General

For a house purchase in the low- to mid-six figures, the UK bank’s wire button is the most expensive tool on the screen. Here is the one you should be using instead.

An aboki is a person with a phone, a stack of naira, and a network of counterparties. Here is how the street currency exchange works, and what UK law says.

Hawala is not a crime; it is how a family sends money where the formal apps do not reach. Here is how it works, and what UK law says about using it.

A paluwagan is a savings group. A fixed number of people who know each other each put in the same amount on the same day, and one member takes the whole pot that day. Next round, a different member takes it. When every member has taken the pot once, the cycle is finished. Everyone contributes…

An ajo is a savings group. A fixed number of people who know each other each put in the same amount every week or every month. Whoever’s turn it is that round takes the whole pot. When every member has taken the pot once, the cycle is finished. The word is Yoruba; elsewhere in Nigeria…

When the app has frozen your account and support will only say a review is under way, this is the letter that puts the firm on the clock. Copy, fill, send.

A rule changed somewhere in the formal system. You will not read the circular. You will just open the app and hit a new screen, a lower cap, or a hold that was not there last month. Here is how to read the change from your side of the screen.

You have set the transfer to run every month, and every month the fee still lands and the amount arriving is not quite the same. The three mechanics the “monthly transfer” label hides, and how to set it up so it costs the same each month and less than doing it by hand.

You sent the money on Friday. The app said one to two working days. It is Tuesday. Here is when that is normal, and when to start worrying.

The invoice is a specific number and has to arrive as that number. Three ways to send it, and the one lever when the way you have can quietly take a slice.