HoosierDaddy

Only $1.64 to the pound

TruBrit

i know and it's great news for me transferring $>£... i was going to do it a couple of mths ago and decided to wait it out a bit longer and boy am i dead made up..

zargof

It did drop down to 1.62 this morning, and it looks to be heading back up a bit now. So if you haven't already done it then it may be an idea. Or you could wait until the BOE drops interest rates again in November, which is looking more and more likely.

TruBrit

tks for that. i'm biding my time and so glad i decided to do that. i have a friend in Fl who bought a house in Scotland just two months ago and have lost big time with the exchange rate. it's always best to hang fire unless one is forced into a situation.

penguinsix

2 months ago they were projecting a 6 month 'floor' of 1.65. Guess that's shot to hell now. I wouldn't be that surprised if we see back to 1.50 in the next year if this continues.

TruBrit

motley fool was projecting that a couple of days ago.

zargof

It wouldn't surprise me. I'm happy with the drop as I have to pay off some debts back in the UK, and I'm already saving over $100 a month since it started falling from about $2.00.

If you don't have to send the money by a specific time, then what I would do is use the Bid function in XE. Set it to an exchange rate you would be happy to accept, and if you get it then great, if you don't then you haven't lost anything, but it means you don't have to spend time monitoring the exchange rate. Of course it is a bit of a gamble as the dollar may get weaker again, but IMO I don't see that happening in the forseeable future. Of course I'm not a financial adviser, so take this with a pinch of salt.

TruBrit

tks and yes i have that set up already for some of the money i'm transferring...i've used it before and it's a very useful tool. i'm not paranoid about it but significant drops like of recent weeks is something to smile about esp when transferring rather large sums....

Duncan Roberts

I was reading some history of UK coins earlier and saw that in the early 60's the exchange rate was £1 > $2.60.

RoadWarriorFromLP

Back when the sterling was the world's reserve currency, before WWII, a pound was typically worth about US$5.00.

When the dollar eventually loses its reserve currency status to the Chinese, now you have a preview of what to expect.

BritishGuy36

As someone said a few weeks ago in another thread, the volatility of the exchange rate is incredible at the moment.

It's only a couple of weeks since it went up from $1.73 to $1.85, now back to $1.63...it's mental.

Just need it to spike when I'm ready to transfer all my moola.....

chartreuse

Yeah, it's completely fscking insane! I'm trying to do the same thing, but so far I've been a bit too hesitant and missed my moment twice...

DeanUK2US

I'm happy to transfer as low as 1.75USD. Any lower then I feel it isn't worth it, given that it's likely to spike again sometime soon.

Giantaxe

It was at $2.40 as recently as 1980. By 1985 it touched parity with the dollar!

Michael

Currencies similar to housing, stock markets, and commodities tend to trend in the same direction for a long time before a reversal is made. This happened to the euro in relation to the dollar from 2002 to 2008 where the exchange rate went from $0.85 to the euro (very over valued $) to $1.60 to the euro (very under valued $). I doubt that the dollar will again return to the 2002 exchange rate but there is a possibility that the dollar will approach $1 to the euro (over valued $).

According to the chart in the following link, the dollar still needs to increase in value of about 12% in relation to the euro and 10% in relation to the pound (as of yesterday so the figures should be less today) to reach purchaing power parity.

http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/PPP.html

Edit: Oops. There appears to be a problem with the 2nd and 3rd charts. Those charts indicate that the US dollar is overvalued in relation to the Canadian dollar and the euro. I suspect that those charts are incorrect in relation to the dollar instead of the 1st chart since all other relations are correct between other currencies in all there charts and only the dollar is the oddball. For example the 1st chart indicates the Danish Krone is overvalued by 50% against the dollar, the 2nd chart indicates the Danish Krone is overvalued by 50% to the Canadian dollar, and chart 3 indicates the Danish Korne is overvalued by 33% in realtion to the Euro. That makes sense in relation to all three charts. All other currencies match up correctly between all three charts.