Fxtop
The first thing that hits you when you go to the Fxtop currency converter is that it is a riot of colours and small graphics. Luckily none of them are animated or your retinas would be in real trouble. But after a while, when your eyes grow accustomed to the glare, you will find that you have a very powerful, flexible and fast currency conversion tool.
When a currency conversion tool has many language selections available it shows that they really understand the true international nature of currency conversion, and fxtop has a choice of 11 European languages plus Japanese.
Currency conversion choices start from a simple cross rate table; to a basic currency converter to the advanced currency converter.
The converter itself is like no other. It is split into 3 basic columns, which are, from left to right:
1 Country; 2 Amount (blank as default); 3 Exchange rate (versus USD as default)
The first column contains a list of countries, starting with popular currency choices like the USD and Euro the list of 11 default choices also contains MXN (Mexican peso) and Swedish Krone and, unaccountably, a separate entry for Ireland (which is the Euro, of course).
At this point the 2nd column (in the middle) is blank. I will come to it last.
The 3rd column lists the exchange rates for the countries in column 1 versus the USD. You can change this default setting by clicking one of the 3 letter country codes across the top of the page. You choices are USD; EUR; GBP; AUD; NZD, or “Reverse”. Reverse shows the exchange rate the other way. E.g. instead of showing the exchange rate for USD to XXX (whichever currency) the exchange rate is listed from XXX to USD. You can reverse any selection you have made for this column by clicking the reverse link.
In order to use the converter you find the country flag of your start currency in the first column. If the country is not represented on this column you can select from the 154 country areas in the drop-down box called “All:” at the bottom of the list (there are currency duplicates in this, as each Euro zone country has a separate listing.)
If you wanted to convert 1000 Mexican pesos into Swedish krone what you would do is find the Mexican flag in the left hand column. Then in the second column enter the amount 1000 in the box immediately to the right of the Mexican flag. Press enter.
ALL the boxes in the 2nd column now contain the value of 1000 Mexican pesos in their respective currency. E.g. if you look in the Euro flag's 2nd column you will see how many Euro 1000 pesos will buy you.
Similarly for our example, looking at the box in the 2nd column that is beside the Swedish krone (SEK) will give us the answer we were looking for.
You will notice that the contents of the column on the right (the 3rd column) does not directly effect the contents of the results column (column 2).
The site contains a lot of extras such as historic comparisons and rates, and it is a very useful and powerful converter tool.
The Exchange rates are updated daily and are the official ones published by the European Central Bank, using their official rules.
Once you get over the initial shock at the colour scheme this is a great currency converter.
Rating (out of 5 stars):
- 4 Stars
Link: http://fxtop.com