INTERVIEW
In Focus: EXPATMONEY.com
10 years ago by Usman Ghani
Karen and Derry Thornalley are owners of EXPATMONEY.com. In this interview they discuss how EXPATMONEY.com has been able to help people who are planning to move abroad and they highlight some of the common concerns of expats. They also talk about the future plans of their company and its vision to become ‘the Go-to’ website for international expat guidance and information.
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“SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO BROWSE AND OTHERS NEED THE INFORMATION AS THEY DON’T HAVE TIME”
Please share with our readers how the idea of EXPATMONEY evolved?
Derry used to be an advisor and when becoming an expat he realized that there was no one website where expats could go to find out about anything to do with Finance. People only move abroad for one thing and that is to better their lifestyle, when they arrive they need to be able to find companies that can help them and that is where EXPATMONEY can give information only, with no advice. We are producing a portal for anyone moving from country to country who need help on finding information as an expat.
New business ideas, usually start with identification of pain points of the target market. What kind of market gaps did you identify before initiating this project?
Finding information on a country when you first move in is hard unless someone tells you in passing or you search the blogs and internet, there are expat sites, however when Derry was an advisor his clients would ask him questions on local tax, where to live, visas and other areas and he would try to find this out but it would take time and none of them could offer everything. So that is what EXPATMONEY is set out to do, we have working relationships with companies that can provide banking, schools, housing, laws, visa and immigration, investments, recruitment and much more. This is a continual working project as we have a total of 34 websites that we will be able to connect different people with relocation, education, any one in business and recruitment are just examples.
In your experience, what are some of the most common concerns of people who are looking to move abroad?
Some of the concerns that we have found are
- Finding good companies to work with.
- Information on leaving their country as well as the one they are moving to as most people do not look at any implications there might be when moving away from or into.
- Finding the right place to live before people move, especially when they have a family to think about, looking at the right community as well as district.
- Schooling for their children.
- Finding transport.
- Renting, leasing or buying a car.
- Insurance for their needs.
- Country laws, such as wills and guardianship.
How do you communicate and help people when they seek financial advice and guidance from you?
EXPATMONEY doesn’t give financial advice. Guidance is what the companies offer that work with us. We are not experienced to do this but we have companies that are. On our site there is advice shield, a website that tells the general public an idea on what to look for in a good advisor and steps to take when meeting them, but there is no advice.
How has live chat on your website helped in enhancing customer experience for online visitors?
It has guided the clients to the sections they are looking for, quicker than if they had to find it themselves. Some people like to browse and others need the information as they don’t have time and need to move on. All the chat lines are passed onto us so that we can contact the client directly if they need it. We have passed clients to our sector experts when we feel there is a need, otherwise they contact them on their own by using the enquire more buttons on the website.
What kind of services are you planning to offer in the future?
We are working towards EXPATMONEY HQ, this will open our 34 websites through the expat community to enable them to find any information. No matter what they are looking for they will be able to come to our websites and find the information.
For more information, please visit http://expatmoney.com/