When to transfer Euro

Jude13

With this Greek mess I am unsure when to transfer to my euro account.

I have a bit of savings in local currency and want to transfer it over to my euro account.

1. Do it now
2. Wait till the very end of the month?
3. Hold out till mid August (closing local account then)

gordongekko

Is it a Greek account?

Amirani

What currency is your local account in?

BrokenArrows

Im curious too as to what effect Greece leaving the euro will have on the currency.

I have about 10k in my Irish account. Im living in the UK and am thinking whether or not to move it to sterling.

Jude13

I have some cash but leave the middle east mid August when my account will be closed. I have a euro, sterling and US dollar account off shore and with the euro so low I was going to dump it in the Euro account. It's saving so I don't need access to it immediately however I may need to move it to a UAE account near Christmas time.

So do it now or hold off till mid August is the question?

wonski

Changing euro to sterling now would cost a fair bit in exchange rate, bank charges etc.

Sterling is strongest than ever, euro is on its way down.

When is the referendum in Greece planned. I would look at it as a cut off point before making the move.

Peregrinus

wonski wrote: »

Changing euro to sterling now . . .

I don't think he has euro to change.

Jude is being tantalisingly obscure, the little tease, but it seems that what he is holding right now is UAE Dirhams. He has "a bit of savings in local currency" (post 1) and in mid-August he will have to "leave the Middle East" (post 5), so presumably local currency, for him, is some Middle Eastern currency. He "may need to move it to a UAE account near Christmas time" (also post 5). So, putting two and two together to get only slightly more than four, odds are that he is currently in the UAE, and the "local currency" he is holding is Dirhams. If it's not Dirhams then its going to be Saudi Riyals or something of the kind.

He's thinking of buying euro, not selling it.

Jude, apart from the question of what currency you are holding, the really important info that you haven't give us is, what currency do you expect to spend in, eventually? If this is long-term savings to fund your retirement and you expect to retire in euroland, that's one thing; if you think you might want to spending it in Dirhams within the next year (and it's currently in Dirhams, as I guess) that's quite another.

Jude13

?? No intention of changing to sterling. I have a US pegged amount and wondering whether to change it to euro now or later on

Peregrinus

Jude13 wrote: »

?? No intention of changing to sterling. I have a US pegged amount and wondering whether to change it to euro now or later on

OK, this helps. You're holding [as good as] US dollars, more or less.

First question: why are you thinking of changing it to euro at all? Are you going to need or want to spend it in euro? If so, when?

Jude13

I have the money in OMR, when I leave my job the company issues a letter to close my bank account here. So I have to transfer it out.

As banks outside of here do not have OMR accounts I have to change it to another currency. When I transferred money in the past it was back to a euro account, the rates was no where as good as it is now.

I will most likely end up changing some of it UAE dirhams in September.

The rest will be saving for the next few years.

wonski

Peregrinus wrote: »

I don't think he has euro to change.

Jude is being tantalisingly obscure, the little tease, but it seems that what he is holding right now is UAE Dirhams. He has "a bit of savings in local currency" (post 1) and in mid-August he will have to "leave the Middle East" (post 5), so presumably local currency, for him, is some Middle Eastern currency. He "may need to move it to a UAE account near Christmas time" (also post 5). So, putting two and two together to get only slightly more than four, odds are that he is currently in the UAE, and the "local currency" he is holding is Dirhams. If it's not Dirhams then its going to be Saudi Riyals or something of the kind.

He's thinking of buying euro, not selling it.

Jude, apart from the question of what currency you are holding, the really important info that you haven't give us is, what currency do you expect to spend in, eventually? If this is long-term savings to fund your retirement and you expect to retire in euroland, that's one thing; if you think you might want to spending it in Dirhams within the next year (and it's currently in Dirhams, as I guess) that's quite another.

Another poster got me confused. He does have € (10k).

You are spot on with the rest. Good questions asked.

Jude13

I just noticed how shockingly bad my thread tittle is...apologies. I am running on very little sleep.

1. I have saved what I can in my locall currency OMR
2. I need to get it all out of here by mid August.
3. It will be used in the future as UAE dirhams and also euro
4. I have a Euro, sterling and dollar account outside of the country. I am working on getting a UAE drihams account.
5. I will get a pretty good bank rate and will not have transfer fees.

Peregrinus

OK. You are holding OMR. You expect to spend some of that in AED and some in EUR.

You have to sell the OMR by mid-August; currency and banking regulations will prevent you from holding it beyond that date.

All other things being equal, the rational strategy is to change your OMR to AED and EUR in more or less the proportions you intend to spend it in. There is no point in routing the money through some intermediate currency; all you are doing is incurring two sets of foreign exchange transaction costs (even if the FX charges you will pay are "pretty good" there is no benefit in paying them twice) and exposing yourself to a foreign exchange risk that you do not need to expose yourself to.

Should you make the exchange now, or in mid-August? Let's assume that interest rates in all three currencies involved are identical, or nearly so, so your decision is not swayed by the desire to get the best interest rate between now and mid-August.

As regards the amount you intend to switch into AED; it probably makes no material difference when you change it. Both OMR and AED are effectively pegged to USD, so the exchange rate between them is not very volatile. You may as well change it as soon as your AED bank account is open.

As regards the amount you intend to switch into EUR, it really depends on whether you like a flutter. You know what rate you will get today; you do not know what rate or rates will be avaiable on each day between now and mid-August. In the current sitution rates are likely to be volatile. There's a sporting chance, to put it no higher, that on some day or days between now and mid-August you will be able to buy EUR at a cheaper rate than today but, on each day between now and mid-August, you will never know whether you might be able to buy EUR still more cheaply on a later date, so you'll have exactly the dilemma you have now. And you do have an end date; you have to sell your OMR by mid-August at the latest, so if you keep putting off the transaction you may end up paying more for your EUR than you need to today.

It would be much easier to make this decision if you could forecast the future. But you can't, and neither can anyone on this board. (If they could, they wouldn't be faffing around answering posts on boards.ie; they'd be far to busy spending their squillions.) So I don't think the question you should be asking yourself is "will the euro go up or down?". It's "do I want to gamble on the euro going down?" And to answer that question you need to ask a further one; "if I gamble on the the euro going down and it goes up, will that cost me more than I can afford? Or more than I am comfortable with losing?"

In other words, don't engage in exchange rate speculation without (a) accepting that you may lose out by doing so, (b) satisfying yourself that this would be a loss you could afford, and (c) deciding that the risk of this loss is a price you are happy to pay in order to have the chance of improving your situation through favourable exchange rate movements. Once you are happy about all those three questions then go for it, if you want to.

Jude13

Cheers for such an in depth reply. I love boards.

I know it may sound all obvious to you but to an extremely sleep deprived fool they need to be spelled out, so thanks again.

I think I will transfer 50/50 between the Euro and new AED account. The Euro will be savings for retirement/a house.

I think I will risk it and hang on hoping the euro takes a bit more of a dive.

Now all I have to worry about is getting paid on time!