vanity

canada does seem to be in the doldrums, I'm like Snowy - moving pounds over too early - it hurt for quite a while!

humanist

I'm currently in the process of moving over my personal pensions, so I'm quite happy with the exchange rate right now. Unlike 5 years ago when I sold my UK house and moved over the money at 1.59 ...grrrrrr!

not2old

IMO, always keep the majority of your money in the currency of the country that you live in. If you want to have a small amount in an account in a different country, then that would be OK [because you never say never], providing there are no fees associated with keeping an account in a non-resident country.

If you have pots of money, then you may look at the HSBC Premier account

vanity

Ditto I moved it when much lower

It hurts...

Edo

I moved myself for a job when it was at 1.45 . Not a good idea when you are negotiating your package in GBP against a stronger CAD.

dave_j

Well my crystal ball's suddenly gone cloudy.
What I do know is that a rate of over 2 is a welcome bonus given the rate that was available to us when we first came over. Since then we have trickle fed our uk assets into canada in the understanding that rates fluctuate. We do our best to pick the periodic peak. In saying that, we are now at a high and we have transferred at lower rates but today's rates may also be a high water mark and notwithstanding other so-called experts who expect rates to rocket in the near future I prefer to take the bird in the hand and will be bringing more across in the new year.
What you can be absolutely sure of is that whatever you do will turn out to be wrong.

Pulaski

Banks have teams of economists and analysts who can't reliably predict what the exchange rate will be next week (if they could the banks would make millions trading currency, and they don't), so I wouldn't bet $5 on a prediction of what the exchange rate will be four months from now.

Edo

For those who are keeping an eye on the CAD, what are your predictions for 2016?

Oil is still quite low (and is expected to stay low for the next few months) and this will definitely affect the CAD. It has mostly been in decline since 2014 but sometimes we see it bumping up for a week or so and then taking a deeper dive than where left off. So yeah, any predictions folks?

not2old

Agree with post #22, in fact its out of us common folk control & those trying to play the FX, its a crap shoot IMO

Since this is pure guess & speculation without any qualification, for post #23: CAD will hit $1.60 US sometime this year.

On the GBP : CDN, my guess is it will drop to the $1.80 - $1.90 range

What is your prediction Edo?

Collie

I think the other thing to consider is what do you do with it! For example, it's not hard to find decent dividends (above 4%) with not too much risk in Canada which will be far less heavily taxed than will UK dividends, which makes moving it over attractive. On the other hand some fixe-rate sterling products offer better interest rate (e.g., 3% for 5 years) than do any of the GICs I've found here in Ontario, so this might influence you to keep it in the UK if you want to stay in cash...

Edo

I'd say back to where it was in 2003-04 would be best but I may be asking for too much

On a serious note, WHAT is pushing the CAD up again when the oil prices are still so low?

not2old

looking at the historical charts - it shows GBP:CDN 2.20 to 2.50 exchange range .

Edo

Exactly . Wouldn't it be nice if it goes up to that level even if its for a short while.

Shard

Yes it would be great, I might even be inclined to buy one of those colour televisions or a high fidelity stereophonic record player.