Dollar Rate

[Minx]

Got a rate of 1.78 today at M&S for travellers cheques. Do you think the rate will keep on climbing? I'm holding back some money just in case but we will be happy with anything around the 1.70 mark.

Dee

 

[debkorb1]

The whole thing is guess work even for the economists (who get it wrong all the time) - I bought two weeks ago at 1.71 commission free, which I thought was a good rate. All the news suggested the pound would continue to slide - US interest rates are lookin like their going to rise soon and employment figures looked strong over there.

Then oil prices shoot up and a few reports come out saying consumers keep spending, house prices are going up, the Bank of England MPC committee considered a half point rise last month and British manufacturing looks strong = the markets buy pounds.

If Alan Greenspan said tomorrow he felt there would be an interest rise soon the $ would shoot up. The same if inflation drops over here.

My advice (which I wish I would have taken ) is to ignore the $ rate until a week before and buy then in blissful ignorance. It's all cheaper out there so we always get an OK deal for our hard earned pounds and in reality the changes won't equal more than 60-70 quid (often less), even if you are changing up over a grand.

 

[Riverside]

That is good advice, unless you are a currency dealer, leave it late and just take what is avaiable. If the Exchange is better than my last trip I will be happy. I can't lose sleep over losing possibly $25 if I had changed my 2K 14 months ago rather than July 04!!!


River