Pound at a 5 mth low against Euro!

Skopzz

Now's the time to buy your British Pounds at the Bank before the rate goes back up! GBP is at a 5 month low against EUR. I just bought GBP 500 from AIB at the best rate available. GBP-EUR is at the pre-Greek crisis level, so obviously a bargain worth going for. Some currency experts are speculating the Euro to weaken further against the Pound.

chucken1

What rate did you get?

91011

Skopzz wrote: »

Some currency experts are speculating the Euro to weaken further against the Pound.

and some are saying the opposite.

With currency, unless you are using it very regularly, its best to wait until you need it to buy it.

3 Months ago Barclays & Soc Generale both said the Euro / Dollar will approach $1.05 by end of year. - Its currently 1.38

They also said the Euro / GBP would be at 74p by October.


UK has MAJOR financial problems (believe it or not, worse than we have!) and will need a weak sterling to ensure imports are highly priced and exports are low priced. - I expect it to move to 90p over the coming weeks.

btw - I dropped into some shops in NI last week - feck all difference in prices and many were more expensive than down here. - Some were cheaper, but overall there was nothing in it.

Skopzz

chucken1 wrote: »

What rate did you get?

Bought GBP @ 0.8528 in AIB. Ulster Bank, BOI, Credit Union's rates were bad.

indiewindy

After their budget, we will get a great indication of what way their currency will go, if it hits .90 I'll start buying up a bit of sterling:)

dubrov

Certainly not a bargain alert!

The way the Bank of England is printing money, who knows how high it could go!.

Using youe logic, it would'be been worth buying Sterling at 75p when it weakened in 2008.

Skopzz

dubrov wrote: »

Certainly not a bargain alert!

The way the Bank of England is printing money, who knows how high it could go!.

Using youe logic, it would'be been worth buying Sterling at 75p when it weakened in 2008.

GBP weakened to 0.97 in December 2008; almost on parity with the Euro. I'm guessing it won't weaken much further. That's why now's the best time to buy GBP if you're planning any cross border shopping. The sales will be in January (even though uk vat will go up).

The Bank of England indicated they may ease monetary policy further by a means of quantitative easing, whereas the ECB indicated it intends to withdraw from its equivalent and return interest rates back up. That's why the Euro has recovered some of its lost ground.

Skopzz

indiewindy wrote: »

After their budget, we will get a great indication of what way their currency will go, if it hits .90 I'll start buying up a bit of sterling:)

Now is probably your BEST chance to buy GBP at the good rate.

It may not weaken much further. Personally, I wouldn't wait for it to weaken. I've done just that dozens of times myself and always ended up worse off. I waited for it to weaken before the Greek Crisis and it only strengthened against the EUR.


N.B. GBP is now at a 6 month low against the EUR.

Colonel Sanders

Skopzz wrote: »

Now is probably your BEST chance to buy GBP at the good rate.

you don't have a great track record on your currency predictions

Skopzz

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

you don't have a great track record on your currency predictions

You may want to explain what you mean by that? If you meant a fortune teller, I'm not.

okidoki987

Currenecy speculation should be left for the experts.
You should remember that there is a loss of interest on the money if you buy GBP now and don't need it for a while.
Mid rate at the moment is .8910 so rate will be around .8690, also may be charges on top of that.
For people going North, might be worth waiting for a few weeks and see where it is then, the shops up North might give a better rate.

Skopzz

okidoki987 wrote: »

Currenecy speculation should be left for the experts.
You should remember that there is a loss of interest on the money if you buy GBP now and don't need it for a while.
Mid rate at the moment is .8910 so rate will be around .8690, also may be charges on top of that.
For people going North, might be worth waiting for a few weeks and see where it is then, the shops up North might give a better rate.

You said that currency speculation should be left to the experts but then you predict the ''rate will be around .8690'' ! A little contradictory.

I'm not trying to speculate either, I'm saying that now is a good time to buy GBP from the Banks. Waiting several more weeks is (in my opinion) not a good idea because of the volatility of the Euro.

Many shops up north make their own rate and it varies from shop to shop. You're at the mercy of each individual shop and their exchange rate may be terrible.

snubbleste

Skopzz wrote: »

You said that currency speculation should be left to the experts but then you predict the ''rate will be around .8690'' ! A little contradictory.

Read the original sentence again

okidoki987

Read the original sentence again

+1

Skopzz

snubbleste wrote: »

Read the original sentence again

Are you just going to sit on the sideline or are you going to engage in the discussion or what? In case someone is not able to properly distinguish between speculation, I am not speculating what rate the EUR will be against GBP in the future. The poster supposedly predicts ''the rate will be around .8690'' without actually backing this up let alone contradicting his earlier remark that ''Currenecy speculation should be left for the experts''.

Then follows one sentence (sometimes even less) replies.

Compounded by spelling errors of the word Currency.

CH3OH

Skopzz wrote: »

. The poster supposedly predicts ''the rate will be around .8690'' without actually backing this up let alone contradicting his earlier remark that ''Currenecy speculation should be left for the experts''.

Skopzz,
you seem to have completely missed the point that was being made in okidoki987's post.
He was simply saying that if the official rate today is £0.8873 for €1, that if you go to the bank to buy some sterling, you will only get a rate of .8690. And you may pay commission as well.

read it again...

Skopzz

CH3OH wrote: »

Skopzz,
you seem to have completely missed the point that was being made in okidoki987's post.
He was simply saying that if the official rate today is £0.8873 for €1, that if you go to the bank to buy some sterling, you will only get a rate of .8690. And you may pay commission as well.

read it again...

Ding ding ding, Exactly! Hence my reason for buying my GBP from AIB in the first place. They offered me the most attractive rate unlike BOI or Ulster Bank. I don't know any bank that offers the international rate. Plus, any student account holders are exempt from commission charges, at least with with AIB. You're new to this thread so welcome! There are other people here seemingly unable to understand my original point. You rightly point out today's official rate. However, it may not stay at the current 6 month low against the EUR. That's the problem.

okidoki987

Hence my reason for buying my GBP from AIB in the first place

If you actually read what was said before, we'd all be reading a different thread now.
What I said was, the mid rate for the Euro/GBP exchange rate today was .8910.
Banks are allowed to charge a spread of 2.5% either side of the mid rate (as per the Central Bank).
This would bring today's rate out at approx .8690 for those buying Sterling, which will be the rate in the banks tomorrow (Tuesday or near enough).
So the 0.8690 I was mentioning was what you would expect to get GBP at on Tuesday.
Banks also charge a commission rate in most cases on top.
Students & OAP's afaik get the currency commission free.
You may have got a good rate today from AIB compared to BOI or Ulster which may or may not be a good rate in 3 or 6 months time, only time will tell.
Banks will offer the international rate to "large" customers or other banks, it depends on many factors.
I also mentioned that there is a loss of interest if you don't use the Sterling soon.
Maybe explain why you think that you have done the right thing buying Sterling if you don't need it now or your reasoning for saying the exchange rate won't go any higher?

The Bank of England indicated they may ease monetary policy further by a means of quantitative easing, whereas the ECB indicated it intends to withdraw from its equivalent and return interest rates back up. That's why the Euro has recovered some of its lost ground.

There's no reason why it won't go any higher in the future and going on what you have said above, you probably shouldn't have bought the Sterling yet but only time will tell.

Cicero

Some shops offering .89 at the moment for Euro's cash....this would be over .04 points better than many credit card exchange rates (.848) ...if going North, would be worth bringing a few hundred euro in cash to take advantage of any good shop exchange rate deals...if you don't find them or are not available in the shop, just pay by card and take your euros home again...

please note:

..... note the exchange rate before you leave....a "market" quoted rate in the papers of say .89, will probably mean your bank will only give you 0.84-0.86 to the euro....but if STG continues to weaken in the coming weeks, a shop rate of .89 may not be as favourable as what your bank may give you...the shops will need to keep revising upwards their exchange rate in line with STG weakening (if it does)-