Best time to buy Euro in sterling?

[giveherlong]

Bit of advice required. I've the wedding coming up in October and have to pay for it  in euro. Been keeping an eye on exchange rates but not much change lately. Some of the experts suggesting sterling value will fall in run up to Scottish independence. Is now the time to buy? Where would the best place to deal with for a large amount around £10k worth? Thanks

[T Fearon]

Read in Irish News this morning the Pound is at a four year high currently. Might be as well to buy now, as the rates in summertime usually aren't great.

[blewuporstuffed]

Bit of advice required. I've the wedding coming up in October and have to pay for it  in euro. Been keeping an eye on exchange rates but not much change lately. Some of the experts suggesting sterling value will fall in run up to Scottish independence. Is now the time to buy? Where would the best place to deal with for a large amount around £10k worth? Thanks

i am the same , having to pay for a wedding now shortly in Euro, the best rates i was able to get was in one of the local bureau de change shops, far better that the banks.

The other option is one of the online exchange services who will deliver the cash to the house for you and usually offer better rates than any of the banks

[Abble]

online currency converter http://www.fairfx.com/ is the crowd i used 2 years ago for my own wedding, posted to the door and worked out a lot cheaper than banks, bureau de change.

do a comparison online for currency conversions

the only thing about going online was, it'll be a full id check and all that but its well worth the hassle

[bennydorano]

I would deal now. Remember reading reading in the financial pages at the start of the year that Sterling should exit 2014 at €1.25, currently 1.22. Scotland will have zero effect because there's zero chance of a Yes vote. The Floods debacle has the potential to scupper or slow the recovery & destabilise the Coalition govt, which could effect the rates moreso.

[giveherlong]

Thanks for the replies. Fairfx offering 1.19 rate on £10k at the minute

[CiKe]

http://www.ukforex.co.uk/

My savings in GBP but living in Spain and use this crowd. For £10k you'd probably be looking at 0.8-0.9% spread on the interbank rate I would think after a bit of haggling. If you're using one of these online guys, it pays to know where the current market is at that point in time if at all possible. Probably not possible for most people but at least have Bloomberg App which will give you a 15 minute delay.

In terms of timing I've been wondering about it as well. You have the issue of floods but on the other hand you have the Italians fecking about bringing down governments again. I would def be keeping an eye on that as if they have to go to elections the uncertainty isn't going to do the EUR any good.

[CiKe]

Thanks for the replies. Fairfx offering 1.19 rate on £10k at the minute

Giveherlong, for comparison I just got quoted 1.2087 on UKForex which on my commission gives spot rate of 1.2157. If FairFX are giving 1.19, then that is about 2.1% spread which I'd say is pretty hefty. First transfer I did was around same size and was little more than 1%.

[DennistheMenace]

Thanks for the replies. Fairfx offering 1.19 rate on £10k at the minute

Giveherlong, for comparison I just got quoted 1.2087 on UKForex which on my commission gives spot rate of 1.2157. If FairFX are giving 1.19, then that is about 2.1% spread which I'd say is pretty hefty. First transfer I did was around same size and was little more than 1%.

Based on the 2 rates examples above (1.215 & 1.19), am i correct in working out the difference as €257 if changing £10,000?

1.215 x £10000 = €12,157
1.19 x £10,000 = €11,900

[seafoid]

I'd say it's impossible to time it. Currency markets are not really rational.
The Euro is overvalued but that could go on for years.

[blewuporstuffed]

Thanks for the replies. Fairfx offering 1.19 rate on £10k at the minute

Giveherlong, for comparison I just got quoted 1.2087 on UKForex which on my commission gives spot rate of 1.2157. If FairFX are giving 1.19, then that is about 2.1% spread which I'd say is pretty hefty. First transfer I did was around same size and was little more than 1%.

how are you getting that rate cike?
1.1999 is what its showing for me on their customer rates page?

http://www.ukforex.co.uk/customer-rates

[screenexile]

I'm dealing with purchasing in Euro and Sterling all the time and the rate has never been better to buy Euro in the past year so I think you would be safe enough to go now.

[CiKe]

Thanks for the replies. Fairfx offering 1.19 rate on £10k at the minute

Giveherlong, for comparison I just got quoted 1.2087 on UKForex which on my commission gives spot rate of 1.2157. If FairFX are giving 1.19, then that is about 2.1% spread which I'd say is pretty hefty. First transfer I did was around same size and was little more than 1%.

how are you getting that rate cike?
1.1999 is what its showing for me on their customer rates page?

http://www.ukforex.co.uk/customer-rates

Have used them for a while and negotiated a fixed better rate. On the phone you will get a rate at least as good as you get on their page. You play the game a bit and let them know that you know how much they are charging you and be indignant about it. On £10k you prob wouldn't get the level I had but you would be surprised if you couldn't get up to around EUR 1.203 - promise them more activity and that this is the first of many and you are testing the waters to make sure no issues etc.

Even the web quote though is a hell of a lot better than that FairFX quote though (no matter the difference in timing between his quote and my quote, it didn't move that much)

[CiKe]

Thanks for the replies. Fairfx offering 1.19 rate on £10k at the minute

Giveherlong, for comparison I just got quoted 1.2087 on UKForex which on my commission gives spot rate of 1.2157. If FairFX are giving 1.19, then that is about 2.1% spread which I'd say is pretty hefty. First transfer I did was around same size and was little more than 1%.

Based on the 2 rates examples above (1.215 & 1.19), am i correct in working out the difference as €257 if changing £10,000?

1.215 x £10000 = €12,157
1.19 x £10,000 = €11,900

1.215 was the interbank rate - you wouldn't get that. In my example i could have dealt at 1.2087 so gotten EUR 12,087 or EUR 187 more than he was quoted by the other crowd.

[Lazer]

Don;t forget the interest effect too

if you have £10k in sterling sitting in a ISA at say 3% that would earn you £150 ish over the 6 months, whereas if you withdraw it all and change to Euros you lose that.

Also think about what are you going to do with the money when you lift it - pay the venue, or having sitting around?

We had the same question before our wedding, and in the end decided we didn't want a fortune in cash lying around, didn't want to pay the venue/suppliers early and that the fees for depositing and withdrawing in my husbands Euro account together with the commission fees and the loss of interest etc that it wasn't worth changing it as we didn't really expect any major exchange rate fluctuations.

I am now very glad we made this decision as the rate when we booked the wedding was about 1.15 and by the date of the wedding was 1.2