We kept getting quoted different rates for the same payment on the same day.
We kept getting quoted different exchange rates for the same payment on the same day, so we built a tool to check it.
We run a small team that pays contractors and vendors across a few currencies. Every so often the rate we got quoted felt off, but we had no easy way to check against the actual market rate in the moment, and asking the bank always got a vague answer.
So we built https://worldesk.ai/ . You can check the real market rate for any pair, get alerts when it moves, and if you're trying to figure out hedging or timing a payment around volatility, you can just talk to an fx specialist directly. It's free and there's no sign-up.
Still early days for us on this. Does anyone else here deal with this same problem paying international vendors or contractors? and if so, what are you currently doing about it, or are you just eating the bad rate like we used to.
The useful comparison is probably not the quoted rate versus mid-market by itself, but the full executable cost.
Two quotes can differ because of timing, amount, settlement date and payment rail. A rate that looks competitive can also hide transfer fees or intermediary deductions. I’d want to enter the amount sent, amount received, fees, timestamp and value date, then see the effective markup in basis points and actual cash lost.
Are your alerts based on movement in the mid-market rate, or on a rate the business could realistically execute at that moment?
The alerts track mid-market movement, so they flag when to look rather than what you'd actually execute at. For the all-in cost, you can bring your amount, quote and value date to the AI advisor or FX specialist on worldesk.ai and go through the effective markup there, it's free with no sign-up