Brontekst bekijken van Foreign exchange fee (bookkeeping)

The ''exchange rate markup'' (''koersopslag'') is an additional fee that banks charge when converting foreign currency transactions into euros. It’s not the official exchange rate, but an extra percentage added by your bank on top of the interbank exchange rate.

From a bookkeeping point of view, it's a ''cost'', related to currency exchange.

== How it works ==

* Interbank Exchange Rate: The real exchange rate that banks use to trade currencies between themselves
* Bank’s Exchange Rate: The rate your bank offers, which includes a small markup (the koersopslag)
* Your Transaction: When you pay in a foreign currency (e.g., $10), the bank converts it at their rate instead of the real interbank rate
* Koersopslag Fee: The difference between the interbank rate and the rate your bank applies

== Example ==

* Suppose the real exchange rate is 1 USD = 0.961 EUR
* Your $10 payment should be €9,61
* Rabobank charges an extra 2% koersopslag, so the final amount becomes €9,80 (€9,61 + €0,19 koersopslag)

== Why? ==

* As a source of profit
* Risk coverage
* Almost all banks do this, but the percentage varies (often between 0.5% and 3%).

== Alternatives ==

* Wise (formerly TransferWise): Uses the real interbank rate + a small transparent fee
* Revolut / Bunq / N26: Offer better exchange rates with low or no koersopslag (depending on account type)
* Credit Cards with No FX Fees: Some business credit cards avoid these extra fees
* Multi-currency bank accounts: My Alior multi-currency account has a better rate when exchanging money amongst the currencies of the account. I believe this is a general phenomenon.

== How to book? ==

Two options:

# '''Incorporate:''' Incorporate in the total cost of the associated transaction
# '''Book separate:''' Book as separate cost. E.g., to account ''Rabobank - Costs'' or ''Rabobank - Currency exchange costs''.

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages:

=== Incorporate - Disadvantages ===

* From a formal point of view, it's incorrect/inaccurate
* This makes it harder to verify the correctness of the administration, as these separate "koersopslag" transactions cannot be traced back, at least not as transactions on their own
* I wouldn't be able to find the exact amount of banking costs from my bookkeeping - I don't think I care about this, though.

=== Advantages Option 1 ===

* It shows the "effective" costs of a transaction, which is usually the main thing that is relevant for me
* Less transactions in general ledger
* Those separate "Koersopslag" mutations, have very little meaning to me - They are mostly clutter