Exchange Rates

[hillgj1]

Anyone know the best place to go for US$ i am not due to go until august next year but have heard there are good rates around at the moment

Any help greatly appreciated

G.

[DMC]

Hi

Over the last few months I have been tracking various exchange rates ahead of our trip to Orlando next month, in short I have found that Marks & Spencer have been very competative.

They publish their rate each day on their website, at the moment it seems to be around $1.56, also they don't charge a commission.

Since our last trip in May, when we got $1.53, I have kept a close eye on the exchange rate, buying a few £100's worth as and when the rate has improved, the best I got was $1.62 about 4 weeks ago ( from M&S )

As we have been going to Orlando for many years and plan to do so for many more, we buy dollars when the exchange rate is good, ready for our next trip.

If you have a year or more before you go, I would suggest that a good way to spread the cost of your spending money is to buy a few £100's at a time betweeen now and then, that way you can take advantage of any improved rates.

A year can make all the differance, in May 2002 we only got $1.44 which seems very low now.

I would suggest that this far out, you should purchase Dollar Travellers Cheques ( they are as good as cash in the USA )that way you aren't having lots of "Cash" lying around the house.

Remember to keep your reciept with the Traveller Cheque numbers on seperate from the Cheques themselves, that way if they get lost or stolen, either here on on holiday, you can claim for replacements.

Another tip would be to find a credit card company that doesn't charge you for purchases abroad. I use a Nationwide Gold Card they don't charge a fee and their exchange rate is very good.

In May this year we only managed to get $1.53 for cash / travellers cheques before we went, in the USA my wife used her Barclaycard and got $1.55 but I was getting $1.58 for purchases made on the same day.

Whilst this seems a small differance taken on individual purchases, when you add up the "total" cost of spending for the period of the holiday, it adds up to a tidy amount.

In short check the rates on a regular basis, at least couple of times a week to see which way the rate is going ( most newspapers carry the rates for the previous day ) if the trend is up then get ready to buy, even if it is a few £100's at a time.

From experiance $1.55 / $1.56 is a fairly standard rate at the moment, anything above $1.58 is good and anything over $1.60 then buy as much as you can now !!!!

DMC

[hillgj1]

Thanks I will Keep all of that information in Mind I am hoping it will go back over $1.60

[Carla]

Good idea DMC. Everyone should keep their eyes on the exchange rate and buy when it is high (from a UK perspective). In April 2002 it went as low as 1.35 so made a trip to Florida much more expensive.

[MTP]

Hi DMC,

we use Xe trade www.xe.com to transfer money to an account we opened on a previous Florida holiday with the Ommunity Bank of Florida. We can then take money out when we are in Florida, without even having to carry the money/cheques when we travel. The exchange rate with XE trade is very competitive (eg 1.59 compared to Marks' 1.56 this evening). I have found them to be efficient to deal with, and there seems to be no minimum amount that you have to transfer. The funds usually take about a week from leaving our UK bank account to hitting out American one.

[DMC]

Thanks for the tip MTP, the rates for XE.com do seem very good and I will look into it in more detail.

The only thing is, we only holiday in Florida and have no "postal address" as we always stay in a hotel each time, I am not sure how we can open a Bank Account in the USA - without a "home address" in the USA.

Or are the banks happy with a UK address ?

If so what information do they require when you open an account ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

DMC

[athurstance]

You can open a US bank account with just a UK address. You'll find quite a few villa owners do just that. You can even open one without actually being in the US - First National and Suntrust will both open them by mail.

[Cowboy]

Angela,
I went to the First National at Haines City just over 12 months and was told that I needed to keep a Minimum balance of $400 in the account.
Is this still the case?
Mike.

[MTP]

We opened an account at the Community Bank of Fl, mainly due to convenience, they are sited in many of the lobby areas of Wal-marts. We choose just went up and asked. We had passports and UK driving licences and they were quite happy, and we don't have an address in the States. We holiday over there and we felt that it would be a good way to save money, if we just kept putting some funds across then they would be there waiting for us when we go on holiday. The downside is that if you use any other banks ATM you get charged (usually about $1.50) per transaction, which was a surprise, compared to UK banks. This is particularly frustrating when you are in a different part of the States. We then did consider switching to a national bank account, eg Bank of America. I don't know which bank has got the best national coverage.

We were advised the minimum balance was $100, it has fallen below this, but you just get charged quite a lot. There is also a monthly charge of $1 on the account.

As we have been debating either buying a holiday home or emmigrating to the States at some point we thought it would be better to begin building some credit history, but I am not sure how effective this is without a social security number.

I also know that some of the other members of this forum use the Citibank UK based US dollar account. I am not sure how your exchange rate is calculated and which currency your account is held in, but it seems quite a flexible approach.

[MTP]

We opened an account at the Community Bank of Fl, mainly due to convenience, they are sited in many of the lobby areas of Wal-marts. We choose just went up and asked. We had passports and UK driving licences and they were quite happy, and we don't have an address in the States. We holiday over there and we felt that it would be a good way to save money, if we just kept putting some funds across then they would be there waiting for us when we go on holiday. The downside is that if you use any other banks ATM you get charged (usually about $1.50) per transaction, which was a surprise, compared to UK banks. This is particularly frustrating when you are in a different part of the States. We then did consider switching to a national bank account, eg Bank of America. I don't know which bank has got the best national coverage.

We were advised the minimum balance was $100, it has fallen below this, but you just get charged quite a lot. There is also a monthly charge of $1 on the account.

As we have been debating either buying a holiday home or emmigrating to the States at some point we thought it would be better to begin building some credit history, but I am not sure how effective this is without a social security number.

I also know that some of the other members of this forum use the Citibank UK based US dollar account. I am not sure how your exchange rate is calculated and which currency your account is held in, but it seems quite a flexible approach, although you need to either open the account with either £2000 or have your pay go into the account.