Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

Ok guys

I know u aint money experts, but a strawpoll.....

Is the dollar gonna get stronger or weaker in the next 2 months? How much of an effect does xmas have on the rate?

As you can probably tell, its coming time to convert our savings. Not sure wether to use my bank (smile/co-op) or xe.com!

Byeeeeeeeeeee

Lee

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

I have a co-op account too. They are very good at exchanging funds. Check daily on www.oanda.com for current rate and when you are ready call the foreign department. As you will be exchanging more than £10,000 you will get a very good rate. The rate changes constantly throughout the day. My advice would be change while it is relatively high, we waited and it dived, we ended up losing over $24,000 just on the exchange rate over 5 weeks! Still glad to be here though!!!!

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

PLEASE GIVE WAXWABBIT EXCELLENT ADVISE!!!! coz I need to know this too ;)

Ex Rate
 

Exchange rates are a lottery.

It hasn't been this high for about 5 years, and it has stayed quite high for the last few weeks, and it hasn't been this high since about '92. Take a look at the currency charts on yahoo

http://finance.yahoo.com/m5?a=1&s=GBP&t=USD&c=0

If you wait for it to go higher it may dive, we moved 7 months ago and got 1.57 and that was the commercial rate. it's now 1.7

My advise take it now. but DYOR !!

I looked at the rates at XEcom, I am a bit concerned because their rates are very good, is there a catch?? Has any of you guys used their services. Please let us know.

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

Its always a lottery of sorts. My NOT expert opinion is that the dollar has a substantial underlying weakness and will continue to devalue over the next 6 months. You may get short rallys like in the summer but ultimately the trend is down. I reckon it could still lose up to another 10%. The problem is the balance of paymenst which is massively in the red and getting worse. the only way to rectify it is a weaker dollar to encourage exports. Its economics 101 really. The treasury know this and are not supporting it as they want a lower dollar to encourage trade and production and stimulate production hence preventing more job losses. domestic consumption is not strong enough to do this so export trade is essential to their hopes for a better us economy come next years election. All this points to a weaker dollar in the short to medium term.

I am not a expert and just take an interest in these things but thats my twopenneth.

If you are moving over £25,000 you should get market rate for the transfer with most of the main banks. i used Lloyds TSB and they were fine. If below £25,000 you will likely get around 2 cents less than market more than that and they are screwing you.

regards,

Duncan

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

Look into Citibank ..always had the best deals there

http://www.citibank.co.uk/uk/index.jsp

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

If i remember rightly from my economics classes...

The exchange rate is dependent on relative interest rates in different countries. The UK interest rate is higher than the US one at the moment so the pound is strong against the dollar.

If you think the Bank of England is more likely to increase interest rates than the Federal Reserve then it maybe that you could get more $ for your pounds than you can now. The other way round and you could lose out.

How well the theory holds up in the real world I don't know and obviously there are general fluctuations all day anyway.

The last time exchage rates were really high I think was when we were trying to stay in the Exchange Rate Mechanism. We were having to keep Interest rates really high to maintain an artificially high exchange rate - we came out of the ERM so we could drop the interest rates to help the economy - I think this suggest the Interest rates do have an impact on the exchange rate.

I don't think Xmas would have any effect - none that I can think of anyway, unless Xmas spending makes the BofE push up interest rates or something

Lindsey

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

You are right Lindsey, I am sure that Christmas will have no effect, however, although you are quoting the correct economic theory, and one that expalins the difference between the "spot" and three month forward rates almost perfectly, in the real world it is mostly "sentiment" that determines the spot exchange rate.

Yesterday the news was that the US economy has started growing, at a remarkable rate, and this is almost certain to increase the value of the dollar quite irrespective of what happens to interest rates - though if strong economic growth continues iinterest rates in the US will rise.

If you have money to exchange grab the rate today, the dollar isn't likely to decline in value further in the next six months.

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

This economic "growth" has been hiked mainly by Bush's tax cuts and people spending the money though- its likely to be only temporary as it was pointed out that many more thousands of jobs have just gone down the swanee in the last month, so no changes there.

However this is the best exchange rate we've had for a decade- nobody can predict exactly what's going to happen but I'd grab this rate.

Re: Exchange rate - £ into $...
 

Yeah, me too! We won't be converting our money until January though. :( Hopefully the exchange rate will still be very favourable, if we were doing it now we'd make a lot more money!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

hmmm, 1.691 today checking on xe.com!

highest all week!

hmmmmmmm

do we do it now, or do we wait.

ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

£1 = £1.69!!!!! Holy Moley!!!
 

HAS ANYONE AT ALL EVER EXCHANGED USING www.XE.com ??

I have been looking through their website and it looks okay to me (bumming that I can't exchange now though).

Waxwabbit - if you can get 1.69 i'd grab it! I don't remember it being that high since I was a teenager!

Re: £1 = £1.69!!!!! Holy Moley!!!
 

In early 1949 it was $4 to the Pound
end of 1980 $2.44 to the Pound
Feb 1985 $1.05 to the Pound

Now may be a good time...

Still over in England visiting, still using Visa, checked my credit card statement online, and getting charged 1.72 dollars to the pound by Bank One Visa ........

Been p**sing it down with rain the last few days, not too cold but a bit windy, even in London - shopping down Oxford Street today, bit blowy..