buying dollars

hi guys just wanted your opinion, i am going to Orlando in October and was looking at the exchange rate, it looks quite good at the mm should i in your opinion buy some dollars now and then more later i was thinking of buying some each month (PAYDAYS) or should i save until closer to the time and buy all at once.
I was going to use Thomas cook or equivalant, what do you suggest.
Thanks
C

People seem to think that the exchange rate is now rallying slightly in favour of the dollar after a prolonged slump. If that is indeed the case, it seems better to buy now (and get a better rate) than later, when the dollar may have recovered further.

I would buy some now and then on paydays, this way you can hedge your bets.

You need to factor in to calculations any commission charges that you might have to pay on each transaction, if you do pay commission it will mount up if you buy on paydays.

M&S have a great rate for the dollar at the moment 1.79, and you can buy on line, no commision and free delivery over £500 (next day)

Nationwide do the same, no commission and deliver to your door

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by carrie
hi guys just wanted your opinion, i am going to Orlando in October and was looking at the exchange rate, it looks quite good at the mm should i in your opinion buy some dollars now and then more later i was thinking of buying some each month (PAYDAYS) or should i save until closer to the time and buy all at once.
I was going to use Thomas cook or equivalant, what do you suggest.
Thanks
C
[/quote]There is more on this topic under 'Exchange rate rallying?' in this forum.

Same with LLoyds ! buy on -line and no commission !

Travelex today have a rate of 1.798. No commission charges and pick-up at the airport.

In all of these on-line offers you need to remember that you will be charged a fee on your credit/debit card for cash transactions.

Matt

Not if you use a nationwide debit card, its free with them

All good advice for you Carrie:) Just so you know, I do appreciate you may want to get the GOOD exchange rate at the moment, and leaving things till October does hold some risk[msnscared]But you can buy an icecream on a CC in Florida, so we rarely take much asctually cash with us(mainly for safety reasons), and we have always found the rate extremely favourable on our return.:)Lots to consider, but nice to have options[msnsmile]

I bought my sons some euros with muy Halifax debit card, did not pay any charges.

I went into a number of travel agents yesterday to ask about exch rates,
the best one so far was Dolphin Trave(Not sure if they are nationwide) but they offer 1.779 dollars and if you buy £500 cash and £500 TC they will give you 1.79 rate,no commission and they buy back(AS if i will have any left) do you think this is good? the agent say that as long as there is trouble in the middle east the dollar will stay weak? my partner says we should wait until sept to see he reckons it could go above 1.85 is he mad? i have no idea where he gets his info from.
Well anyway i have decided to wait until monday and iff all stays the same go into Dolphin and buy some dollars then the rest on paydays.
sorry to bore you all and ramble.

lol
Carrie

Carrie,
if you are buying £1000-00 worth and wait till $1-85 you are making an extra $60-00 from the $1-79.Is it worth waiting for and maybe losing out? Personally for holiday spending money i think $1-79 is excellent and at least it is all done and dusted. Different if you are buying a villa and spending several tens of tousands of pounds when every movement has a big difference.
I speak from experience when i've hung on and lost out; this to me felt worse than missing out on a few more dollars if the rate goes up.
Not that adventurous really.
good luck
andrew

Also remember 2 months ago all the "experts " were saying it was going to hit $2-00 very soon but in fact has gone back down to $1-75 or so commercial rate recently.

You're right i am going to get them on monday, i don't mean to sound greedy but i just thought i would try for the best rate poss, cheers for the advice it was sound.
Carrie

Why not buy them in two or more stages? That way you can hedge your bets on the exchange rate and spread the cost.

A lot can happen to the rate - buy in stages if you are concerned. I got 1.78 at the Halifax today - commission free

Tony

Thomas cook $1-80 just now

I would buy now. Currently is not of the highest rate 6 months ago.

DOM

Yes we saw the $1.80 at Thomas COoks today and it was commission free, not bad at all.:)

Ok, let’s try and define a methodology;
I have been hacking backwards and forward to the US since e1972: I remember the helicon days when BA used to rescue me from the Bar in Miami airport coz the flight was due, and then because of the fuel shortage bring the trolley round saying take as much as you need because the flight is going via NYC to pick up fuel.
Here goes with some thoughts;

1) If you get exchange commission free this is good & it’s easy to understand the exchange rate since £1= current $rate; but you must include the cost of obtaining this; like parking petrol telephone, to understand the actual cost;

2) If you pay commission then you need to work in the cost to your exchange rate so £1 = $ rate + commission+ cost of obtaining; this is bad unless the exchange rate is stupidly high vs. the commission & the cost (petrol parking telephone costs to order) out way the zero commission option 1); please let me know if you find some one offing stupidly high exchange rates;

3) Using Credit/debit cards & taking less cash:
a. Does your debit/credit card incur a charge for foreign currency exchange; ChrisJ & Jean have highlighted a couple that don’t and there must be others; just don’t accept your card is OK check it out it will save you in the long run. You can have a good card for your Florida travels and others for the home use, if that’s your need? Believe me the added cost of a card that charge a % for foreign exchange, bites home at the worst time, like a couple of weeks after the vacation when your broke!

b. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from getting a new card @ 0% on foreign exchange that starts its billing cycle when you start your vacation. This could give you clear space on your return.
c. Make sure your chosen card works in Florida; don’t care about the rest of the world. Contact them tell them and tell them again.

d. Remember that purchased of items on most cards have insurance so if buy a high cost item and it get's stolen or lost, within reason the card company will compensate you.
e. Paid for your flight/hotel with the card the credit card company have some liability; maybe you will get some sort of baggage insurance or the like. Check it out since this all reduces costs.

f. Does the card offer a 0% for 6 months; use it become a rate tart.

So the best option is 1) ABOVE IF YOU INCLUDE THAT IN A TRIP TO TOWN for food and the like.

What do I do? Well if I have a few pound spare then I convert to $’s, without commission; figuring in the long run I’d only spend it on booze or other stuff. When it’s gone it’s gone. Surprising how much you accumulate over the year this way.

Hope this helps? What do other Florida nuts do?[msnsmile2]

Dave

Yes but they charge about £3.50 courier charge.!!<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrisj
Nationwide do the same, no commission and deliver to your door
[/quote]

I agree that waiting is a bit of a risk but this year is election year in the US and all the experts are saying that the closer we get to November the worse the dollar will do and if you look at the reasoning behind this you can see the point

I would say do what you feel is best, we are in a good position really as we dont go until March so we can wait a while but if the dollar does seem to be steadily sinking ie below 1.75 I will be buying

We use a mixture of cash, travellers and card although we dont take as much travellers as we used to as we just dont like them that much there is a safe in most villas and we do tend to make full use of this for excess cash but we have a couple of debit cards each and we have never had a problem using them and hubbies credit card usually gets a hammering[msnwink]

Do what you think is best but as it is at $1.797 from M & S today I think you can take a while longer to decide and still get a good rate especially when you consider that for the last couple of months it has benn around $1.70 to $1.79 quite regularly

Sarah

I exchanged all my money with CURRENCIES DIRECT no commission but you need to register
I did lots of research before hand and I found them to be the best by far you are assigned an agent and he will get the best deal for you, back in March I prebooked my dollars at a little below the going rate at that time $1-88 I paid a percentage of the money ,then paid the rest in June then they transferred the money to the bank in Orlando
but one drawback they will not exchange for less than £5,000
this may help someone
Barbara

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by hamish
Yes but they charge about £3.50 courier charge.!!<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrisj
Nationwide do the same, no commission and deliver to your door
[/quote]
[/quote]


ive never been charged for delivery

Thanks Sara i will try and hold out a little longer.
like you say and i did read this on a link someone posted .
So lets see.
Thanks
C

todays rates are

Thomas Cook 1.773

Lunn Poly 1.758752

M&S 1.794

If you are changing money for your deposit, I used a company called Foreign Currency Direct.
The rate on last friday was 1.833

Just bought an International money order at Barclays at 1.8226

Moneycorps rate has just reached $1.8708. Obviously you cannot receive this rate, you lose a couple of points, but it is travelling in the right direction....for me anyway, sorry to our US friends

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:but it is travelling in the right direction....for me anyway, sorry to our US friends[/quote]

Also those property owning Brits seeing their investment devaluing in £Sterling terms!!

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Robert5988
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:but it is travelling in the right direction....for me anyway, sorry to our US friends[/quote]

Also those property owning Brits seeing their investment devaluing in £Sterling terms!!
[/quote]

It's only a problem if you're selling up and bringing the cash back to the UK - then again the property prices have risen so much that even then it's not a major problem.

The business rate has just gone up to 1.872 so we should see the tourist rate alter this weekend.

The things is, it goes down as quick as it goes up!!

We changed ours last friday, the more you change, the better the rate.

We found we was quoted about 2 cents less than the business rate.

But it is even lower for smaller amounts, say £20k

Its the risk you take when buying currency!!

Looking across a number of sources we found that Marks and spencer had about the best tourist rate $1.80 and bought currency which was commision free and delivered to us FOC.
Even better is if you use your M&S "& More" credit card you get 1p back for every £2 spent.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Even better is if you use your M&S "& More" credit card you get 1p back for every £2 spent.[/quote]Nationwide's credit card is better as you get back 1%! :D

does mark and spencers acept cash or credit card ,switch because i have been told they dont, how true is this. If they only acept there store card could u verify this please. Because we are so close to our hoilday now that stress is working over time.

I am pretty sure they only accept their own store card for delivery to your home. However, if you went into the store they may accept it.

Thanks arlene did that and they say place an order in and where you want the delivery ie.( store) in my case the store and pay normal like you are buying an item straight forward no problem i hope.

As I understand it, you only get free next day delivery to your home if you buy with your M&S "& More" card. However you get the same rate (which is about the best tourist rate available) even if you pay with any other card - you just don't get the free delivery. You need to collect the money from your local M&S.