Time to convert sterling

Fiftyplus

Inheritance of @70k sterling held in overseas bank getting punitive interest. Think this is a good time to convert to Euro even though interest rate in Irish institutions probably even worse but can the Euro go any lower? 15% higher sterling now is equivalent to a lot of years interest at current rates. Would anyone recommend a good value, reliable money broker? Thanks

daheff

personally unless you need it, i'd keep it in GBP for the moment. You might see some turbulence over the next few weeks due to the upcoming election, but i think over the next 6 months GBP (and USD)will increase in value vs EUR (mainly because a-their economies are doing better than europe and b-they will be increasing interest rates sooner rather than later)

ftse100

Fiftyplus wrote: »

Inheritance of @70k sterling held in overseas bank getting punitive interest. Think this is a good time to convert to Euro even though interest rate in Irish institutions probably even worse but can the Euro go any lower? 15% higher sterling now is equivalent to a lot of years interest at current rates. Would anyone recommend a good value, reliable money broker? Thanks

If I was in your position i'd keep it in sterling for a long time yet. The UK election won't have much of an affect. The Euro is going to stay weakening. QE is only going a few month. I reckon EUR/USD will pass parity before Christmas.

mid

I used currencyfair recently to convert, fees were the lowest I could find, just 0.15% of the amount and a £2.50 transfer fee, more details here

Fiftyplus wrote: »

Would anyone recommend a good value, reliable money broker? Thanks

HiGlo

I didn't want to start a new thread as I figured this had probably been asked before....

I am due an inheritance soon. It'll be also around £75k or so. It's just in the final stages of UK taxes being paid etc. so I just wanted to get a feel for whether it might be better to keep the money in Sterling for the moment, or should I just go ahead and transfer it into a Euro bank account?

From what I can see I get much less Euro for my money now at the moment, compared to just a few months ago. Is it likely to change again (in a favourable for me direction) any time soon?

Also, I won't be doing anything with the money immediately on receipt of it. And advise or recommendations on short (poss medium) term savings or investment places I could look into?

Atlantic Dawn

Short term it's likely to drop until the Brexit vote on 23rd June, it may then if they decide to stay in EU go up in value. Odds on Paddy Power are strongly in favour of the vote going to stay in EU. Your probably looking short term a fluctuation +/- 5%.

ballyharpat

HiGlo wrote: »

I didn't want to start a new thread as I figured this had probably been asked before....

I am due an inheritance soon. It'll be also around £75k or so. It's just in the final stages of UK taxes being paid etc. so I just wanted to get a feel for whether it might be better to keep the money in Sterling for the moment, or should I just go ahead and transfer it into a Euro bank account?

From what I can see I get much less Euro for my money now at the moment, compared to just a few months ago. Is it likely to change again (in a favourable for me direction) any time soon?

Also, I won't be doing anything with the money immediately on receipt of it. And advise or recommendations on short (poss medium) term savings or investment places I could look into?

it's a tough call, its middle of the road at the moment, 10 years ago it was 1.5 euro per stg, 18 months later it was on a par almost, you could convert half or third of it now and wait it out, a guessing game really IMO…..

newacc2015

ballyharpat wrote: »

a guessing game really IMO…..

Except its not. Currencies are traded, as people believe you can predict the fluctuations of currencies. Even with a basic knowledge of economics you can predict a currencies movements with some accuracy.

Here is some educated guesses on the movements
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-21/pound-falls-most-in-3-months-as-johnson-backs-brexit-campaign

ballyharpat

newacc2015 wrote: »

Except its not. Currencies are traded, as people believe you can predict the fluctuations of currencies. Even with a basic knowledge of economics you can predict a currencies movements with some accuracy.

Here is some educated guesses on the movements
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-21/pound-falls-most-in-3-months-as-johnson-backs-brexit-campaign

Tell you what, if you can guarantee the movement of currencies, you could be making billions not millions, and especially if you think you can guarantee the way stg is gonna go leading up to 'Brexit'
If you can predict it, you can do something that Soros had a very lucky/manipulated break in….. It is like the stock market, but you may be able to predict that as well, where tens of thousands of people make and lose fortunes-and I say that as an investor that has made over 250k in the market, and I am still trading, but I consider it an educated guess, if I actually knew what way it was definitely going to go, i would get a loan out against my properties and invest it in the market-but what do I know

ftse100

I hope you converted your sterling before June 23rd :eek:

Safe to say I was wrong!