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| Here Goes The Pound | |
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| Topic Started: 6 Oct 2009, 01:44 PM (4,146 Views) | |
| abertawe | 6 Oct 2009, 01:44 PM Post #1 |
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Now the RB has upped interest rates. It looks like another rough time for the Pound. :crazy: |
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| COOPERCAV | 7 Oct 2009, 02:15 AM Post #2 |
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OMG just dipped to 1.786 !!! |
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| koalakim | 7 Oct 2009, 08:27 AM Post #3 |
Legend
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:crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: The pound was recovering nicely last week and thought it had bottomed out. Thanks RBA - couldn't you have held off a tad longer as we were about to bring some money over in case it got any worse. In actual fact probably blame the USA as their recovery is still looking weak and the forex guys seem to be matching the A$ with the US$ - it's 88 cents at the moment and a magic figure is 90c which it is heading to - therefore that is affecting the pound against A$. Unfortunately for us probably Aus doesn't give a whatsit about the pound - it's the US$ which matters and as their interest rates are even lower than the UK then forex investors will go to the A$ rather than the US$ because they get more interest. Maybe these guys would like to distribute their profits to us poor old Brits! Can't say much at the mo but we'd made a decision about buying etc and another 2 cents down .... :crybaby: even more! Worrying thing is I would say is that some houses in our area have gone up at least 50k in the last year - if you wait 2 years for the pound to recover (which unless Britain has an amazing recovery and Oz divebombs it's going to be) whatever forex gain you make will be wiped out by house price increases. Because if the Brits don't come over with their pounds to push prices up other nationalities will! Arghhhhh...decisions, decisions. KK |
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| OzTennis | 8 Oct 2009, 01:25 AM Post #4 |
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I hope things work out for you Kim. The RBA decision and BofE pronouncement on the goodness of a weak pound could not have been timed more badly for those wishing to change from £'s to $'s. The prospects of more interest rate rises in Oz are also there. It was also reported a week ago that Melbourne median house price was up to $520K and was 12% up on .... umm, either the previous quarter or the same quarter last year so this certainly reflects what you are seeing on the ground. Things can only get better - surely?? Some good signs in UK reported recently with rises in spending, house prices, mainly at lower end of market etc so maybe the green shoots of recovery will do something for the pound? Now up a couple of cents in $1.79's (profit taking anticipating the nadir has been reached?) Edited by OzTennis, 8 Oct 2009, 01:38 AM.
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| Petals | 8 Oct 2009, 08:32 AM Post #5 |
A phenomenon
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As we are off to the UK next year going to buy some for the kitty :Grin: |
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| RobN | 8 Oct 2009, 02:18 PM Post #6 |
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With todays news of unemployment decreasing, rather than the expected increase, the AU$ has got stronger. Now the market is expecting 2 more increases in the interest rate by the end of the year, rather than the previously mentioned 1. According to xe.com the exchange rate is $1.77 or 56.3p depending which way you prefer to look at it. $1.70 is on the way... |
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| koalakim | 8 Oct 2009, 05:36 PM Post #7 |
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Right calling HiFx tomorrow before it gets much worse.......... BoE interest rate announcement today - can we all pray very hard and make them raise them...just a tiny wee bit will do to keep the markets interested! Thanks OzT - as you say there has been some good news this week from the UK but everything has been wiped out by Oz interest rate rise and bad data from the US making the A$ even stronger. This is the worst possible time to have to make decisions but what do you do? Recovery could never happen, could be some years away - it's just a shame we may have to shackle ourselves to a huge mortgage again but then it's the same amount each month as renting (inc a 2% hike) and at least we will be paying it off our property! KK |
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| carlton cold's | 8 Oct 2009, 07:59 PM Post #8 |
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its a terrible time for us all wanting some dollars, yesterday we needed to transfer funds to literally cover bills, so had no choice but just pray some recovery next year but then again maybe not!!! |
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| OzTennis | 8 Oct 2009, 08:08 PM Post #9 |
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No worries, your call obviously but personally I wouldn't be panicked into transferring today rather than wait a day or two. For example, this is what my daily bulletin says: "Early London traders sold the Pound Sterling down once again pushing it to a low of 1.5860 against the Greenback however solid buying emerging at this level. After several unsuccessful attempts to trade lower the GBP/USD finished the offshore session back at 1.5945 following a late reversal in North American equity markets which at one stage were down quite considerably. It is expected the GBP could strengthen slightly heading into this evenings Bank of England meeting as short term speculators look to square up some recent short positions. There was some respite on the GBP/AUD cross overnight as it bounced back from an early sell off that saw it exchange as low as 1.7750 to open this morning around 1.7920. - We expect a range today in the GBP/AUD rate of 1.7850 to 1.8000" Other things being equal, yeah, a few more interest rate rises by RBA and no increases by BofE would in theory suggest a weaker still pound but I'm not so sure everything will remain as it is and there will definitely be other factors at work - in the UK, US and so on which will affect the E/R. I'll bet a mythological 'sheep station' that the rate won't get to $1.70. :Grin: |
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| Amanda & Simon | 12 Oct 2009, 03:55 PM Post #10 |
Braiiiiiinnnss
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Is this a sign that we're starting to hit the buffers maybe? http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/soaring-dollar-hits-tourism-operators-20091012-gtc1.html?autostart=1 £1=$1.753 / £0.571=$1 as of a few minutes ago according to me dashboard widget. |
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| koalakim | 12 Oct 2009, 04:40 PM Post #11 |
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It's definitely gone.............. no chance of even getting back to $2 again in the near future unless a miracle occurs. Brought some over at $1.74 today...ouch... |
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| RobN | 12 Oct 2009, 04:44 PM Post #12 |
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News Article: UK rates 'to stay low for years' |
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| abertawe | 12 Oct 2009, 07:44 PM Post #13 |
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Now I am depressed. Looks like we will be renting forever............... |
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| koalakim | 12 Oct 2009, 09:54 PM Post #14 |
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To make matters even worse we now can't get the money out of our account!!! They will only let us do 10k over the Internet and the branch can't do it either - we have to go in person! Who's money is it anyway - will probably now loose the deal - this is becoming a real nightmare from all angles! Arghhhhhh...... |
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| tam_n_brett | 12 Oct 2009, 10:19 PM Post #15 |
A phenomenon
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Have you got telephone banking kim? you can move what you want over the phone but they restrict it to 10k when using a debit card. Well i hope thats the case thats what they told me????? We're gonna take a chance and leave it where it is in the UK for now anyway, just pray a miracle will happen and it moves back up in the right direction. |
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| koalakim | 12 Oct 2009, 10:58 PM Post #16 |
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Nope - we have tried about half a dozen people and 10k is the limit for telephone or Internet ! They might be able to arrange a chaps but we have to send the document back by courier - this is a real joke as if we could walk into a branch it wouldn't be a problem. So it looks like we will loose the deal and guess what - thanks to the muppet in power selling off the family silver together with that new report the flipping pound has dived again. You can't even get your money out of the sinking ship! One angry koala ..... |
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| bradybunch | 13 Oct 2009, 01:30 AM Post #17 |
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I know Kim. Not content with ruining the UK and all her people, they are even affecting those of us poor sods trying to leave. Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don't. The whole thing is a nightmare. Not sure what we are going to do either. Just when people are making the decision of shall we go or not, now we've got can we afford to go or not. Arggggh |
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| abertawe | 13 Oct 2009, 07:00 AM Post #18 |
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KK are you with Lloyds? We were and it has cost us 10,000s. Due to the fact we couldnt shift the money quick enough. So we waited for the Pound to go up and of course it has fallen like a lead balloon. It is a real pain. The anger has now kinda passed because for us our lifestyle is so much better than in the UK. We can afford to do things here we just had to put off in the UK. At the moment it is swings and roundabouts. |
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| tam_n_brett | 13 Oct 2009, 08:17 AM Post #19 |
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Oh flippin eck!!!!!! I thought i'd be able to go on the phone and do it all in one go......... thats what they told me so i'll be pretty angry too if this isnt the case. If you'd have known this then you could have moved it when you were in the UK earlier in the year. To be honest i know its bad but with us signing a 12 month lease i've just took the attitude of "oh, it'll go up again by the time we need to change it"........ i'm thinking maybe i'm being niaeve?????!!!!! |
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| koalakim | 13 Oct 2009, 10:01 AM Post #20 |
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Hi everyone in our boat There does seem to be this 10k limit on internet and bank telephone instructions in anyone day - so you can do 10k a day but it depends on how long you've got to get the money to your exchange house. We called this morning and we've been granted a couple of extra days to transfer - so ask for as long as possible to get the money to the exchange house bank. We finally got the bank to agree to a CHAPS transfer so they faxed that through last night (luckily we have a fax machine!) so we have to DHL it back to the bank and it should all go through in time. We just wanted to get some money over before it drops even more as there is just NO good news coming out of the UK at the moment and I really cannot see any improvement until the UK raises it's interest rates and the only reason they will do that is if inflation starts to climb or they get a couple quarters of growth and things are looking more rosie. Just wanted to let everyone know as if you were buying a house and need your funds urgently and haven't set anything up in the UK before you left you could find yourself in a bit of a pickle! Likewise set up savings accounts before you leave as it's a flipping pain trying to do anything new from here. It's hard to believe the pound has dropped a whole dollar from that spike last November! Trouble is you have to move on and I think renting becomes really hard after a while if you've never rented before. It's fine for a couple of years but I think to really settle you need your own space to suit you, you need your pictures on the walls, you need to have colour schemes you like - we are just fed up with having to compromise all the time and I guess it's a bit different for us as we work from home but also we would like to be able to have clients visit us and even set up a proper studio for portraits etc so renting is holding us back so I guess we just have to bite the bullet soon! It's just very hard all of this on everyone but how long can you put life on hold? It's ironic that we left the UK for a better life but it is still biting us on the backside..............!!! |
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| Michele | 13 Oct 2009, 11:15 AM Post #21 |
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The EUR/AUD rate is just as bad. We still haven't transferred any money over for our trip. |
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| MandyR | 13 Oct 2009, 11:33 AM Post #22 |
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It is all such a nightmare and I really feel for you Kim..........I know what you mean about wanting your own place and we have only been here 9 months!! We knew that we would rent for a couple of years but I was only moaning earlier to a friend how the house doesn't feel like home and its the little things like not being able to put pictures up does get annoying. We have compromised on garden and I thought that would be ok with the beach and parks close by but its no good when you have tea to cook and your 8 years old is bouncing a footy ball up and down the small hallway!! I was under the impression with Hifx (who we have an account with) that we can do up to 10K immedtialely over the phone or internet but if we want to do more, we have to speak to a different department but it is not an issue and can be done that day - I have better look into that one. You are right though, you can't put your life on hold - if you know that is where you want to live, you are settled there etc. I think biting the bullet is the best option and hopefully you will make some 'paper' money back as house prices seem to be on the up........been to a couple of autions recently and they are going way over the guide price. We are just going to sit tight until we have the right area for us and pray it goes up over the next year or two. |
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| koalakim | 13 Oct 2009, 12:24 PM Post #23 |
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Hi Mandy It's not HiFx is the problem - it's our bank! They won't let us transfer more than 10k in any one go on one day hence the faffing around with the Chaps document transfer or you have to do 10k each day for however long you can get to transfer the funds to HiFx. We've been to auctions for a sticky beak (as they say around here) and it was toooo scary! One miniscule flat in Sth Yarra fetched 40k extra and the house down the road from us in Brighton went $600k over the already 2.3 million price! You are doing the right thing Mandy so you don't make a mistake when you buy, buying and selling here is expensive so you want to get it fairly right first time! |
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| MandyR | 13 Oct 2009, 01:26 PM Post #24 |
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Thanks Kim - we were just driving passed an auction down the road on Saturday so I jumped out and watched (did a sticky beak - not heard that one!!.....along with half the neighbourhood!!!) - a 4 bed home that needed a fair bit of TLC went for $1.175 million lol!!!! it was at $980,000 on the third and final call and then it went up $195,000 in about 1 minute!! and yes it was scary stuff!! |
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| ValeSpark | 13 Oct 2009, 05:33 PM Post #25 |
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The internet limit also works the other way. With Westpac, I could only do $10k per day on internet. If converting UK > $, you can normally book a deal, with settlement sometime in the future. I think you pay 10% to hold the deal and balance when due, so this could allow you to move 10000 GBP per day by internet, and build upto what you need. A pain I know, but otherwise its faxes and couriers. I'm with Lloyds, but for those with HSBC, do you have same problem, or can you arrange a CHAPS transfer from this end (Australia)? P |
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