complex currency help!

ratkarth

looking for someone who understands maths and currency exchang better than me

going to dubai next month
current rate gbp to AED is 4.3 AED to the pound.

However I have a lot of Euros from previous travel that I got at 1.35 euros to the pound.

The current euro :aed exchange rate is 1 euro = 3.82 aed

So the question my little brain cannot work out is
should i take GBP and exchange them for AED
or should I use my Euros and exchange for AED
whicih would give me better rate
(we may go to europe in a few years but no immediate plans to do so, may not be for many years )
my head hurts...:eek:

many thanks for any answers

Cisco001

Euro to AED?

1 GBP = 1.35 euro x 3.82 = 5.157 AED if you use your existing euro to do the exchange.

I assume you exchange them in dubai locally?

ratkarth

yep wil be exchanging in dubai locally so eseentially a much beter exchange rate using my euros?

jpsartre

ratkarth wrote: »

So the question my little brain cannot work out is
should i take GBP and exchange them for AED
or should I use my Euros and exchange for AED
whicih would give me better rate

The question makes little sense. You'll get more AED per £ for the simple reason that GBP are worth more than Euros. It doesn't make any difference what rate you got when you exchanged to Euros.

ratkarth

jpsartre wrote: »

The question makes little sense. You'll get more AED per £ for the simple reason that GBP are worth more than Euros. It doesn't make any difference what rate you got when you exchanged to Euros.

it does make a difference

the question is what gives me the best exchange rate next month
taking gbp and converting into aed's or using my euros I already purchaased at 1.37 and converting them

thanks

jpsartre

Again, the question makes no sense because there is no "best rate". When you exchange to AED your Euros will be worth £X (based on the exchange rates on the day) and will buy you Y AED. If, rather than exchanging your Euros to AED, you exchange £X what do you end up with? Exactly the same, namely Y AED. It doesn't matter how many GBP you paid for your Euros at some point in the past, it doesn't make your Euros any more or less valuable on the day you're going to buy your AED.

benjus

Your Euros are worth more now in GBP terms than they were when you bought them. It doesn't matter much whether you change them back into GBP or use them to buy AED, they are worth more than the amount in GBP that you paid for them. So stop thinking about that, because it's the same whatever you decide to do with them.

So you can use your Euros to buy AED, or you can use GBP and keep the Euros for something else in the future. The Euros will probably be worth a different amount (in GBP terms) in the future. Whether that's more or less, no-one can say.

If you could buy and sell currency at mid-market rates with no fees, it wouldn't matter if you do GBP -> AED or EUR -> CHF -> JPY -> USD -> AED. But most people can't do that, so it's usually best to go through as few changes as possible.

However, that's not always true. For example, in South America there's a lot of demand for USD but not so much for GBP, so the exchange rates for USD tend to be more competitive. It's possible to change GBP to USD very cheaply here in the UK. So if you're going to South America and taking cash, it may be better to convert GBP to USD before you go.

eDicky

ratkarth wrote: »

my head hurts...:eek:

I'm not surprised! As Jean-Paul says, the question, or at least the way you are looking at it, makes no sense at all.

Your pounds are worth a lot less now (overseas) than when you bought your euros at 1.37, today they will only buy €1.15. So if you have no other use for those euros in the near future it might make more sense to buy the AED with them, instead of using your weak pounds. At least that's what I tend to do these days - use what pounds I have only in the UK, and my dollars and euros elsewhere.