Buying US Dollars

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Given the Euro - Dollar rate is so good, I decided to buy 500 US dollars today in advance of a trip to the States.Below is what I was quoted by three institutions to the nearest euro;

Thomas Cook €423
BOI €415
Ulster Bank €410

It pays to shop around!
 
if you are in a credit union they may have no charge for changing to dollars
 
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As It seems the dollar will fall even more I was considering buying dollars .. Does anyone have any information on opening a dollar account and what does that entail? Does the Irish bank pay the dollar interest rate?
 
I'm travelling to the states on Saturday. I'm not sure what the best way to take dollars is .. putting money onto my credit card and withdrawing over there or buting dollars here in a bank ??

Any advice on getting best value for money
 
Thanks ..I looked through the posts and still am uncertain.

I have the option to get 3K dollars commision feee from JWT for €2247.91 or putting money onto my MBNA gold card CC and using that ... What do people think would be the best option ?

Advice appreciated.
 
Thanks ..I looked through the posts and still am uncertain.

I have the option to get 3K dollars commision feee from JWT for €2247.91 or putting money onto my MBNA gold card CC and using that ... What do people think would be the best option ?

Advice appreciated.

(i) Ring MBNA and see what, if any, transaction fees their is for (i) using credit cardto pay for putrchaes, or (as is more likely) a charge for withdrawing money from an ATM. I presume there might be a charge for both withdrawal and interest on cash from date withdrawn.

(ii) If you go with the credit card then the exchange rate can vary up or down, although it might not vary too much at the mo.

(ii) Have you shopped around and got better value than the $3k?
 
Hi,

I am off to New York in Feb and am just wondering should i buy dollars now or should i wait?! Is it possible to buy dollars and lodge it into an account and access it in NY with credit card or laser? Any tips would be appreciated as I am clueless as to what to do or how it works!!
 
Buy dollars/travellers cheques here and take them with ye. I ended up losing money on Laser / Credit Card transactions when withdrawing funds in US. A lot of the ATM's around where I was added there own charge to the transactions too.
 
As another poster asked, why would you buy dollars now if you expect them to fall. With the fed expected to drop interest rates further, i can only really see the dollar losing further traction against the euro, which for the average european holiday maker like yourself is great news. Even if the dollar does claw back a bit, I wouldn't think that it's enough to bother worrying about for the sake of some holiday spending money (i.e. <5k)

With regards to the taking money out now/using ATM's over there... even though alot of Irish banks will call it "free", american banks charge a withdrawl fee of around $2 at most ATMs. Personally, I brought over $300 cash (didn't feel safe bringing more) and withdrew cash $200 at a time when I was over there so that my transaction fees were only about 1-2%.

In essence, with the strenght of the euro, no matter what you do it will be relatively cheap! Spend less time worrying about small fluctuations that might occur and more time enjoying your holiday!
 
Anyone who is interested in moving money from one currency to another on a regular basis should investigate xetrade.com

My wife and I manage accounts in England and Ireland and we find them to be by far the best when we move money from one bank to another. Obviously it makes little odds for small sums like holiday money etc, especially as the standard charge (seems to be about £8.50 converting from sterling, or about €15 when converting from euro) then takes a larger percentage of the overall amount, reducing the saving.

But for larger sums there is definitely a big saving to be had over using the banks or "commission free" suppliers like the Post Office.

I hope no one minds me passing this info along? I've used Xetrade for over a year now with no problems whatsoever, although there are hoops to go through when setting up an account.
 
I used a similar company in the UK called Sterling Exchange when I had a large sum of dollars to change a couple of years back.

The exchange rate they offered was phenominal compared with the local banks, they work by taking the bank exchange rate and added a couple of points, not a few percent. It really drove it home what a shower of robbing b.....ds the banks must be ! In this case the difference in the cash value between using them and a bank was a serious amount of money, but none of the banks would offer me better rate than the one posted on their boards.

I would never ever use a bank again to change more than a few quid.

BTW you can also probably open a dollar account with most high street banks. You just need to ask for one. I've had one over here for the past 5 years and I even get a decent interest rate on it.

The other thing is that your ATM card will probably work in the USA machines. I used to travel a lot and got to the stage where I wouldn't bother changing cash beforehind, but just use the local ATM's (can't verify what the rates would be).
 
I always deal in cash or travellers cheques in New York. Never once felt unsafe there with money on me. Although it might depend on your personality too.
 
As mentioned by somebody else in another thread - is XEtrade of any use here?

www.xe.com/fx/how.htm

Update: oops just noticed that it's mentioned already above! :eek:

Okay I get the point of using someone like xe (never used them myself) but will now, but wanted to understand first. So if I wanted to buy dollar when I feel it is super value and when it starts to strengthen I could convert it back to euro and make a profit after storing it in a USD denomination account, but if I was to use xe as a way to change 1K Euro into Dollar how would it work to get this money once in America without transfering it to your bank account which would convert it back to euro which is not what you want obviously as they would then convert it back to dollar and you loose as it is the high street back rip off prices, (excuse my ignorance)
Would you have to get a draft and then convert it to cash once in the US?
 
The way that Sterling Exchange worked was that you had to transfer the money to them (in dollars in my case) and then they will transfer the money back to you in whatever currency you want.

you will need a bank account to accept the money in thta currency, and someway of getting it in cash if you want to spend it in the USA. As you point out, you'll get ripped off and confused if they try to transfer the money into a different currency.

As it turns out I was transferring money from dollars to euro so no real problem.

You could always see if they'll issue the money in terms of travellers cheques or something similar.
 
Has anyone used UKForex? Part of OZ Forex and Canada Forex? I have recently sold my flat and buying a house in the US and wanted to use them because they do 24hrs customer service.

I'm having major problem transferring my money to this forex company though my account is a Barclays and theirs also. Any advise?

It looks like my only way to get my money over is if I use Barclays and they are very uncompetitive.

I'm thinking to look into opening a USD account but not sure it will help to get my money over here. I hate to have to travel back to London just for a bank visit. It seems though noone has ever tried to transfer money abroad every time I call them.

Any advise or help is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Howzit Folks?

I've been transferring money around the world to various locations for the last 7 years, started using OzForex and then switched to XE as they were much closer to the spot rate. I've never had any major hassles once the wire transfer beneficiaries have been setup.

Best bet is to register an account with your top 2 or 3 candidates and then compare spot rate and transaction costs to see which is the best deal for you. As I say, XE are my preferred option.

If you are going overseas XE will deliver the funds via bank draft, EFT or wire transfer so it is pretty flexible. Definitely beats getting shafted by the banks who give you a far worse exchange rate and then charge you commission on top of that to add insult to injury.

Cheers
Bruce
 
What are people experiences with Sterling exchange like
I have been trying to contact them for over a week now via the links from their website - email contact alias, their ring back facility and their telephone lines and getting no answer:(

Are the still operating or does anyone have any up numbers, contacts for getting in touch with them ?

Thanks
 
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