£ v.s. $

f_@_w_y

Dear All,

See.... http://www.theoptionsinsider.com/education/?id=2033

I am seriously concerned about the potential de-valuation of GBP against USD.

Is there any way I can convert all my GBP into USD while staying in UK. I believe with the falling interest rate and being an international student here... It is not good for me to have my money (~£40k) in GBP.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

newbienewbison

Thanks for pointing this out to us again. Maybe we should just stick to talking in £ and forget any other currency exists :beer:

nzseries1

Yes... go to a post office which has a foreign exchange counter and say "Please can I exchange these pounds for US dollars".

Or, for a more 21st century way... open a Citibank Dollar account:
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm

Riq

Open an account at a foreign bookmaker in the US and dump all your money in there.

f_@_w_y

nzseries1 wrote: »

Yes... go to a post office which has a foreign exchange counter and say "Please can I exchange these pounds for US dollars".

Or, for a more 21st century way... open a Citibank Dollar account:
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm

I appreciate your comments. I guess on post office counter, you can not change all your £40k. Correct me if I am wrong.

nzseries1

f_@_w_y wrote: »

I appreciate your comments. I guess on post office counter, you can not change all your £40k. Correct me if I am wrong.

Hmm, can't say I've tried with that much :-)

But, you can do it online on their website
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/jump1?catId=19300207&mediaId=19300210&intcampaignid=PI0155
I'm not sure what you would do with $60,000 in cash though... store it in a safe? For that kind of money you're better off with a US dollar account though, in my opinion.

f_@_w_y

nzseries1 wrote: »

Hmm, can't say I've tried with that much :-)

But, you can do it online on their website
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/jump1?catId=19300207&mediaId=19300210&intcampaignid=PI0155
I'm not sure what you would do with $60,000 in cash though... store it in a safe? For that kind of money you're better off with a US dollar account though, in my opinion.

Thanks mate.... I realise post office is not offering a good rate as well (1.41). I called citibank now, and they are offering good rate for that as well i.e. 1.45.

mrposhman

Erm, you are aware that the US is also going through a period of quantitative easing as well as the UK right and so far since the announcement this has pushed the exchange rate from 1.39 to 1.45. Whats to say it won't go further than this?

Why do you have so much confidence in the $?

f_@_w_y

mrposhman wrote: »

Erm, you are aware that the US is also going through a period of quantitative easing as well as the UK right and so far since the announcement this has pushed the exchange rate from 1.39 to 1.45. Whats to say it won't go further than this?

Why do you have so much confidence in the $?

Well... I am an international PhD student here in Economics from Pakistan.... You may find some of my reasons bit insane... Why I have confidence in USD is:

1. USA is much larger than UK (economy wise as well as dimension wise)
2. USA has got much more natural resources than UK
3. USA got a new president. Remember: CHANGE HAS COME
4. USA is super power.
5. Most of the third world countries like India, Pakistan, Bangeldesh etc., follows USD. It means, if USD goes strong, there currencies go strong and vice versa. Despite of political instability and all sorts of TERRORISM bits n pieces in Pakistan, GBP has deteriorated a lot as compared to Pakistani Rupee, just because GBP has become weaker against USD.

I hope I clarified a lot of things.....:o

purch

It is not good for me to have my money (~£40k) in GBP.

It is difficult to understand why you are holding GBP at all because;

1. The U.S. has been larger than the UK economically and population wise for a century
2. The U.S. has had more natural resources than the U.K. since the dinosaurs popped their clogs
3. The U.S. was getting a new President in 2009 ever since Dubya was re-elected in October 2004
4. The U.S. has been a super power for decades
5. The Third World countries you mention, along with most others have followed/linked to the USD for decades

Non of these things has happened recently, so why hold your assets in GBP in the first place, and then wait until GBP has lost a lot of it's value against the USD before deciding to do something about it ?

Reaper

I second that. The reasons listed are seriosuly flawed for somebody studying economics!

For example the US economy could be 100 times the size of the UK economy but if the US economy started shrinking and the UK economy started growing then the exchange rates would shift in the UK's favour.

What matters is how things are changing, not how they are now.

The US may have natural resources but its supply of oil is running out.
The US is a superpower now but China is looking like the superpower of tomorrow
and so on.

I'm not saying what the £ will do, just that your reasons for thinking it will go down against the dollar don't make sense.