should I buy my currency now or wait a few more weeks??

[FPL]

We are going for Easter and I have the money to exchange now.

The exchange rate is rubbish now and I doubt it will make significant improvements between now and April, especially with further interest rate cuts weakening the pound.

Just wondering if anyone had any ideas if the rate may improve a little or worsen a little over the coming weeks and when and where is the best time/place to buy from?

Thanks.

 

[paulh]

£ whent up 3 cents today v $.its a gamble whatever you do.
Me i would ride it out get min $ and use a fee free card (nationwide flex account)to get cash from an atm from currant acount
and a fee free CC again nationwide,post office or abbeys zero
Both options will give you the bankrate,this can be found most place on the web look at market data on bbc website under http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/default.stm
With getting the bank rate you get around 2.75% beter than the tourist rate.we have got cash only when high ie TAs offerd $2-£1
That being said you wil get both sides of the argument to buy or not to buy here but i would hold out as personly there indire straigts over there at moment wether worse than us is what efects the rate
Good luck in trying to second guess the market
Paulh

 

[london75]

i think the intersting thing at the moment is the fall of the Euro as everyone realises the ECB needs to cut rates quickly to prevent a massive recession Euro-zone wide. That means investors have very few places to go and the pound seems more attractive again. That's what's led to the bounceback recently.

See what the BOE and ECB do over this week and then decide.

Crown Currency Exchange have 1.53 to the pound available which is pretty damn good if you need to buy now.

 

[juliebrooks35]

I had a look at Crown Currency exchange earlier today and as I'm not travelling until June, I can get $1.56 to the £ if I order just now with delivery early June. It's tempting but I think I'll hold on a while & keep an eye on things before making any decisions.

Has anyone used Crown Currency before-any opinions?

 

[orangetiggs]

1.50 on fairfx at the moment was 1.43 yesterday

 

[london75]

I had a look at Crown Currency exchange earlier today and as I'm not travelling until June, I can get $1.56 to the £ if I order just now with delivery early June. It's tempting but I think I'll hold on a while & keep an eye on things before making any decisions.

Has anyone used Crown Currency before-any opinions?

I have and they do exactly what they say on the tin as it were. Risk is lowish, there is no guarantee strictly speaking like a travel agent but they sell you a future contract (yes they are one of the things that landed the country in a mess!) but in this case that means someone has promised to sell you dollars on a certain date at a certain rate and it's generally pretty damn safe.

Like I said, we took advantage a couple of years ago and got dollars at a higher rate than the exchange rate ever got to. I assume someone loses out somewhere but I didn't 2.10 to the pound!!!

 

[fuse04]

We are due to go in May and support Paulh view. I know nothing about money markets but I figure it is not likely to get much worse so hoping for an improvment for May

 

[sussex]

Wait - I heard from a guy with the bank of england that they expect exchange rates to improve soon

 

[martinrmn]

We have almost £300 in Tesco vouchers, £1200, to be used against a Virgin holiday. We would love to go back to Florida again this year and are waiting to see what the rate does. We are lucky in some ways that we tend to go Nov/Dec when its cheaper anyway. Fingers crossed that the £ gets stronger.

 

[paulh]

Wait - I heard from a guy with the bank of england that they expect exchange rates to improve soon

when the base rate wase 15% an improvement for us was down,now an improvement for us now is up.bankers you get what you pay for
Paulh

 

[Disneyday]

I had a look on a forecast site yesterday and they predict the $ to keep rising and hit 1.64 in June
http://www.forecasts.org/pound.htm

 

[Graeme]

We are due to go in May and support Paulh view. I know nothing about money markets but I figure it is not likely to get much worse so hoping for an improvment for May

That's my view as well. I don't think the euro can avoid the same slump the pound's seen and that should level the playing field a bit. We've lost out because the £ was first to weaken.