Expats are being urged to look for the best deals before purchasing pension products, it has emerged.

Financial advisor Hargreaves Lansdown recently highlighted figures showing pensioners may be 40 per cent better off if they shopped around for retirement schemes, the Telegraph reports.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions at the firm, encouraged Brits to use the open-market option when searching for financial products.

This system allows payees to change their retirement scheme provider and transfer money to different funds.

However, further figures from the company reveal just a third of Brits choose this option.

Mr McPhail told the paper: "The reasons for such a low take-up is a combination of a lack of education, information and awareness and many people's fund sizes being deemed too small to deal with."

In other news, travel company Expedia recently stated Thailand is an affordable location for Brits as favourable foreign exchange rates help sterling to go further than it would in some short-haul destinations.

Click here to make an International Money Transfer.

By Linsey Summers