Ibraheem

Although (as mentioned by many) economy wise, it would be normal to stabilise or even surpass the psychological 1 Pound = $ 2 , but I don't think this will happen, all US partners in Europe and Asia simply can't afford very weak dollar, so we will soon see many moves in this direction, the other factor is the US political influence all over the globe, I don't think US will hesitate pressing Asia, Mideast...etc in favour of its economy when it needs to do so, personally I will exchange if I see 1 pound = 2 $ straight away.

jerry brewer

Hi
Dooh !!!!!!
jerry

MarkG

But the US government has been demanding that the Chinese _increase_ the value of their currency. The Chinese then announced they were diversifying away from the US dollar in their reserves, and the dollar began to sink, effectively doing just that .

There comes a point when artificially propping up the dollar against your own currency becomes counterproductive, and I think we've already passed that point for much of the world.

I mean, it's not as though American factories are suddenly going to open up making items cheaper than China, even if the dollar drops by 50% in relation to the Chinese currency; people will have to pay the higher prices or not buy at all. The labour costs are so much higher that it's impossible to compete without a massive drop in the value of the dollar or a massive increase in the value of the yuan.

Plus inflation is going up in the EU, so the ECB will have little choice but to raise rates, taking the Euro even higher. I don't see how the Bank of England can avoid doing the same here for long either.

Linda P

Ok hubby went in to RBC and was given a rate of 2.266 that was yesterday 9.30 am. Fantastic we thought!!!!!

Unfortunately we bank with Barclay's in the UK and they have told us that the max we can wire is £5000 per transaction over the phone. Oh unless we can " pop " into our branch and sign!!!!

POP...... we are in Canada I tried to explain, sorry came the reply, but we cannot authorise any larger amounts!!!!!

So needless to say we have now lost that rate and it has since gone down

We were advised to place the money into my Father-in-laws account and then get him to wire it across this will take ages, I find it hard to believe this is what we have to do....

Anyone out there have any ideas.......


Linda

Rupert W

Sucks it down quicker than quicksand. That and oil which they will not now let (okay this is my belief not hard fact) drift below $60 a barrel because we are all now so used to paying higher Gas (petrol) prices. As long as oil stays high the CDN$ will be okay but if the US$ takes a kicking and I can't see how it won't, the only question is when, so the CDN $ goes down with it the question is, how far?

Canada has a budget surplus in the billions so it may be able to see it's way out of a hole with some tax cuts (I'm just wishiing there) to support the economy and create better non-US markets when Geo Bush's turkeys come home to roost but the immediate impact will be a sore butt for us in Canada too. We ship heaps of lumber to the US for houses and that demand has already started to slow down. If the US stops buying other exports (hockey shirts, ice cubes, that sort of thing) we'll be having to ship it elsewhere at a discount.

So if you are west of Halifax you gotta worry but if you are still east then, aprt form finding a job if the economy does a swallow dive, you'll be sitting pretty.

Regards

Rupert W

Holy, holy, holy c%^p what are you doing dealing with a high st bank? There are fx traders out there who will sort you out way better.

I used currencies4less who are now called something else but they were about 3c per £ better value than HSBC. There are others. (Look for a spread of 150points or better.) I doubt if you had gone through with the exchange that Barlcays (ccccccchhhhhhhhhuuup!) would have really given you the rate you stated. A) your timing would have had to be perfect to the second and B) where is their spread? (by that I mean that the rate nver got to 2.7 so the biggest spread - profit- that Barclays could ave taken was 0.04c per $. A typical spread is more like 3-4.5c). They were quoting you a mid-price I reckon and you'd actually have got something like 2.236 x your £. If I'm wrong then I'm most humly sorry but I'll bet my house that I'm not.

Regards

Linda P

No......it's the bank in Canada we are exchanging with. That's not the problem. There was no talk of spread...it was a flat rate for all of it!!!

Our problem is that the UK bank will only allow us to transfer £5000 at a time. They will not allow us to do it in one transaction.

Linda

Souvenir

Not over the phone, no. I also bank with Barclays in the UK and with Scotiabank here. I've been able to make transfers under £5000 over the phone but otherwise I have to write to the bank.

I still have a UK credit card. I'm using it quite a lot at the moment because the exchange rate has moved in favour of Sterling (about 10% since the Spring).

Linda P

It's driving me mad !!!!!!!! We are now going to send hubby's dad a cheque, then he can go in and wire the money to us. But again this takes time, and we have lost the 2.266. We will have to keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't go down too much!!!

Do you fax the letter to them???

Linda

Tidge

HSBC have the same policy of only moving a limited amount at a time. We simply bought the rate at Moneycorp, and arranged with HSBC to pay £5000 a day (or whatever it was), then Moneycorp sent the money over when they had it all, at the rate we originally agreed on.

I can understand why the banks do it, but at the end of the day it is my money, and I'll do what I like with it, thank you!

I notice the rate has slipped, but it was shot up so much recently I'm not surprised - it is generally still on the up! I'm going to try and hold out for $2.30.

NewWorldMan

Everyone expects GBP to go above US$2 by the end of the year and once that happpens, CDN$2.30 can't be too far away. I'm holding out too.

Souvenir

No. Snail mail. They won't accept faxes.

Biiiiink

Do Moneycorp not accept Switch? I spent 56K GBP on HSBC Switch once to "buy" Canadian dollars. The security phonecall took about an hour though

kt0157

You misunderstand. The spread is the difference between the buying price and the selling price. Look at a lot of the high-street currency dealers and look at the difference between what they will pay you for dollars and what they will sell you dollars for. Huge spreads, sometimes 10%. That's their profit margin (i.e. you are being screwed). You need to look for someone with tight spreads, who is therefore selling (or buying) at close to the mid-point, which is the "real" rate.

Move to another bank. Every experience I have ever had with Barclays has been shit.

K.

steve666

You have a way with words...And get that bloody 'steve666 bait' thing off. I bet you don't know it's even there...

Not really mad, can't be asked.