best way to exchange money
Aug 30th 2005, 3:10 pm
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 35
best way to exchange money
Hello,
we are now only two weeks from leaving from sydney.
I've got the money from the sale of my house in my bank account and am intending on using Commonwealth bank to exchange it. I checked what the exchange rate was with them today and was told that the current rate is 2.3883 and they will do it for 2.3773, I am exchanging 40k so this will cost me roughly £200. Is this a reasonable amount to pay? or can I save some of this money and spend it on
instead?
Also, is anybody just exchanging a bit of their money and waiting for the x rate to improve?
Cheers.
we are now only two weeks from leaving from sydney.
I've got the money from the sale of my house in my bank account and am intending on using Commonwealth bank to exchange it. I checked what the exchange rate was with them today and was told that the current rate is 2.3883 and they will do it for 2.3773, I am exchanging 40k so this will cost me roughly £200. Is this a reasonable amount to pay? or can I save some of this money and spend it on
instead?Also, is anybody just exchanging a bit of their money and waiting for the x rate to improve?
Cheers.
Aug 30th 2005, 3:11 pm
#2
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 6,360
Re: best way to exchange money
a friend of mine has suggested opening accounts with a few currency brokers and playing them off against each other to see who gives the best rate.
HTH
HTH
Aug 30th 2005, 3:19 pm
#3
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 35
Re: best way to exchange money
Originally Posted by bridiej
a friend of mine has suggested opening accounts with a few currency brokers and playing them off against each other to see who gives the best rate.
HTH
HTH
Aug 30th 2005, 3:23 pm
#4
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 6,360
Re: best way to exchange money
Should be fairly straightforward to set up accounts, at least with one like HIFX if you dont have time for more of them. I think their rates are meant to be pretty good compared with the banks....
Aug 30th 2005, 3:45 pm
#5
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 313
Re: best way to exchange money
Originally Posted by james the cat
Hello,
we are now only two weeks from leaving from sydney.
I've got the money from the sale of my house in my bank account and am intending on using Commonwealth bank to exchange it. I checked what the exchange rate was with them today and was told that the current rate is 2.3883 and they will do it for 2.3773, I am exchanging 40k so this will cost me roughly £200. Is this a reasonable amount to pay? or can I save some of this money and spend it on instead?
Also, is anybody just exchanging a bit of their money and waiting for the x rate to improve?
Cheers.
we are now only two weeks from leaving from sydney.
I've got the money from the sale of my house in my bank account and am intending on using Commonwealth bank to exchange it. I checked what the exchange rate was with them today and was told that the current rate is 2.3883 and they will do it for 2.3773, I am exchanging 40k so this will cost me roughly £200. Is this a reasonable amount to pay? or can I save some of this money and spend it on
instead?Also, is anybody just exchanging a bit of their money and waiting for the x rate to improve?
Cheers.
Aug 30th 2005, 3:48 pm
#7
ah-beng
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: ^.^
Posts: 3,113
Re: best way to exchange money
HIFX will take 3 days to open an account and you'll get a good rate for 40K to transfer. I bet they'd beat your bank.
NatWest bank offer a fantastic rate for just using their visa card in Aus - its the interbank rate which is pretty damn near the best yu'll get. They dont charge a surcharge most banks do eg Barclaycard is 2.75% on top of that for any transaction.
Www.tranzfers.com will do you a trade for 7 pounds all done on line at click of button easy. If you'd be kind enough you can use my referral to register online with them http://www.tranzfers.com/refer.asp?r=ijcollins then I get brownie points ;-) They do good rates too I use them a lot at least 1/2 times a mth.
You might want ot setup 4 trades at 10k each perhaps - so that you can watch the money market and decide when to move it all over , if you thikn rates are going to improve thats a way to do it. If you think they're going to go down just move the whole wack in one go.
If you do leave money in UK ban kaccount (eg natwest) make sure you know the movement limits for online banking so you dont get stuck doing 2k a day when you need to get 10k to buy a car or something.
One last thing - dont trust the rates they put on their websites, some use real rates, others use rates you get if you had a billion dollars to transact - you get the idea. Ring htem or look at the real trade options on line after you've logged in to get quotes.
NatWest bank offer a fantastic rate for just using their visa card in Aus - its the interbank rate which is pretty damn near the best yu'll get. They dont charge a surcharge most banks do eg Barclaycard is 2.75% on top of that for any transaction.
Www.tranzfers.com will do you a trade for 7 pounds all done on line at click of button easy. If you'd be kind enough you can use my referral to register online with them http://www.tranzfers.com/refer.asp?r=ijcollins then I get brownie points ;-) They do good rates too I use them a lot at least 1/2 times a mth.
You might want ot setup 4 trades at 10k each perhaps - so that you can watch the money market and decide when to move it all over , if you thikn rates are going to improve thats a way to do it. If you think they're going to go down just move the whole wack in one go.
If you do leave money in UK ban kaccount (eg natwest) make sure you know the movement limits for online banking so you dont get stuck doing 2k a day when you need to get 10k to buy a car or something.
One last thing - dont trust the rates they put on their websites, some use real rates, others use rates you get if you had a billion dollars to transact - you get the idea. Ring htem or look at the real trade options on line after you've logged in to get quotes.
Aug 30th 2005, 4:29 pm
#8
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 35
Re: best way to exchange money
Thanks for all the info and links - it's a bit difficult to know what to do if you've never had any money before (it's from the sale of my house)- I like the idea of 10k in 4 seperate accounts, then I can play around with it a bit.
