Exchange rates: how ours are set
2 min readLast updated 16 September 2026 Read as plain text
Where the rate comes from, what the spread is, and how to know what a converted payment will actually be worth.
Any time money crosses a currency, somebody applies a rate, and the difference between the rate you are given and the mid-market rate is what the conversion costs you. Being straightforward about that is more useful than claiming it does not exist.
The mid rate, and the two sides of it
The mid rate is the midpoint between what the market will buy and sell a currency for. Nobody transacts at it, but it is the honest reference point.
Ultraner publishes a buy rate and a sell rate around that mid. Money coming in converts at the sell side, money going out converts at the same sell side, so the spread is consistent in both directions rather than quietly better for us on the way out.
Knowing before you commit
A quote tells you what a conversion will produce before anything happens: what the payer pays, what you receive, the rate used, and the mid rate it was derived from. A payer sees the same figures before they confirm.
It is a live spot quote rather than a locked rate. The market can move between the quote and the payment, which for the seconds involved in a mobile money payment is rarely material and is worth knowing about anyway.
What is recorded afterwards
The rate that was actually used is stored on the transaction. Three months later, when somebody asks why a payment of one amount became another, the answer is on the record rather than recalculated at today’s rate, which would produce a different and useless number.
The rate is not the only cost
A converted payment carries the spread and whatever the underlying rail charges. A converted settlement to a bank account carries the spread and a wire fee. Look at what arrives, not at the rate alone.