exchange rates/what will happen to the £ vs the $?

this has practical implications for me-- i earn pounds (and pay most bills in pounds), but my student loans are in the US. so i end up sending money to the US several times a year, and the exchange rate makes a difference to how quickly i can pay off my loans.

is there any place where people speculate about how long the current exchange rate will stay in place? (until W is gone?!) i'm happy to keep things going as i have been for the time being unless i think the dollar is going to get stronger again soon, in which case, i'd send over my pounds as quickly as i can, to benefit from this exchange.

The pound is round $1.90 at the moment because there's been a lot of speculation lately about korea dumping dollar reserse and paper in favour of European reserves and paper. If the actually do it, espcially if they do it quickly (which the probably won't) expect $1.95.

Ed, I too would be up for a fantasy trading game of some kind - need to get my hand back in. After 5 years of appalling luck/misjudgement with my stock picks, the shares I do own have had a brilliant year - and not just because the stock market's picked up.

what does this mean? is this a spread betting/hedging term?

and then you could have bought mark a really nice birthday present!

so, these people are assuming the price is going up till at least june? that's good news for me!

xpost - gotcha

considering that we're both earning in pounds, and have a wedding in a year that'll be paid for in dollars, what's the best way to go about using this to our advantage? i think some family would like us to buy dollars for them.

i assume going to the post office or whatever bureau de change that's around and buying $$ to bring home isn't the most effective way of doing it. but what is?

facts in case they help: i have bank accounts in the UK and US. but transferring between them seems to cost big money, so i haven't ever used that. i also seem to have paypal accounts in both countries as well-- could this be a way to do things easily and quickly while not losing a ton in transaction fees?

Any wedding costs you're paying yourself, I'd have thought you should pay them using your British credit/debit cards.

For the rest, do a bank transfer between accounts. I'd guess you'd lose much less than using a bureau de change.

nationwide is a good one, when i'm back i use my nationwide card and take out a load of cash at an ATM, then deposit it in my us account. but i won't be back until christmas-- will rates still be this favorable then?

bank transfers are stupidly high, i remember when i first moved here i had to do one and it was about £50! which pretty much sucks up any good rates you're getting at relatively small sums like i've got.

When you get Nationwide money out of the ATM, you're withdrawing it from your current account, not doing a cash advance on a credit card, yes? Cause that costs loads, regardless of the country you're in, no?

I think I'm confused about what you want to do.

http://www.e-bullion.com/ may be an option for cheaper currency changing an holding gold or dollars for you.

what about somewhere like this, which seems to have lower international wire fees and says it'll beat bank rates:
http://www.worldfirst.com/individual/index.htm

i thought that there were so many different kinds of paypal accounts that i'd discovered a way to use it so i benefited, but it's not obvious now.

richard, i'm in the same boat-- US loans, earning £. which is great, because my money is more valuable! but it's a pain to get it over there, really.

1.63!

Make it stop! How am I going to go mad shopping in January at this rate :(

Yes, please make it stop. They might start coming over here for their holidays again. :-)

TOO LATE

I would be quite happy to see it go a lot further. Not really expecting it to though.

Last time we were over it was $2.10. Good times.

This is a big win for me at the moment.

Wow, 1.54! Wish I had some more $s lying around at the moment...

Haha that last minute December trip to New York is totally out now.

New york, accomodation aside is still cheaper than london at 1.50 to the pound, just not mad cheap.

i have to send $ back to the UK to pay my £ bills and the same dollar amount is worth a cool £200 more now than at the start of the year. trying to make it feel like free money instead of feeling like i have been robbed for two years.