Deep Singh

Ok, so if we believe that sterling is going down the pan what can the average person do to protect themselves?

How about a foreign currency acct with your high street bank and then getting somebody like HiFx to change your £ into swiss francs/yen/$ etc and dumping them into that acct?

Would that work? Any downsides (apart from adverse currency movements of course)

zip106

After reading the papers yesterday (NOT the tabloids ) I'd say that the Yen will shortly be devalued by the Japanese Government due to very bad export numbers.

Anyway, I found this -

Japan may devalue currency as strong yen poses threat to economy- Forex-Markets-The Economic Times

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

You might have a problem with money laundering, changing into foreign currency.

SlimJ_2005

Surely if this is a global situation then all currencies will lose value therefore all currencies will balance out eventually???

pbee

if you want to trade currencies without paying commision, the easiest way i can think of is with the citibank premier accounts.

you open up a current account and then can have linked euro and dollar accounts, you move money between them at the closing rate of that day. no minimum and no commision.

not sure if they are still available or not, but it used to be the best way

AlanG

You can open an account in any country you like and put funds in it from the UK. The downside is you need to visit the country and branch you opened the account in to activate it, before you can do anything with the money that's in it. i.e. remove it.

Also bear in mind that you are liable for tax in the country you are in on your "savings". In Oz for example, you are taxed at around 46% on your savings unless you have a tax file number (i.e. proof that you are a resident)

As an aside, there's also Capital Gains tax on your transfers as well. If for example, you enter a country and the exchange rate is say $2.00/£1 and you decide to wait 'till it's say $2.50/£1, you'll be charged CGT on the "profit" as it's calculated from the date of entry to that country. On the other side of the coin, if it's $2.50 on landing and you exchange at $2.00, you can offset that as a loss on your tax returns.
It's a bit of a minefield

pbee

citibank premier account is uk based.

dpb

you think its that desperate Deep ?

speedking

Your example is the wrong way round. £100 buys $200 at $2/£1. Later, your $200 only buys £80 so you have lost!

I should think commission charges would stop profitable movement of small amounts with instant access.

David Lock

If the UK bank runs out of cash is foreign currency protected under the gov't guarantee?

Unless the amount is large then dollars in cash kept hidden is as good as anything. Or a mix of $ and Euros?

Or buy a lump of gold. dl

Matteeboy

Inlaws have just opened a dollar account (HSBC) and transferred a load of money. I'm sitting tight for now but might do something soon!

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

Buy a new Scooby hatch - a sure fire way of holding onto it's value.

I'm sending the missus to Brazil with a few £k's maybe she'll invest it in flats over there. Our current ones have increased in value 3-4 fold. We paid about £20k to have them built and whilst renting over them over 3 years they have increased to over £70k.

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

I'm using HSBC's foreign currency savings account. The rate you get is in practice 1.5% (ish) under the end of day quoted rate over at xe.com.

No minimum balances and no extra costs for transfers. 3 quid a month charge for the account.

Unfortunately it's telephone only, i.e. can't even see balance online, but I don't really mind.

AlanG

[QUOTE=speedking;8458942]Your example is the wrong way round. £100 buys $200 at $2/£1. Later, your $200 only buys £80 so you have lost![QUOTE]

I see where you're coming from. My example was based on moving money over after arriving in the country of your choice and having an active account.

In regard to the example i gave about Oz, you still have to activate the account by visiting the branch. i.e. visit that country.
You can exchange and put in as much money as you like from Britain, but you can't take it out until you've activated the account. I'd imagine this is similar for other countries.

You're talking about theoretically being able to open an account in another country, put money in and bring money back when rates are favourable, but the reality is not so easy.

john banks

Deep, spread betting firms also allow you to take out a long or short on currency pairs. I wondered about shorting the pound, but every time I wonder about doing it it has tended to drop more, which makes me suspect a recovery. For example, if you shorted the pound at its recent bottom you'd be bleeding today.

Deep Singh

Thanks. Is it that easy to open an acct abroad? I rang up a UBS branch in Geneva and they said I couldn't open up a current acct. But if I gave them a minimum of 50,000 euros they would INVEST it for me, I almost laughed down the phone