debsy

I was wondering if anyone had been following the exchange rates lately - or if anyone had any advice as we are moving in September but we can change our pounds anytime before that.

Troood

Hiya

I've been checking every day as I get daily emails from HIFX telling me what the rates were. Yesterdays highest was 2.44 apparantly. We're holding out for 2.46. We're not going until October so hopefully it'll creep up.

Cheers

andy thomas

unless anyone has heard different the overall opinion is that the ozzy dollar rate will fall to somewhere in the region of $2.20-2.30 by the end of the year, but this is only opinion. Thismorning the inter rate was just above $2.43. What you have to decide is what rate you would be happy to change at and whether you need to change all of your cash when you go, or wait to see if it goes up at all.

I used HIFX and paid 10% up front to secure a rate of $2.4375 which I am happy with.

on £100,000 each time the rate moves just 1 cent it is a difference of + or - $1,000 depending on which way it moves. If rates go as expected then the difference could be that £100,000 will buy you $20,000 less by the end of the year.

Andy

Thomaz

I check it at least every hour and often more frequently than that even though I have now transferred most of my money!

Guess I have been following it for so long now it's hard to break the habit

As for advice, it might be worth waiting for the Bank of England's next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 5th and 6th May. Hopefully the outcome will be a small % rise in the interest rate which in turn should cause a slight strengthening of the pound.

The risk though is that a day or so before that (I think) the Reserve Bank of Australia meet... hopefully there will be no interest rate rise in Oz but you never know. :scared:

It's a gamble but like you I can wait a bit (I'm hoping for a little closer to 2.50 myself) so fingers crossed.

andy thomas

like you said its all a gamble, spoke to a few dealers and they all said it would probably go down, was happy with $2.4375 so bought, dont have to worry now.

JayneS

Get some bloody work done.

debsy

Oh dear it is scary
:scared: You could lose so much money in one go:scared:

andy thomas

I dont work, the wife does that, she has to keep me in the lifestyle I'm accustomed to after all.

OzTennis

A member of the MPC (which will decide BoE I/R's in 10 days or so) was reported at the weekend as saying they need to go up then and by a further 0.5% at least by the end of the year. Spending figures have been better than expected so higher I/R's are seen as a way to dampen this down.

As Thomaz says though the RBA will decide on I/R's soon and again the experts are predicting further rises in Oz this year. The recovery of the US$ is having an effect as well - but more on the US/Aus $ E/R rather than the £/A$ E/R.

It's a hard one to call but my guess/gut feeling is that the $A will remain well below the psychological $2.50/40 cents barrier for the foreseeable future and I reckon Andy did well with his forward contract. (I'd be more worried about City surviving Andy at the moment - what if Dickov had scored with that dodgy penalty!)

OzTennis

andy thomas

He must still be a blue at heart, if we go down, we go, what else can I say I'm trying not to tempt fate.

debsy

Oh dear - lloks like I had better get a move on. Andy what happens if the exchange rates go up will you still get that rate?

andy thomas

no matter what the rate is when I eventually transfer I will get $2.4375 guaranteed

debsy

Sorry to be a dimwit but does that mean if it goes to 2.46 you will still get 2.43

andy thomas

yes thats right, 2.4375, but dont forget the 0.0075 its worth $2625

Lisa & Rich

We have been looking at exchange rates and get a daily email from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

I've tried to get some information on the web about predictions and found information is scarce.

I did find the link below that shows graphically the change in rates for the day, month, 1, 5 and 10 year periods.

If you look at the rates from 1998 to 2003 in all but 1 year (1999) the rate has been above 2.40. I was wondering whether the rates this year is because the stage Australia is in its economic cycle in which case rates will rise in the future.

Any ideas??

Lisa

http://focus.comdirect.co.uk/en/quic...isenkurse.html