How to be sure of getting the best exchange rate

Following on from my post about buying a house in Germany and transferring a large sum from the UK to pay for it...

As previously posted, my intention was to use 'Moneycorp' to transfer the funds to my German bank account. I've just been on the phone with a 'Moneycorp' broker and he's advised me to lock-in to the current exchange rate as the trend is downwards as far as pound/euro conversipon is concerned ( I will need the money in my German account on the 25th Jan). Trouble is, I was surprised that the rate he offered was lower than the published rate on the home page of their web site (as well as elsewhere) and meant that my money would be worth approx 3000 Euros less than I was expecting! I decided, for better or worse, not to go ahead right now. My question is, how can I be sure that I'm getting the best - the right! - rate before I commit to this lock-in? I have to be honest - I playing with my life savings and this whole process is scaring me to death!

The bad news is that this is not a good time to be converting from pounds to euros.

With regards to the rate, this probably changes more frequently than the website is updated. See the Foreign Exchange Brokers thread for some ideas.

If you look at http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory & enter a suitable date span & British Pound to Euro you see
that things took a turn for the worse around the New Year. I recovered a bit but fell back yesterday

Looking into your Kristall Kugel so you believe the situation will improve during next months? I shall also need to
xfer some funds but not for a house...

Not sure if it helps but it may be useful to check www.xe.com if you have doubts about the rate you're quoted. The rates on their home page are mid-point rates, and you can expect a transaction rate that gives them about 1.5% - 2% margin from the quoted rates (if memory serves).

Just spoke to my dad who's more of an expert in these matters, and he thinks it will get worse before it gets better. There's no real way of knowing though.

Just a personal opinion...

Find a quote for a forward rate you can live with, lock yourself into it and get on with your life.

You're buying a house, right? That's a big thing, right? I'm guessing there are already enough ducks you'll need to line up in a row to complete this without worrying about squeezing a couple of extra pips out of the forex rate.

I see you mention a figure of EUR 3k, which isn't a small pile of loose change, but I suspect the potential volatility in the rate itself over the next fortnight would give you variations ten times that figure (use a single source, check figures for lowest/highest rates over a week, calculate the difference it would have made for you - I'm guessing, but I suspect it's more than 3k).

My opinion. Worth what you paid for it.

Admetus, thanks for the post - I've sent you a pm.

cruiser

can't advise on GBP / EUR rates since I don't follow that one. Just wanted to post that one decent, free source of FOREX charts is: http://www.fxstreet.com/rates-charts/charts-panel/

OK, now I'm curiouus... Just glancing at the BGP/EUR chart, I'm quite surprised at the movement since mid-Dec. But then again, the BoE has been dealing with a credit crunch and the carry-over affects of the US sub-prime difficulties (to use a nice word) and has been quicker to act than the ECB (actully, the ECB doesn't seem much bothered by those issues). So I can't imagine the rate dramatically improving within your timeframe. That is, unless the ECB does something dramatic (which is very uncharacteristic of them). At the same time, this looks like an over-reaction, but one that will probably not re-adjust in your timeframe.

and admetus has a good point about simply being comfortable with the rate you go with while taking into account the larger transaction you are going thru.

The financial commentators I read say the pound
will continue to go down against the Euro...
Bad news for me 'cos my pension is mostly UK pounds.
Means I transfer it as soon as it hits my UK account.

Yuck.


Pound at record low against euro