Euro (€) Currency Thread

ryandj

rogertb wrote: »

Sorry though "...more important things in the news..." Heather and Paul McCartney - yeah right !

Ha ha yes - this has had a disproportionate amount of coverage.

The cynical among us may even say its some kind of media cover up to distract the general public from what is going on in the financial world! As if our beloved media would do such a thing...

taxiphil

In the tourist industry, everything has a way of levelling itself out when currencies fluctuate. When the Euro or Dollar is cheap (like the Dollar is at the moment) hotels, car hire firms, restaurants, etc, will be a bit more cheeky with their prices to take advantage of the fact that Brits are in the mood for spending because of the rough mental approximation of $2=£1.

But when the local currency is strong, they're forced to be more competitive or their businesses are going to suffer. There's plenty of slack in the prices of things like hotels and food and drink to enable them to do this.

LesD

I'm afraid currency rates are more about 'politics' than 'economics'.

It's the lack of confidence in the UK and the US that's causing the weakness in sterling and the dollar.

If it were the about the 'global economy' the Euro would feel the pain too as everyone switched to gold!

It's taken a long time, but the fallacy of 'good economic management' in the UK has finally been sussed out. As has the incompetence and indecisiveness of this government.

I can't see sterling getting back in the 1.40s or 1.50s until we have a change of government.

budgetflyer

LesD wrote: »

I'm afraid currency rates are more about 'politics' than 'economics'.

It's the lack of confidence in the UK and the US that's causing the weakness in sterling and the dollar.

If it were the about the 'global economy' the Euro would feel the pain too as everyone switched to gold!

It's taken a long time, but the fallacy of 'good economic management' in the UK has finally been sussed out. As has the incompetence and indecisiveness of this government.

I can't see sterling getting back in the 1.40s or 1.50s until we have a change of government.

Oh yes, I cant wait for the 13% + mortgage rate (with threats of raising it to 25%) we had under the last "change of government"

The 2 weeks in Spain was totally stuffed that year, as opposed to a "bit more expensive".

As the Proclaimers sing "Bathgate no more , Linwood no more" add on EVERY British pit, Ravenscraig Steel works, nearly all the ship yards and just about every other form of engineering and manufacturing - no more.
She even stitched up Freddie Laker because the "land of the Free" didnt like it when he undercut their "cartels"

The reason the Euro is so strong , is they still actually make things over there. That way they can sell them to us, and have a thriving economy
Our economy is based on (W) Bankers- thats it. Now they are stuffed with the credit squeeze, so we all pay.

superstar_2

Do you think it will dip down further or just stay as it is for now before going down again? or shoot up which is unlikely, sadly!

LesD

budgetflyer wrote: »

As the Proclaimers sing "Bathgate no more , Linwood no more" add on EVERY British pit, Ravenscraig Steel works, nearly all the ship yards and just about every other form of engineering and manufacturing - no more.

...hmmmm......I see the common factor.....militant trade unions!!!

budgetflyer

If we really knew and had a bit of bottle. Money would be on the spread FX indexes.
My (virtual + monopoly) money is on a steady drop to around 1.15
Once we nuke N. Korea off the map , invade Iran and Venezuela, confiscate all their oil,and overthrow their (democratically elected !)governments, things should start to get back to normal.
The £ should then start to rise again and thank god, a pint of Tetleys and a vody n coke will be back to normal prices in Malgrat del Mar

Voyager2002

budgetflyer wrote: »

If we really knew and had a bit of bottle. Money would be on the spread FX indexes.
My (virtual + monopoly) money is on a steady drop to around 1.15
Once we nuke N. Korea off the map , invade Iran and Venezuela, confiscate all their oil,and overthrow their (democratically elected !)governments, things should start to get back to normal.
The £ should then start to rise again and thank god, a pint of Tetleys and a vody n coke will be back to normal prices in Malgrat del Mar

Good thinking. But what we need to do is nuke Brussels and send in the marines to force those foreigners to give use euros at (say) 160 to the pound. After all, having a competitive economy and being good at business is decidedly un-English. I mean, what they are doing is simply not cricket. So when a chap is faced with that kind of underhand behaviour, its dashed decent to defend ourselves.

ynot2005

on the subject of euro rates, has anyone got a link to what the experts think the euro rate will be in a few months, ,those experts who gamble on future rates that is, im sure its been posted before ,but i cant find it

i agree the bad news seems to be low key at the moment in the media, thats going to change when millions of holidaymakers start to buy euros and then get a shock

JudyM_3

ynot2005 wrote: »

on the subject of euro rates, has anyone got a link to what the experts think the euro rate will be in a few months, ,those experts who gamble on future rates that is, im sure its been posted before ,but i cant find it

i agree the bad news seems to be low key at the moment in the media, thats going to change when millions of holidaymakers start to buy euros and then get a shock

It's hurting the many people buying overseas who suddenly find their dream home overseas is costing them more.. This time last year, the interbank rate was at 1.48....

Now it is struggling along at an InterBank rate of 1.28. The High St banks are offering around 1.22 to 1.23; which IMO is an appalling amount of profit to take. It's bad enough on your holiday money; imagine how much they make on transferring money overseas to buy a house! And they charge a transfer fee of around £30!!!
We live in France, and my husband's RAF pension is paid in sterling. We now use a foreign exchange company and save 4% against what Barclays offer... they don't charge us a fee - and we were lucky enough that our dealer advised us last year to fix the rate and we got 1.46 for 18 months.

The company we use is www.firstratefx.com and they have current rates on the website. They don't speculate at all - nor do they encourage their clients to.
There is another firm though called www.xe.com and they do speculate, if that is what the last poster was after?