How much do you really know about personal finance — or about sending money abroad? This is your chance to test your knowledge against the founder of The Simple Dollar, Trent Hamm. He scored 8/10. Can you do better? If the spirit of competition isn’t enough, five respondents will win a $ 30 Amazon gift card (chosen at random, regardless of how well you score).
To create a challenging financial literacy quiz, we teamed up with TransferWise — our pick for the best money transfer app in The Simple Dollar Awards of 2020. “If you have friends, family, co-workers or clients living abroad, TransferWise is the best way to send them money (or receive it), period,” our judges wrote back in January. Since then, TransferWise has also added a fantastic, free currency exchange rate comparison tool.
Submit your answers below, then scroll down a few times to see the answer key. Remember: your quiz score won’t impact your chances to win a gift card, so there’s no reason to cheat!
Scroll down for the answer key (after you submit your responses)…
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How well did you score?
1. True or false: It’s free to send money internationally.
Answer: Definitely false!
2. True or false: A person can have more than 1 debit card on the same account.
Answer: True
3. What percentage of Americans have experienced hidden fees for a service they used?
Answer: In a 2018 survey of 2,000 US adults conducted by Consumer Reports, it was reported that 85% of Americans had encountered an unexpected or hidden fees over the past two years (2016-2018). Money transfer fees are often hidden, but the TransferWise app is always transparent (and usually much cheaper).
4. How large of an emergency fund do most experts recommend keeping in your savings account?
Answer: 3-6 months. Here’s Trent Hamm’s advice for how to start an emergency fund from scratch.
5. What is the “mid-market exchange rate”?
Answer: The real exchange rate (what you see on Google) is the mid-point between the buy and sell rates on the global currency markets and it constantly fluctuates.
6. What is the average interest rate (also called the APY) on a savings account in the United States?
Answer: The national average is only 0.1%, but high-yield savings accounts offer much higher APYs.
7. True or false: Money transfers can be processed on a Saturday in the U.S.
Answer: False — In the U.S., banks don’t process transfers over the weekend. They start paying them out on the following Monday.
8. True or false: Federal law requires banks and money transfer services to disclose the exact amount charged on international transfers.
Answer: False, which is why The Simple Dollar appreciates TransferWise’s transparent approach to money transfer fees.
9. How long (on average) does an international wire transfer take?
Answer: May take as many as 5 days.
10. If you’re sending $ 1,000 from the U.S. to the U.K., how much can you expect to incur in fees?
Answer: TBD based on market average, but with TransferWise, it can be as low as $ 10, while with other providers or banks it can be around $ 170.
