US ($) Currency Thread 1 (closed - use thread 2)

Incapuppy

Hello and welcome to MSE. There is a dedicated US currency thread here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=587211

I'll give you the quick answer - no-one knows.

You could buy now or buy later, the rate may go up or down. Why not buy half now and half later then you won't lose out either way.

PS: Dubloons are the way forward ;0)

Sam_Bee

If there is technically no way of knowing which direction the exchange rate will go, then surely, technically, the answer is to keep hold of the money so you can earn interest on it in the next couple of months.

That's the only guaranteed way of making money on the money surely?

P.S Here's a pretty graph that tells you nothing: http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=GBP&to=USD&amt=1&t=5y

nej

Does anybody know what type of travellers cheques you get with Tesco? Visa or Amex?

jetskidia

nej wrote: »

Does anybody know what type of travellers cheques you get with Tesco? Visa or Amex?

Does it make a difference

nej

jetskidia wrote: »

Does it make a difference

Only in Walmart.... they only accept Amex TCs now and I plan on doing a fair bit of spending in there!

hammy_the_hammer

visa rate $1.99 to the £ today .....come on $2, come on !!!

phatbear

Bev_Walker wrote: »

I'm planning a trip to California in September, but should I get my dollars now, or wait a bit in case the exchange rate improves?

Im very hot and I have hot paws and stuff therefore im a grumpy bear so I apologise in advance for the following rant!!!!!!!!!


Use the flipping search button, or how about engaging your brain and thinking "oooo if i could find out what the exchange rate will be in several months time I could a millionaire as not only could i sell everything I own and invest I could also sell this information for a fat fee, sure the folks on MSE are intelligent so hopefully they will be able to predict the future for me"

Anyway hopefully this will help

01, 17, 18, 25, 28, 36

there ya go some lottery numbers for you go and play them and hope you win after all predicting the exchange rate is on par with playing the lottery, by the way if you win I want a cut.

Anyway forget about the dubloons sunscreen is the wayforward.

All the best

The Bear

but trust me on the sunscreen

disney_cjd

nej wrote: »

Only in Walmart.... they only accept Amex TCs now and I plan on doing a fair bit of spending in there!

Another alternative to Travellers checks is to use a prepay credit card. So this is a mastercard, visa or amex card that allows you to add funds to it and it will only allow you to spend whats on it. So you bung 500 quid on it and when its gone you either bin the card or you refill it.

Something like a Mastercard prepay. You can get these here in teh UK but also in America. You can even buy one with your travellers checks and then you can use it anywhere and not worry about who takes what card.

disney_cjd

Bev_Walker wrote: »

I'm planning a trip to California in September, but should I get my dollars now, or wait a bit in case the exchange rate improves?

Bev

to give you a more helpful answer to those you have (and although they are of course right you can not know what the future holds you can protect the rate now.

I am not sure if you have heard of a forward contract? These were typically for big dollar transactions many years ago but now even sites like xetrade.com which I use allow you to do a forward for holiday spend amounts.

So how dies it work? Well you take todays rate, take a few points off so for a 1.999 rate you are looking at around 1.95, 19.6 maybe depending on the time of the forward and you book a date in teh futre you want the money. So Spetember (normally you do this for lionger periods of time like a year or so but whatever). You then pay a deposit (so you do not even need to pay for it all now) and then you have protected that amount at that rate and do not need to pay for it until nearer the time.

Remember this is a contract and you will have to pay for it in the future.

Its worthwhile if you are worried about it and it being the rate dropping.

I would keep an eye on it. It has hit 1.99 to day as people said (actually it hit 1.99 a few days ago, but getting over the 2 bucks seems to be a struggle.

disney_cjd

hammy_the_hammer wrote: »

visa rate $1.99 to the £ today .....come on $2, come on !!!

I hope so, we shall see !!! Remember you will only get that rate if:

- you are using a Nationwide or post office card abroad
- you use a currency dealer to buy your dollars but then it woudl probably be a few cents off

If you walked into to PO of a bank you would of course not get near it. You would be better with the likes of xetrade.com or moneycorp but they make their margin of the span