Hero provides agents with the convenience of paying in their own currency for products that are priced in different currencies and paid to foreign bank accounts.
Hero handles the end-to-end flow of funds so agents don't need to worry about foreign exchange (FX) processing costs, bank transfer fees, local tax and accounting fees, and FX risk associated with fluctuations in exchange rates.
FX rules do apply:
Retail rates are converted from the supplier's local currency into that of the agent. The FX rate applied takes into account the current exchange rate between the countries, and the deferred days before the product is likely to be consumed by the customer.
Additionally, in some cases, the commission percentage available to overseas agents will vary by a small amount.
These rules help Hero mitigate its FX risk and continue to supply these services.
Why you can't use XE.com or others to estimate FX rates:
A quick online search is a convenient way to check exchange rates when making a global money transfer, however, these rates are misleading.
You will typically have to pay a fee or commission when you exchange currency. However, these costs are not taken into account by Google.
Exchange rates displayed on XE.com (for example) are typically mid-market rate from the interbank market. This means that unless you are trading on behalf of a bank and are buying or selling a wholesale amount (above 1 million U.S. dollars), you are unlikely to be able to transact at this displayed rate.
Daily updates:
FX rates update daily, so pricing for any overseas products within your quote may change when a pricing look-up is performed as a result of an adjustment to date / time / pick-up / notes etc.
Pricing won't change if no actions are performed which would initiate a pricing lookup.