Spot rate today is around €1.24/ £1. I did a Halifax credit card purchase at Auchan in calais on monday which converted at €1.231. Makes those bottles of Fleurie about £6.40 - ;-)
I've just got some cash on my caxton at €1.215. Last time I topped up (in January) it was €1.19.
I think it will - the Eurozone problems are not over and the ECB is running out of weapons and the Germans do not seem willing to supply Draghi with anything more than pea-shooters.
Maybe that is my wishful thinking, because like you I am benefiting from having a Sterling income and European expenditure (Not Euro but the Polish Zloty tracks the Euro)
Typical; this year we decided to spread the cost and buy a couple of hundred Euros each month so as not to take a big hit in August. Getting more and more each month. So much for my foray into international money markets.
In theory, exchange rates are just a reflection of differing interest rates in the underlying currency. Now that GBP looks to be raising rates and EUR heading for negative then the exchange rate reflects that.
I don't see it changing for a while yet.
I suspect GO has Carney by the short and curlies, say no interest rise until after May 2015 . Still the if Euro land came down to the 0% that we have been on for 5 years now it would have the same effect.
Interestingly the ECB has set a negative over night deposit rate in an attempt to get banks lending. It will actually cost them to put their money into a safe haven. Now if those same banks could find a way to deposit in the city over night without converting ...... ? I will hang on
We use a Nationwide Flex Plus Account where you can draw cash or pay for stuff in Euros fee free. The fee is a tenner a month but they do pay interest. They use the Visa Conversion rate for Euro to Sterling that was £1.236 when I just checked.
Broken leg permitting we're off to France to buy a property in France in September.
I reckon the government will talk up the economy ready for the election & there will be a UK interest rate rise this year, despite what Carney is saying now.
I have a very cynical view of politicians & economists as you may have realised!
We've been 'hanging our noses' over French houses for ages. Remember the days when a 300K Euro property was about £180K, then they began to gradually creep up as 'they' began mucking about with the € (wow managed to find the € symbol on me Mac & so early!).
We would have been in France house-hunting now had I not succeeded in falling off the ladder when getting the green bits off the roof of Hettie the Hymer!
Still maybe the delay will mean we will get more for our £'s this autumn.
Ray, we've got UK pensions & I wonder do they get paid in €s once you are permanently resident?
Yes Roger.
You might even be able to get your pension paid into a foreign bank account before your officially resident. I did 8 years ago.
There are still some value bargains to be had over here. Mainly ex-pats of varying nationalities who just need to 'go home'. Many are unfinished restore projects. But the French rarely discount old family homes as the proceeds have to get shared out with dozens.
Friends of ours have just negociated a 20% discount on the asking price of a large home.
We tend not to buy euro's before we go as we tend to get a better rate by using our Clarity Card once in Europe. We always have some euro's left over from the previous trip and I tend to hoover up any left over euro's from my sons so there is not the need buy before we go.
For anyone wanting to transfer to an overseas bank account I can recommend Transferwise. I used to use Moneycorp(Fee free) but Transferwise do closer to spot rates and although they charge a fee(about 8 quid per 1000) it is still a good deal. You can book the deal on-line and then transfer funds from your bank to theirs in a couple of hours. They send e-mail confirmation of deal, funds received and when they transfer the foreign currency.
Geoff
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