U.S. dollar account

vik1491

I wish to take advantage of the strong pound by opening a U.S. dollar account. I have viewed a number of websites including citibank, nationwide and hsbc but am undecided as to which bank I should go with. If anyone has any knowledge on the matter it would be much appreciated if you could share it with me.

Many Thanks

Vik

tiff

How do you benefit from a US dollar account? Might be interested, just wondering how you benefit from it?

vik1491

If the $ goes down and I convert back to £'s then I will benefit. The dollar is very high now and surely it will not go any higher. Does anyone know how much the charges are for paying in £'s to a U.S. dollar account. I will be transferring money monthly from my current account.

Thanks

Vik

Lazy_Runner

So you are betting on the dollar getting stronger?

From the little I have read on the personal finance pages, the dollar is getting weaker because there is an anticipated interest rate reduction in the US in January. So people are moving money out of dollars.

The interest rate reduction is because the US economy is getting weaker. House prices going down etc. (As an aside, there was an article in the Washington Post about Climate Change leading to Hurricanes leading to less insurance cover for mortgates leading to not being able to get mortgages for properties near the coast. One insurance company won't cover properties in the 5 boroughs of New York. If a buyer can't get a mortgage because they can't get the necessary insurance what do you think happens to the property price?) :question:
No I don't know either. Other forces will probably come into action.

Anyways when I was very young I can remember getting $2.50 for a pound and a few years later getting $1.10 for £1.

Though I do understand that if the dollar gets stronger by 10c, that is a 5% increase in your funds (excluding transaction fees).

Good luck. I have no idea in the direction of the US economy nor the dollar.

Middlers

I have a lot of USD in a Nationwide offshore account following the sale of a property over there. Unfortunately I am having to wait for the dollar to go down in order to get a decent return/my original investment back. I have been waiting for well over a year now and expect to be waiting for sometime yet - perhaps until Bush leaves or is assassinated. As I don't need the money at the moment it isn't a problem and the 5% interest is good, however each cheque I put in (USD) costs me $25 and the cheque has to be for over $500 each time. The full details and charges are available at https://www.nationwideinternational.com Personally I would find another investment opportunity.

Mrs_pbradley936

I have a US bank account because I own property over there and spend a great deal of time there. I do not think I would bother just to speculate on currency fluctuations. By the time you pay fees and exchanges I do not think you would profit. Also think about opportunity cost. There people that make a lot of money out of it – they are called futures traders but they also lose large amounts. It is highly stressful and a youngsters job.

Cook_County

pbradley is 100% correct on this.

Middlers also faces UK capital gains tax on any increase in the value of the dollar, so may effectively receive less after the taxman has had his cut...