Press Release
Online apps have changed how small currency transfers work, but on six-figure transfers and life-event payments the phone-based specialist model still has the edge, according to the UK currency broker.
CAMBRIDGE, UK — 9 June 2026 — As money-transfer apps have made small cross-border payments faster and cheaper, UK specialist currency broker Cambridge Currencies argues that the calculation flips on larger, one-off transfers — where a five-minute conversation with a dedicated specialist routinely catches details that would otherwise have gone wrong on a screen.
The firm completes every transfer by phone with a named specialist who stays with the client from first quote to settled funds. That model, common among UK specialist brokers, is built for the type of transfer where the stakes are unusually high and the details unusually specific: an overseas property completion, an inheritance, a pension lump sum, the sale of a business, or a one-off corporate payment. On these transfers, the cost of a small mistake — a wrong reference, a misread completion date, the wrong currency at settlement — can dwarf any saving from a slightly tighter rate on an app.
“It’s not nostalgia. On a six-figure transfer, the things that go wrong are almost never about the rate — they’re about timing, reference fields, settlement dates, exposure between exchange and completion. A five-minute conversation catches the thing that would have gone wrong. An app doesn’t ask you those questions because it doesn’t know what kind of transfer you’re making.”
Anthony Bull, CEO, Cambridge Currencies
The phone-based approach also gives clients access to tools that are uncommon on consumer apps: forward contracts to fix today’s rate for a payment up to roughly 12 months ahead, limit orders that execute automatically at a target rate, and stop-loss orders that protect against the rate falling below a floor. These instruments are routine on a phone conversation with a specialist and rarely surfaced on a self-service screen designed for one-off retail payments.
Cambridge Currencies works with both individual clients managing large international transfers and businesses with regular overseas obligations. Client funds are safeguarded in segregated accounts through its FCA-authorised payment partners. The firm is part of a longer tradition of UK currency brokers that built their model around named-specialist service rather than self-service software — a model the company says remains the right one for transfers where the value, complexity, or timing makes the cost of an error materially larger than the cost of a phone call.
For clients deciding between an app, a bank and a phone-based specialist, the firm encourages the same basic test as on any transfer: ask each provider exactly how much will actually arrive, then weigh that figure against the level of support each model offers for the specific transfer in question. On routine, low-value payments an app will often win; on a single transfer where the wrong reference or the wrong day costs more than the saving, a phone call usually pays for itself.
About Cambridge Currencies
Cambridge Currencies is a UK specialist currency broker based in Cambridge, founded in 2023. It helps individuals and businesses move money internationally in more than 30 currencies — for overseas property, business and supplier payments, large and high-value transfers, pensions, inheritance and school fees. Every transfer is completed by phone with a dedicated specialist, using tools including spot transfers, forward contracts and limit orders. Cambridge Currencies Ltd is not directly authorised by the FCA; it operates with FCA-authorised payment partners Currencycloud (FRN 900199) and ScioPay (FRN 927951), and client funds are safeguarded in segregated accounts. More at cambridgecurrencies.com.
Media contact
Media enquiries are handled by Anthony Bull, CEO.
Email: info@cambridgecurrencies.com
Web: cambridgecurrencies.com
Press hub: cambridgecurrencies.com/press/
