sniffydog

and therefore.. (for those who know nowt........)

stevensfamily

Devlin,

I believe you are becoming very British relishing in the doom and gloom how very un Ozzy of you!!!!!!!,

Enjoy,

Cheryl

spartacus

Not that you want to hear it but . . . pound just dropped through the $2.15 mark.

Just talking with the OH this morning. Her mother and father retired across here five years ago. Get their pensions paid in stirling, which for UK citizens in Oz is frozen (no increase in five years); reckoned they must be 20-25% worse off than when they first arrived.

renth

Alistair Darling has just nationalised Northern Rock. That's going to hit Sterling pretty hard IMO. Sadly I can see it hitting 2:1 before too long.

[edit]I see someone else has mentioned NR already[/edit]

spartacus

Agreed. 3-4 interest rate hikes here over the next 6 months, plus 1-2 in the opposite direction in the UK.

bcworld

I don't think he's relishing in it. Its a fact - this will undermine confidence in the UK finance sector - sterling could be sold off as a result.

One thing you need to consider is how long you are prepared to wait and does transferring now mean that you absolutely can't afford to live in Australia or just that you might have to scale back your plans a bit.

Whilst its not nice to have to transfer at the lowest rate for 10 years, if you hang about you might end up changing at the lowest rate in 15 years i.e. about $1.90.

renth

I've got to agree, deciding on when to send over all your cash is one of the most stressful parts of the process. A lot of people split it up in to 2 or 3 chunks and send it over at intervals as a hedge.

Sooty and Sweep

Depends on how long you are prepared to wait, are allowed to wait, and can wait?

Me, flexible as hell, anything less than 2.5 to1 ,i would not even bother, cost too much, everything in Oz is expensive enough, without taking a big hit at the exchange rate cash machine. But some are not so lucky, i have to admit, i do feel for the ones who are going now and in the next few years, this could drag on until post 2010, but then again, you just do not know, i do not know, and no one can predict the currency markets, the Oz economy and the UK economy for the next five years?

If 2.5 to 1 don't come again ever, well Oz ain't for me! Not unless there is a great big housing crash over there, and that looks even more unlikely, but who am i to say, i just do not know, but very interesting times, very interesting over here in the UK, i think Nu labour are starting to look like a bunch of school kids running a candy shop, very very un-proffessional?

But there is no way would i advise anyone close to me to exchange sterling over to the dollar right now, but obviously you guys in Oz are dollar biased to a certain extent?

Cheers!

joho

One thing to remember is that if you can get a better savings rate over here then you can recoup some of the loss or take pot luck.

Jo

Devlin

Trust me I ain't relishing it! Over 50% of my investments are still in GBP! I just wanted to let people know that they may be waiting for a very long time for it to improve and in fact it will most likely get worse - I was actually suggesting people hurry up so it doesn't get even worse for them!

ex_exile

lack of confidence in the UK banking system could have a knock on effect on the currency driving it down further.

Also they are talking about another Australian interest rate rise next month which will probably increase the value of the AUD relative to the GBP. Basically the Australian and British ecomonies are at different points in the economic cycle.

stevensfamily

My Apologies Devlin, no offence please. What is meant as a slight joke can come across badly when written down.

I must say we are booked on a flight in April and I am so scared as to what to do for the best. Giving up a well paid job working for Brit government in Germany and now everything is going to hell with rate crashing and house sale just fell through. Nervous breakdown kicking in and having two kids just dont know what to do for the best

Anyway sorry mate no harm meant

Cheryl

mickagnew

I concur, its doing my head in right now, just dont know what to do!

Mick

stevensfamily

Hi JO,

Sorry for being stupid but the intrest savings rate in Oz is no better than UK at the moment, I dont think. We have Westpac acount and they quote 5.55-6.25% at the moment, Nationwide quote 5.55% gross p.a so not much in it? Are there much better rates over there with someone else?

Thanks for help any option considered at the moment as all our hard earned cash will just dissapear overnight!!!!!

Cheryl

stevensfamily

Mick what is your plan if you dont mind me asking. Are you locked into going over?. Are you like us going to have to transfer living costs until you find a job?

Panic is an understatement?

Not being a stock market expert dont know what to do?

Cheryl