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

IvanOpinion

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Also, contact your card providers to advise them that you are in the US, roughly which States you intend to stay in and for the appropraite period of time.

Good advice murph, annd worth repeating. When travelling abroad you should always let your credit card company know your departure and return dates... and always carry their phone number on you (just in case .. nothing worse in finding your card has been cancelled while away).

On a similar vein I keep scanned in copies of my passports, flight tickets, other tickets (e.g. tours/theme parks/hotels), insurance details and any other important documents in one of my globally avaliable email accounts (e.g. yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc.). Naturally they are within an encrypted file but they are available to me in an emergency should I lose somehing

Ivan

Froggitt

clanger69 wrote: »

Hi Froggitt

Are you saying order it online and collect it at the airport?

Exactly.

Read their pricematch T&Cs......they have (or certainly had) a clunky method of sending you a cheque for the difference.

pamelab21

Hi all

Hoping someone can give advice although I know no one has a crystal ball!
I am travelling to Florida in October and we are looking to take 2000 gbp with us. The conversion rate at the start of the week was 1.97 dollars to the pound, now its at 1.96 to the pound....I know its only 0.01 difference but with the current market as it is does anyone know if further drops are imminent? I don't want to jump in now when I can wait, however don't want to lose out too much if it drops further.....already lost a little at the moment.

Incapuppy

pamelab21 wrote: »

I know no one has a crystal ball!

Got it in one I'm afraid

love2save

It goes up and down every day.....you could be earning interest on that money in a savings account till October...all a gamble really. Good Luck...we have the same dilema every time we change £s for $s

sturll

I holiday in the states about 3 times per year, i remember in Jan 2006 the exchange was about 1.92, peaking last Jan at 2.1, now its floating around 1.96.

The point being whilst no one knows what will happen (if someone did they'd be a millionaire) it is unlikely to fluctuate much.

pamelab21

thanks all.

We do have a First Direct offset fixed rate 4.99 mortgage and am unsure whether the 2k is best sitting in there offsetting for a couple of months or sitting as US currency awaiting our hols.....its all a gamble isn't it....

mrposhman

If you compare the £ to those currencies which have fluctuated lots over the last year (eg. the euro, aussie dollar), the £ has significantly weakened against them due to what the government are calling the "credit crunch".

Rather its all down to government policy which increased house values to an unprecedented level.

Compare the state of the UK economy to those in europe and australia and they are currently far stronger than we are hence the reason the £ has weakened against these currencies. Compare us to the US and we are in the same position hence the reason the fluctuations recently haven't been too strong.

The only way to predict is with insider information as to whether or not the US or UK economies will move into a recession. If they both do then the rates will not fluctuate much, if only 1 does then they may do.

As you have stated that no one has a crystal ball then no-one knows really. Its all speculation.

If you know the answers to the above then you can choose to buy or not to buy, if not your in the same boat as the rest of us and its guesswork.

superjaggybunnet

You probably already worked this out but every cent up or down is winning or losing you $20.

What is the rate of exchange actually in the USA if you were to take sterling TC's? Any idea? It might be better there!

phatbear

Im off to manchester on the 7th of Aug can anyone tell me if there will be a traffic jam on the M6?

yours hopefully

the bear