Originally Posted by OzTennis

Two sites I use are XE and HIFX:

http://www.xe.com/ucc/
http://www.hifx.co.uk/members/quotes.asp

Sign up and they will email you the exchange rates for whatever currencies you want on a daily basis. The HIFX site will also give you 'real time' rates whenever you want them. These are the interbank rates which are not quite as good as you or I would get if exchanging.

Interest rates are being set in Australia and the UK this week (today by RBA, tomorrow by BofE I think - if you sign up to HIFX they will also email you the major weekly announcements in UK and Oz ).

The pundits expect over the next 2 years that Australian interest rates will go up by as much as 2-3% or more but that in the short term they will remain steady (no change expected this week). Other things being equal higher interest rates can strengthen a currency (higher return on savings and investments invested in $A's). Of course it's not as simple as this as other things might happen - exports fall as goods more expensive, imports rise as foreign goods cheaper, inflation may set in, it depends what other interest rates are doing 9/11 type events happen, trade figures are releasedd, etc, etc.

I personally don't expect the dollar to strengthen or weaken much in the very short term, probably looking at high $2.30's for a time but who knows months and years down the track? The UK has issues which might affect the £.

Whether or not the $ will weaken in a few months which is what you want is anyone's guess.

OzTennis :)

Originally Posted by kirsty&al

Surely the decision not to increase rates should weaken the $ (as it becomes less attractive). This recent dip may be because of the EU "no votes"; I noticed that the euro has weakened considerably against the $ and the £ may be going down in sympathy (because of the close ties to Europe ;) ).

I reckon there's going to be some turbulence until the EU situation is fudged - sorry - sorted.

A.

Originally Posted by NKSK

MPC = Bank of England. Not raising rates will weaken the £GBP (and therefore relatively strengthen the AUS$ and other currencies) if the market was expecting a rate rise.

Originally Posted by Steve&Clare

I've signed up with Xe.com, but am having a problem with the Hifx site. Could you post a direct link to the email sign up please? I hate sites written in ASP, I cannot install new versions of the base software to make it work on this PC at work

thanks

Originally Posted by Hels

My forcast is that around the end of July - early August the exchange rate for GBP to AUD will be no higher than 1:1...

How do I know this? Its because thats when we will FINALLY have the proceeds from the FIL's estate and can transfer the money......... :rolleyes:

We have never been that lucky when it comes to money stuff and it will be just our luck that some catastrophe will occur just before we send the money over!!

So be warned...get your money over quick. I will post a warning when we know when we are sending over our money so you can all get in ahead!!

:D ;)

Originally Posted by the plumber

Nearly 3 yrs ago when we first wanted to live i oz , it was over $3 to the £ and from the day we decided we definitely wanted to live there , the bloody £ dropped like a stone .....went as low as $2.20 ( i think) and many were saying it would soon be $2 to the £.

In the end we managed to get $2.4 and felt lucky to get that!

So all i can say is that.......it's a guessing game and no one really knows the market ....not even the experts..... :confused:


all the best plum ;)