Buying the Euro now for hols in August

[andygo]

Title says it all really. With the Euro at a 12 year low, is it a good plan to buy £1500 worth of funny money for my hols in August or leave it a bit? Is it going to go down significantly more (I doubt it) or shoot back up?

Clever people, feel free to respond.

[McWigglebum4th]

Wait till tuesday

[otherman]

hmmm, looks to me like it's on a rising trend.

[andygo]

Yep, see its a nice rising trend, on a personal basis I'd quite like to buy the Euro at 50p but can't see it happening in the short term..

Do I hedge my bets now or cry or laugh in a few months? Hmm, I guess people get paid a lot of money to gamble on this!

[Jam Spavlin]

I got £2000 worth at 1.3066 yesterday and this morning it had risen to 1.3090, D'oh!!!!

[eyebeebe]

Do you think it's a good price now? If so, buy it. No one can predict what that the rate will be in the summer.

FWIW I live in Switzerland. I have regular need to buy GBP, buying things in EUR is a frequent occurrence, as is shopping in the eurozone and travel to the states often enough to need to buy USD. My approach is if I like the rate, but don't need the currency immediately, I buy to lock in. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I've always bought at a rate I think is ok at the time.

[hajaba123]

Jam Spavlin said:

I got £2000 worth at 1.3066 yesterday and this morning it had risen to 1.3090, D'oh!!!!

c£4 difference?

[Cliftonite]

otherman said:

hmmm, looks to me like it's on a rising trend.

The graph shows the value of the Euro falling against the £ over a period. I.e. more Euros are purchased by each £ as time progresses.

Take a look at what is happening in Greece re the forthcoming election and in Eurozone re QE.

You may like to postpone your purchase of Euros!

HTH.

[AdeTuono]

For £1500's worth, it'll hardly make much difference either way.

[andygo]

Might as well have more Euros for your £ as not though!

[Jam Spavlin]

hajaba123 said:

c£4 difference?

Yup I would be £4 better in my pocket.

[Bluebarge]

andygo said:

Title says it all really. With the Euro at a 12 year low, is it a good plan to buy £1500 worth of funny money for my hols in August or leave it a bit? Is it going to go down significantly more (I doubt it) or shoot back up?

Clever people, feel free to respond.

Nobody knows where the Euro will be in August. You usually get a crap exchange rate for bundles of cash so you might just as well take a few hundred euro for the first couple of days and take the rest out through an ATM. If you take 1500 out now and lose it before or early on in your holiday, your cunning exchange rate strategy will not look so clever.

[andygo]

Bluebarge said:

Nobody knows where the Euro will be in August. You usually get a crap exchange rate for bundles of cash so you might just as well take a few hundred euro for the first couple of days and take the rest out through an ATM. If you take 1500 out now and lose it before or early on in your holiday, your cunning exchange rate strategy will not look so clever.

Yep, I realise that, otherwise everyone would be making a fortune on currency trading. I've just done an online transfer in € and was quite surprised with the reasonable rate I got from Barclays, just over 1.30.

A lot of my cunning strategies end up looking not so clever. I can never understand why. Perhapps I'm not very cunning.

[Kermit power]

I spent a year in Spain with Uni.

We pitched up in early September 1992. Oh how we laughed at the Irish guy on our course who turned up with his entire year's spending money in Peseta travellers' cheques because he didn't know you could get money out of a cashpoint with a UK bank card there.

Then Black Wednesday happened.

[swamp]

Only thing definitely worth buying now is your airport parking.

[oyster]

Jam Spavlin said:

hajaba123 said:

c£4 difference?

Yup I would be £4 better in my pocket.

Except where you exchange your money is of even more importance than small daily fluctuations in the exchange rate.

According to xe.com the spot rate on Friday when you bought was somewhere between approx 1.320 and 1.343, so the fact you only got 1.3055 suggests you paid quite a big spread.

The best way to save on Euros is to use a credit card with no FX fees and not bother with cahs before you go.

[Brite spark]

andygo said:

Yep, I realise that, otherwise everyone would be making a fortune on currency trading. I've just done an online transfer in € and was quite surprised with the reasonable rate I got from Barclays, just over 1.30.

A lot of my cunning strategies end up looking not so clever. I can never understand why. Perhapps I'm not very cunning.

Forget strategies, go for a plan and change your username to baldrick.

[audidoody]

I know EXACTLY what the Euro will be worth on any give day in August. It's in my book which costs £1,500.


By the way - the Euro is not at a 12-year-low. It was around 62p-64p in 2003 - 2005


ETA: Get a Halifax Clarity card. Use the card in August. Pay it off with the £1,500 you've just stuck in a savings account.

Edited by audidoody on Monday 26th January 16:55

[Swervin_Mervin]

Another option is to get something like a FairFX card, which you can top-up whenever you like. They are generally up there with the best rates.

You can pop some on now, and hedge your bets on adding more if things take a turn for the worse for the € in the coming weeks/months.

[KTF]

audidoody said:

ETA: Get a Halifax Clarity card. Use the card in August. Pay it off with the £1,500 you've just stuck in a savings account.

This. Or pre-load it if you want to save the few pence they charge you for taking out cash.

I have had one for years now and it removes the need to get cash out in advance.