mixed with company money, then the financial health of the business becomes your problem in a way it should never be.
What happens to my money if your business fails while my transfer is in progress?
This question makes people uncomfortable, which is exactly why it is worth asking. A provider operating properly will have a clear answer involving segregated accounts and regulatory protections. A provider who has never considered it, or who treats the question as impolite, is a provider whose failure would be your problem.
What You Are Actually Paying
How much will land in the destination account, in the destination currency, if I send this exact amount today?
Not the rate. Not the fee. The final figure. Any provider who cannot answer this directly is either unable or unwilling to tell you what they are charging.
Are there any deductions at the receiving end that are not in that figure?
Correspondent banks and receiving banks sometimes take their own charges, which means the amount that arrives can be less than the amount quoted. Ask explicitly whether the figure you have been given is the amount that will actually be credited.
Between these two questions you have established the total cost of the transaction, which is the only price comparison worth making.
What Happens When It Goes Wrong
If my transfer stalls, who do I speak to, and will it be the same person each time?
Transfers stall. A compliance query, a documentation gap, a bank on the receiving end asking for source of funds – these are normal events, not disasters. What determines whether they cost you a day or a month is whether you can reach someone who knows your matter.
A named contact who has your history is worth a great deal more than a support queue. Ask whether you will have one.
What is your process if there is a dispute, and what recourse do I have?
Every regulated provider should have a documented complaints process and sit within a regulatory framework that gives you somewhere to escalate. Ask what that looks like. An unlicensed operator or an informal arrangement offers neither, which is the central risk of using one no matter how well the transaction is priced.
What They Will Tell You Before They Are Paid
What could go wrong with my particular transaction, and what are you doing to prevent it?
This is the question that separates a transaction processor from an adviser. Somebody who understands cross-border work will immediately raise the things that actually derail transfers – the state of your SARS profile, whether your documentation will satisfy the receiving bank, whether your account classification is correct, whether the timing interacts with anything else you have in motion.
A provider who says everything will be fine without asking you anything about your circumstances has not thought about your circumstances.
Is there anything I should do differently, even if it means less business for you?
The answer to this is genuinely diagnostic. A provider worth using will sometimes tell you to wait, to split a transfer, to sort out a compliance issue first, or occasionally that what you are proposing is not the right approach at all.
Anyone whose advice always happens to align perfectly with transacting immediately, at the maximum amount, through them, is not advising you. They are selling to you.
The Answers That Should Concern You
Asking the questions is only half of it. Knowing how to read the answers is the other half, and there are a handful of responses that should give you pause regardless of how pleasant the conversation otherwise is.
Vagueness about licensing is the most serious. “We are fully regulated” is not an answer. A licence number is an answer. Anyone genuinely authorised knows their number and provides it without hesitation, because they are asked for it routinely.
Deflection on the final received amount is the second. If a provider steers the conversation toward how competitive their rate is, or how low their fees are, without simply telling you the figure that will arrive, they are managing your attention rather than answering you.
Discomfort with the failure question is a third. A provider who has structured client funds properly finds that question easy, because the answer is a description of an arrangement they deliberately put in place. A provider who becomes defensive has usually not put anything in place.
Then there is the response that sounds like reassurance but is actually an absence of thought – being told the transaction will be simple, or that there is nothing to worry about, before anybody has asked you a single question about your circumstances. Nobody can assess a cross-border transfer without knowing your residency position, your SARS status, the source of the funds and where they are going. Confidence offered in the absence of that information is not expertise.
And finally, any suggestion that a formality can be skipped, worked around, or handled informally to save time. Sometimes this is offered helpfully and sincerely. It still means the person is willing to operate outside the framework that exists to protect you, and you have no way of knowing where else they apply that flexibility.
Why These Questions Are Worth the Awkwardness
There is a natural reluctance to interrogate somebody you are hoping to work with. It feels adversarial, and most people would rather get on with the transaction.
But consider what is actually at stake. For many South Africans, a cross-border transfer represents the largest single movement of money in their lives – a retirement fund, a property sale, an inheritance, decades of accumulated savings. Once those funds leave your account, your ability to influence the outcome ends. Everything that protects you has to be established beforehand.
Ten minutes of questions before the fact is the entire window in which you have leverage. Afterwards, you have whatever protections the provider’s structure happens to give you, which may be extensive or may be nothing at all.
A provider who finds these questions irritating has told you something important. A provider who answers them straightforwardly, without defensiveness, has told you something equally important.
Ask Us These Questions
At FinSelect, we would rather be chosen by someone who asked all ten than by someone who compared advertised rates and picked the highest number.
We are an authorised financial services provider, FSP number 46307, licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and authorised to deal with various authorised dealers, and you can verify that with the regulator rather than accepting it from us. We will quote you on the basis of what lands in your account. We will tell you what could go wrong with your specific matter before you commit to anything, and we will tell you when the right answer is to fix something else first or to wait. You will deal with a person who knows your file.
We have been doing this for South Africans across the world for many years, and the reason clients stay with us and refer their families is not that we are the cheapest quote on a given afternoon. It is that when something needs sorting out, there is somebody accountable who knows the history.
Put these questions to us, and put them to everyone else you are considering. The comparison will be more useful than any rate table.
Contact Rudi at FinSelect today. Email rudi.stander@finselect.co.nz or DM us. We will answer all ten before you commit to anything.
Leave your details below and we’ll get in touch for a free consultation.
