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

iltisman

You are taking a bet on how the UK and US economies fair in the next 10 months and other factors like will the Russia v the west problem escalate,Iran,US election and will Gordon Hopeless Brown get the boot.

Froggitt

SCRIBES wrote: »

Going to Florida next May and have a bit of a dilemma:
The Dollar has risen against the £ recently. I have a Nationwide account and would be using their debit card to draw $ out there.

Seems that my Options are:

A. Take current exchange £2500 @ 1.84 (lose 10 months interest @ 5.6%)

or

B. Hold on keep money in the bank earn interest at 5.6% + hope £ rises again or the $ at least stablises.

Theres another option that insures you against the pound falling.....forward buy thru Crown Currency Exchange for May delivery @ $1.88 today.

Baz_2

If inflation is still a problem next month the bank of England will be under some pressure to cut interest rates. If they do that the dollar will rise again, low interest rates mean people wont want to invest over here and they start to convert there £'s back to dollars and the demand for £'s falls and hence the price of the £ falls.

But that's quite short term, even if that does happen there's 8 or 9 months left before you go, god knows what will happen after that.

If I was going in the next few months I would convert now. Just my opinion though, I could well be very wrong. But I've just converted £1000 myself.

To be honest I don't think Crown are really offering a forward contract, they are just including a premium for the interest they will earn and passing it back to you, there are not speculating on the strength of the pound at all. I'm sure they are reputable but I would feel very uncomfortable paying an unregulated company £2500 for a service they wont perform for another 10 months.

andor

A couple of months ago, after a heart attack, I had to cancel our holiday to Florida and tried to sell the $975 dollars I had, for £500 on this forum. Someone pointed out that this was not allowed and I was left with the $s. Am I glad that they pointed out my misdemeadour because I still have them!

SCRIBES

Froggitt wrote: »

Theres another option that insures you against the pound falling.....forward buy thru Crown Currency Exchange for May delivery @ $1.88 today.

Thanks, when do you have to pay? Anyone else used them?

pinkytots

I'm going to Chicago in October and have about £500 worth of yen left over from a trip to Tokyo. I'd massively over estimated for the trip as I'd read that credit cards weren't accepted in a lot of places.

Rather than convert that back to sterling and buy dollars later I'd like to convert the yen to dollars, can anyone tell me the best place to do this?

Thanks for any help.

Baz_2

SCRIBES wrote: »

Thanks, when do you have to pay? Anyone else used them?

You pay now. You need to think whether its best for you to put your money in a savings account and build up interest compared to gaining a slightly better exchange rate and giving your money to an unregulated company for 10 months.

inmypocketnottheirs

pinkytots wrote: »

I'm going to Chicago in October and have about £500 worth of yen left over from a trip to Tokyo. I'd massively over estimated for the trip as I'd read that credit cards weren't accepted in a lot of places.

Rather than convert that back to sterling and buy dollars later I'd like to convert the yen to dollars, can anyone tell me the best place to do this?



Thanks for any help.

At a guess I would say in the US. If you change it here it will first be changed into £.

pinkytots

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

At a guess I would say in the US. If you change it here it will first be changed into £.

Thanks, that makes sense. I was wondering if somewhere could change it straight to dollars, but if it has to be changed to sterling first I'm probably best waiting 'til I'm there.

Thanks again

Froggitt

SCRIBES wrote: »

Thanks, when do you have to pay? Anyone else used them?

You pay upfront and they send them Special Delivery when the time is up. Do a search on this forum for satisfied customers......includes me.