micky

hoping to make £50,000 clear on house sale. (when the time comes).
This is after flights are bought, shipping etc.
I was just going to let my bank do the change over to $'s.
I've been told to buy $'s in advance. What exactly does this mean?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanx in advance
Shona xx

micky

oops, 'advice' :PARTY:
Shona xx

Alan Collett

Shona,

You will almost certainly get a better rate of exchange if you use one of the more specialised currency firms as compared with your High Street bank.

Information about buying currency forward and a link to one of these firms, Halewood International, is here:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=70

The main reason why people enter into forward contracts is to take the risk out of the currency exchange process. In other words, if you buy forward you know what exchange rate you are going to get for your UK£'s in (say) a month from now when the proceeds of your house sale come through.

Best regards.

micky

Alan, started work already??
God, you start sharp, don't you?

I'm going to bed now as I need my beauty sleep big time and I've got weight watchers in the morning.
Not creating a good impression of myself, am I?
I'm absolutely drop dead gorgeous BTW
Thanks for that adviCe.
I'll check it out tomorrow, when I'm even more beautiful & lighter than today !
Shona xxxx

micky

I've checked out a couple of websites recommended.
10% deposit - no chance.
Got credit cards up to the hilt already.
Is it worth just letting my bank do the change over from £'s to $'s when we sell up. No deposit, no hassle.
Or would i be as well to take out yet another credit card (for the deposit) and buy the $'s in advance?????
Cos maybe I'll get the same exchange rate with the bank anyway!


Shona xx

Rob

In <[email protected]> micky wrote:
    > I've checked out a couple of websites recommended. 10% deposit - no chance. Got
    > credit cards up to the hilt already. Is it worth just letting my bank do the change
    > over from £'s to $'s when we sell up. No deposit, no hassle. Or would i be as well
    > to take out yet another credit card (for the deposit) and buy the $'s in
    > advance????? Cos maybe I'll get the same exchange rate with the bank anyway!

I'd suggest you get a calculator out and try to work out what each option would cost.

My gut feeling is that it doesn't make sense to borrow more money (on top of your
credit card debt) to have a gamble on exchange rates.

angie41

Micky

My sister came over in March, she had an HSBC account in UK ,opened up one in Aus transferred her funds over (cost 10 pounds) and got a better rate than" Halewood International"was offering.

Angie

Alan Collett

I am really surprised at that ... normally the High Street banks offer a poor exchange rate akin to the tourist rates.

Maybe HSBC are different because they have more of a presence in Australia than the other banks.

Best regards.

Claire

Hi

I used both HSBC and Halewood (after reading Alan's recommendation). We used HSBC before we knew about Halewood when the rate was really good. When we had our last lot of funds to transfer, Halewood had a better rate on the day and they transfered it to our HSBC a/c here in Perth free of charge. You can set up the account with them without any deposit and just keep checking the rate. We called them when we were happy with the rate, they put in the order for us and we sent them a cheque in full. Easy!

Claire
xx

Rob

In <[email protected]> Alan Collett wrote:
    > I am really surprised at that ... normally the High Street banks offer a poor
    > exchange rate akin to the tourist rates.

Nah, tourist rates are much, much worse.

I.o. today, the BBC quote the £->Aus$ rates as.. tourist: 2.65559 market: 2.7815

that's a 12.59c per pound difference.

When I last looked, HSBC were quoting roughly 3c per pound to transfer funds, whereas
Halewood are nearer 1.5-2c per pound.

    > Maybe HSBC are different because they have more of a presence in Australia than the
    > other banks.

There's a big difference in transfering funds electronically and buying cash or
travellers cheques to put in your pocket. The latter obviously creates more overhead
for the banks. When transfering money electronically, the bank can buy the currency
instantly if they don't have enough to cover it. With cash they have to hold the
paper money for days or weeks in advance, and it's dead money because it's sitting in
a drawer/safe until it's sold. It earns no interest there, and it can easily devalue
whilst gathering dust.

Pat

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rob:
In <[email protected]> Alan Collett wrote:
    > I am really surprised at that ... normally the High Street banks offer a poor
    > exchange rate akin to the tourist rates.

Nah, tourist rates are much, much worse.

I.o. today, the BBC quote the £->Aus$ rates as.. tourist: 2.65559 market: 2.7815

that's a 12.59c per pound difference.

When I last looked, HSBC were quoting roughly 3c per pound to transfer funds, whereas
Halewood are nearer 1.5-2c per pound.

[Hi I have an account with First Direct (part of HSBC) and when I enquired abot transferring money I think they were going to charge me £50 or there abouts. I have now set up an account with The Commenwealth Bank of Australia who have an office in London and they will transfer my money free of charge and give the commercial rate which is a lot better than the tourist rate. It costs nothing to set the acount up and you can decide when to convert, set them a £ to $ rate at which to convert or just leave it up to them.
Pat

Grub

Dear Shona

I did post a relpy to you in a different thread- have a look.

Cheers

Nicky