Pixie Dust for the exchange rate

[Susan--Ontario]

Help!! our dollar is not having a very good week so far and soon I'm going to need to buy my American Money to pay for my DVC. I'm afraid that the dollar is going to go up a lot and my cottage is going to cost that much more. ( I know MikeJ, you paid 1.62 for yours. I'm trying to avoid that) Maybe the election will help the dollar our depending on who wins.

So, if we can all just "believe" and send some pixie dust we can have a $1.30 dollar before the end of July.

Have a great day everyone!!

 

[SKFamily]

Don't we want our dollar to be worth more when we go to "buy" American money? Or am I confused in the conversions since I go the other way. I figured our budget with our dollar being worth approx. .72 US. If it goes above that, I'm happy.

 

[Susan--Ontario]

I guess I meant when the American dollar goes up. ie. today it's trading for $1.37 when last week it was $1.34.

If it hits $1.40 I will be in a quandry as to whether I should buy or wait another month and see what happens. Any insider information out there I should know about???

 

[Scratch42]

A long weekend coming up! Therefore, the dollar slips a little.

Wait until after the long weekend and see what happens!

Scratch

 

[MikeJ]

Truth be told, I don't see the Canadian dollar doing anything but dropping over the summer. The expectation is that the US Federal Reserve will shortly be raising interest rates to try and quash inflation in the US. That will make the US$ more attractive to foreign investors and siphons foreign money out of other countries (including Canada) and into the US. Net result - the American dollar strengthens against other currencies.

But what difference would it make to you? Let's assume you bought 150 pts at SSR direct from DVD at $85/pt. That's a cost to you of US$12750. If the dollar goes to $1.40 from $1.37 the amount you would have to pay after conversion will jump to Cdn$17850 from $17467. True, that's almost $400, and $400 is $400, but it's not large change on a purchase of almost $18000.

It's always a bit of a gamble. If I had a crystal ball we wouldn't have bought our 2 DVC contracts when the dollar was at an all-time low. But do I regret the money we spent? Not on your life - we have enjoyed some very memorable vacations.

This reminds me somewhat of people who drive out of their way to save half a cent/litre on gas. For a typical 40 litre purchase they're saving 20 cents. I'd use more gas than that with the extra driving and my time is far more valuable than that.

Personally, I would pick an exchange rate I was happy with and do the deal then. And then don't look at the exchange rates for 6 months.

- Mike

 

[SKFamily]

That's what I thought you meant. Math not being my strong suit I just wanted to make sure I had it straight in my own head. I have a conversion site bookmarked precisely for this purpose, lol.

Hadn't thought about it dropping due to the long weekend, and we travel just after. Ah well, that's a risk we take I guess! As long as it stays around .70 we're okay here.

 

[MommaBear]

Here's my 2 cents

We have a vacation account and every week the bank pulls $50.00 Cdn from our regular account and puts it into the vacation account. Neither my husband or myself can touch this money without both our signatures! Just a little insurance, I married a clone of Tim the Tool Man!

I also have a US Account. Whenever the exchange looks good I have them convert the funds in the vacation account to my US account.

If the exchange goes up next year (when our trip is planned) I won't have to worry as I will already have exchanged money at the lower rate and only need to convert it into Travellers chqs. since it will already by in US funds.

We only just started this last year. Wish I did this in 2002 when I paid 1.60 - took in 4 Grand Cdn to bank and was handed 2500 US. That really hurts!

 

[MaMudduck]

Mike- I've often wondered if you & I do the same thing for a living.

This time , I agree with Mike regarding the US dollar going up. The key date for them(US Fed) to raise the interest rate is June 30. But I think some of the strength in the US dollar has already been built into it. So unless they raise it more than 0.25% to 0.5% I think the rates are going to stay almost the same (1.35-1.40). So I'd watch them daily and buy at the lower end until after July 4-

IF and that's a big IF there will be a correction I don't see it happening until after Aug.....(when Bank of Canda will raise their interest rate)

If I had a crystal ball, I would have make my fortune on the exchange rate rollercoaster.....maybe that's a good idea for a new ride at WDW

 

[barb45]

I'm with MikeJ. We bought when the Canadian dollar was at a terrible low - it was about $1.60 (ouch) - but we've had 3 great vacations since (well worth the extra bucks). I laughed about the gas thing - we have 2 stations across the street from each other - one full serve, one self serve. I have seen people line up 5 cars deep so that they can stand out in the freezing cold to save 30 cents on a fill up while I pull straight up to a pump at the full serve and am gone before they even get to a pump!! Anyway I have a son-in-law that works in the US and the bank rate for buying US and selling US has about a 6% difference (they gouge you both ways). So when the dollar is good I buy as much as I can from him and we split the difference in banks rates so we both do a little better than dealing with the bank. I figure I'm using dollar cost averaging and I have a little stash set aside if the rate is really lousy when we travel.

 

[excitedmom]

my husband owns a currency exchange shop, so i buy my US for the interbank rate lol I also have a US account and the minute the rate is low i buy up and put in my account, that way i don't have to worry that the rate will be high by the time i go on vacation (80 days WOOHOO)