FX Top
The first thing that hits you when you go to the Fx Top currency converter is the riot of colours and small graphics that form the design of the site. Most of them form the colourful flags which represent the different countries. 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 at your disposal. Make no mistake - you are on an excellent site which has plenty to give you here.
Take me to the site! How do I get there?
Quite easily – just type http://fxtop.com into your browser and hit return. That’s all there is to it to reach this somewhat unusual but very good site.
What does the site offer?
When a currency conversion tool has many language selections available it shows that they really understand the true international nature of currency conversion. Fx Top has a choice of eleven European languages, plus Japanese.
Currency conversion choices start from a simple cross rate table, then move on to a basic currency converter and then to the advanced currency converter.
Click on countries to get a list of the flags and currency codes for each one. This alone is brilliant, and something that not all sites provide. It even has a quick Euro quiz to take if you want to test your knowledge on the Euro and all things European! That gives it a nice edge and once again something different to offer.
What is their currency converter like?
The converter itself is like no other. It is split into three basic columns, which appear like this 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 eleven default choices also contains MXN (Mexican peso) and Swedish Krona and, unaccountably, a separate entry for Ireland (which is the Euro, of course).
At this point the second column in the middle is blank. We’ll take a look at this last. The 3rd column lists the exchange rates for the countries in column one versus the USD. You can change this default setting quite easily by clicking one of the three letter country codes across the top of the page. Your choices are USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD or “reverse”.
Reverse shows the exchange rate the other way. So for example instead of showing the exchange rate for USD to XXX (the currency you need), 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 kronas 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 and press enter.
ALL the boxes in the 2nd column now contain the value of 1000 Mexican pesos in their respective currency. If you look in the Euro flag's second column you will see how many Euros a thousand pesos will buy you. That’s how versatile and fantastic this currency converter is!
Similarly for our example, if we look at the box in the second column beside the Swedish krona (SEK), this will give us the answer we were looking for. You will notice that the contents of the column on the right (the third column) do not directly affect the contents of the results column (column two).
Don’t miss the historical rates converter either – it lets you find the exchange rates that were in force anywhere from yesterday to several years ago. And it is just as easy to use as the main one too.
Supposing I need some help and advice – can they help me with that?
There is a great page which tells you how to use the converter if you have any trouble at all. You’ll see the link under the converter on the home page.
Look also for the link that says ‘specific services’ on any page, on the left hand side. This takes you through to a page which tells you more, and provides links to the ‘about us’ page. This gives you complete details on how to contact the webmaster should you need to. Clicking on the ‘contact us’ takes you into your email program with the appropriate contact address already filled in. You can then email for advice or assistance if need be.
In conclusion
The site contains a lot of handy 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.
This is, for my money, one of the best and easiest to use currency converters online. Don’t be fooled by the more basic design that seems to put it behind its competitors. This is the one I would want to have bookmarked for easy use every day.
Rating (out of five stars)
This has to get five out of five. It may not be the most high tech looking of sites when you first arrive, but don’t go on first appearances! Five out of five, and very well deserved too!
- 5 Stars
Link: http://fxtop.com