Brits - Are you enjoying the weak Pound?
 

Many here get paid in US dollars, the conversion is currently $1 = £0.82, what direction do you expect it go from here?

A lot of people here probably don't know that the Pound suffered a flash crash last week:

FTSE 100 slips after hitting record high, as pound extends falls - BBC News

It hit $1.14 but has since bounced back to $1.22 (at the time of posting). In some airports, 1 GBP was fetching less than 1 Euro for a short time at FX exchanges. However, many analysts are saying it could go as low as parity to the dollar.

It would be OK if I was in the UK - However, as I am in Spain I getting fucked over buying Euros...

No.

It is costing us big time.

Well amongst paper currencies, it's always smart to diversify.

If you hold a currency of a small country like the UK, then it makes especially good sense to hold currency other than your home country currency and I wouldn't choose the euro for that purpose as the Euro has more problems than the USA and the USD is, after all, still the world's reserve currency.

Making a Europe trip more exciting to me

I know right! I just converted my YK to my British account today & see. Looks good for us atm :thumbsup

the Euro's also good at the moment $1 - E0.91 :2 cents:

I am getting about E1.08 for £1 and $'s go via my UK account - That's what fucks me up...

I could get Spanish accounts set up and change everything to go to them, but I'm just not sure if I will be staying here.....

Get a EURO account at your bank in the UK, problem solved. You are being double stuffed by going to pounds first then to EURO. I have a USD account in Scotland, I am pretty sure you can get a EURO account easily.

I'm loving it. The entire UK can keep fucking itself over as much as it wants, I don't live there, I have some assets there but that is of no consequence, I don't have to liquidate them for at least 25 years, probably longer. I am actually thinking of getting some more property while the pound is so cheap.

yep, best bet is get paid into a Spanish account with some & your British with others.

I use my British account for British credit cards, ebay, anything needed to do with Britain, so when paid from dollars, all's good. & the Spanish account for living here with dollar to euro.

Win win :thumbsup

Open account and close it when you GTFO. Simple as that.

Disagree. Go get a USD account in a decent bank, you can pull local currency out of the ATM and more of it as the pound falls or even withdraw it from the bank itself if you need to. The euro isn't a currency that's going to remain strong. Personally, I expect it will fall a great deal more than the UK pound in time to come.

Ditch it, UK banks are basically in terrible shape and mismanaged, even though they were bailed out. Go with one of these:

https://www.gfmag.com/media/press-re...est-banks-2015

Spanish banks like Santander are not in much better shape... also dont panic yourselves into doing something, but Goldman Sachs expects the pound to fall by a cumulative 25% approx by year end:

Goldman Warns "Much More Downside" To Come For Pound Sterling | Zero Hedge

It could take the Pound to parity with the USD.

Makes it more fun to shop on ebay.co.uk :)

I've noticed gas prices sneaking up almost every couple of days now but as usual it's all kept very quiet...

The mainstream media won't report it heavily as it could create hysteria and governments *always* under report inflation so you will never find out the real damage except through your wallet. Precisely right.

The other thing about the falling pound is that everything, including energy as you say, is going to be going up when measured in pounds since it is mostly imported and priced in foreign currency. That includes all commodities including food.

Now inflation is a lagging indicator so when the pound falls this low, you wont really see the prices change for quite some time but when they do, they'll be going up, some say as much as 14% higher on food prices because the cost of importing them from a foreign country against which your currency has fallen is higher and because the price of oil (priced in dollars) is also higher.

I do think the pound is going lower though as interest rates remain near zero and there's hardly many reasons to own the pound unless you do business there or live there. There will be more brexit talk and more negative views about the UK especially when we start getting more press coverage of this:

SNP's Nicola Sturgeon announces new independence referendum bill - BBC News

Some thinking for you GBP people because if Scotland does separate which is more likely than ever before, I could easily see the pound fall under 1 US dollar.

That would be a HUGE change from a century ago when you got five USD for 1 pound: 1 GBP = 5 USD

Pound looks like its going to dip below 1.60 to the Aussie tonight. Might be a good time to visit family

I have a single 20 euro note in a draw left over WMA amsterdam in 2007... Its my life savings and nest egg all rolled into one:2 cents:

I'm with Sabadell & Natwest, both a good banks & great customer service, for me, I wouldn't change anything atm :thumbsup

You must be joking. Natwest is just a small part of RBS (owner of Natwest), which was responsible for the worst banking crisis, the UK (England) has ever seen in 2008. The bank was bigger than the entire UK economy and sunk the country into massive debt almost insolvency, from which it has not since recovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NatWest

Since the bank was bailed out and is now over 70% public owned, technically you could say it will be okay but on principle I would never use a bank that has failed and been rescued. I also have serious doubts about the safety of the depositor insurance plan in the UK. The parent company is shedding jobs and also doesn't have a great reputation for customer service:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...rst-direct-top

RBS planning to cut 900 jobs to reduce costs: sources | Reuters

I have no clue about Sabadell but watch out, a lot of Spanish banks are highly indebted.

Yes I know Natwest is part of RBS, RBS bought them out nearly 10 years ago. However, it costs me nothing and to have my money paid into there, to pay British bank cards and anything from Britain, from dollar, it works, well, atm :thumbsup

Sabadell are stable, but thanks for the info about Spanish accounts though :thumbsup

Looks like Jim Rogers, a billionaire investor who worked with Soros on the Quantum Fund, takes the same view:

Jim Rogers: Sterling is in serious decline - BBC News

Not enough to make a solid vacation

What a huge mistake for all Brits to get fooled by incompetent politicians really.. what you get in the future? The first thing you gonna feel what means to be "out" is conversion rate. More and more friends of mine from UK started to get really worried about that. But guess what.. that's not all, will affect in same way EU also. I think everyone lose something in this Brexit.

No I'm not. My pensions are in £s.

But if it takes that to destroy the EUs grip over Europeans. I will suck it up.

You refer at EU "politics" from Brussels right?

yes he is, but I'm still not understanding why Paul thinks that all the countries not being in the EU will have any extra motivations apart from being able to spend their money on what they want. Maybe the corruptions can begin again around Europe?! :helpme

I'm absolutely convinced that BREXIT (leaving the EU) was the right decision to make and a period of volatility or a weak pound for a period of time is not only a small blip on the chart but it won't change my mind about that. There was high inflation in the 1970's for long and we got through that period and far worse periods since.

Eventually the independence from EU will drive better policies for the UK and I'm sure it will do well.

However, no-one could have predicted Scotland leaving the UK and wanting to remain in the EU and that won't be a good thing (for either side) but I think history will prove that the worst thing on earth would have been to be tethered to an EU which is collapsing economically and will soon be mired in war.

If the UK realy joined the EU and changed the GBP to Euro, you would have lost 10% also.
At least that is what happened in Holland where the exchange was too low (what came out years later).
Was there also big increase of prices after introduction of the Euro? In Europe there was.

Do you realy want an European president like Juncker, Berlusconi or from a junk country. Do you want small countries have more influence than the countries that pay the bills?

The euro is the first thing that has to be abandonnend. Else there is need for much more European involvment in (souvereign?) countries. So the choice was, do you want much more Europe, or less. Cause else the next banking crisis could destroy Europe. And now Greece will be in shit for some 10,20 years... You can solve that by paying their debt, or give them back the Drachme.

Well said. The sinking of Deutsche Bank alone has the potential to destroy Europe. We hope it won't happen but it's looking really wobbly right now.

The pound is expected to go lower but many believe that before it does, it is likely to rebound to the upside. My best "suggestion" (not advice) to people with pound sterling right now is that let's say the pound bounces for a while higher versus USD from where it is now $1.22 and goes up to around $1.35.

Maybe at that point you could diversify:

(1) 10% of your liquid cash into gold and/or silver, and;
(2) 30% of your liquid cash into US dollars, and;
(3) 60% would stay in the form of UK pounds.

That would create a decent hedge position because if the pound/silver/gold goes down, it generally does so against the USD. If on the other hand, the USD goes down, you benefit on the gold/silver portion and also your pounds. If history is any guide, it's not likely that all three go down at the same time.

I disagree, and here is why:

1. From business perspective I love EURO as a currency.
2. Destroying Eurozone is a major mistake.

You probable did not travel around Euro to much before Eurozone/EURO, when you had checking points everywhere, and when you had to exchange money like crazy in every country (and I do not even count the speculative exchange rates here).

Will EU destroy country's governments and sovereignty? If this will mean also end of abusive laws and corruption, please bring it on!

As a joke around, if country borders will return in Eurozone and Euro as currency will go, I will probable ask for political asylum in USA:)

Not sure what you mean. But here's my reason for wanting the destruction of the EU.

The politicians and Bureaucrats want to rule Europe from the middle. With policies that either favours Germany or policies that favour the lower economy countries. Who will eventually out vote the stronger ones. With Brexit, that already is on the cards.

The evidence is clear. The stronger economic countries are seeing a stagnation of wages, rising demands on social services and, except the UK, zero to low growth.

What has the EU done for you, that you couldn't do without it?

Count the votes after the UK leaves. The few strong countries are out voted by the weak.

The Euro was the banker's wet dream. Countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Eire were able to borrow to their heart's content, all underwritten by the Germans.

Exactly. If Greece had the drachma they could deflate away their debts and the weak currency would boost their tourism industry. But they're stuck with the Euro.

British pounds have always been strong compared with any other Europian currency.They got out of Eu and its normal to be down

you know May can still pull out of Brexit, and would be the ideal move for all Brits :2 cents:

It's strange with you living abroad, why you want the EU broken up. I still don't understand why you are so for stone age, pre 80's.

The evidence is clear that the GBP has gone down, not as much as they thought, but still gone down...

What idiots would make a statement like this, and this is what I hear every day on the news. So basically, "we're fucked, but not as fucked as we thought". He didn't fuck me in the ass, just the pussy :1orglaugh

That's because you don't understand the true nature of the EU, what it is and always was intended to be. It's not a free trade area, it's a political construct with a sinister intent.

I moved to Czech before Czech joined the EU. My Brother lived and worked in Switzerland, Singapore and then America for 40 years. Mother and Father emigrated to America in 1984. So why do you assume people can't live and work in Europe without there being the EU?

The difference the EU made was it allowed low-skilled, non-skilled, not required, unemployed, to move to the countries with better benefits systems to move out of the poorer countries to lower wages and put a strain on the taxpayers.

If the EU is so great for the Brits, prove it with a chart showing the rise in income and living standards.

https://rwer.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/an1.png

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/w...t-08.00.17.png

1. Yes, euro makes it easier online. But won't be that hard to use more currencies online. just like you use different payment ways now.

2. The euro zone is a big mistake. The UK had some criteria when they would join the euro. They already saw you need European financial instruments (and political) influence if you have one coin for Europe. That is why they didn't join the Euro and kept GBP. I think most of the Europeans have enough of more influence from Brussels. More euro = more protest = more anti european parties willl rise.

Why do you think that people who travelled before the eu found that so difficcult? I am from Holland and travelled a lot in Europe. I paid with Drachmes, Deutschmark, Swedish and Danish Krone, etcetra. Now i travel already 5 years in South America (and before that also many times) and Asia, all using their own valuta. I remember the first time when i was 18 and went to Mexico you had to bring traveller cheques. But we are 20 years further, you arrive at the airport, you put your bankcard in the machine, and voila, there the is the money. No problem. Some peole are still changing money before they go to other countries, they pay a lot more exchange rate. And even 20 years ago you could change money in Mexico, but only GBP, German money and Dutch guilders cause they where stable. We have ATM machines now on every corner in the world, they will keep working.

If you are from a corrupt poor country with a lot of problems i can imagine tou like the EU. But if you are from the countries that are paying the bills for the others, it is bad. Especially when those corrupt politicians of small countries have more to say about your country than the inhabitants.

Thinking that the EU will end corruption and bad laws is just a wet dream. Now the rich countries can pay for that corruption. The EU will only give you lesser influence to change the system and prevent corruption. If a small country can't deal with it, why do you think they would do better if they can even steal more money. And Europe will come with more stupid laws. I think they must only concentrate on Trade, Human Rights and Environment.

<3 :thumbsup


8chars...

I wonder how did you determine that? You can't know unless you're picking through their reports and really doing some heavy due diligence. Global macro trader Raoul Pal talks about the euro banks (including Sabadell & RBS):

Ther Euro was a good idea. But like most good ideas it needs good intelligent people to run it. They put political imbeciles in charge of it.

It had to have One Chancellor/Exchequer which controlled borrowing and spending of all the Governments. Allotting a small part of taxation to local control. Like it's done in the US, but better. So countries like Greece to Eire couldn't borrow against the Economic Strength of Germany.

The EU aids corruption.

There's no problem with freedom of movement within the EU. The problem is the EU's borders are crap and not policed properly.

Secondly, Freedom of Movement is fine. Just not freedom to move to another country and live off the country's citizens. And no automatic right to benefits of any kind or to a job. Benefits should come from the Native's country or be at the same rate as they would at home. It would curb the economic EU migrants and not affect those who bring skills and wealth.

Europeans are 100s of years away from wanting to be United like the States. The EU is before it's time and that will destroy it.