What's your prediction on the Australian Dollar?

[ellen10]

Wish i had hoarded USD when the Aussie was riding above par.

We leave on Tuesday.
Thankfully most things are paid for now. Just the spending stuff.
Still happy, I have travelled when it was worse.

 

[JohnK]

Wish i had hoarded USD when the Aussie was riding above par.

I was doing it for a while at 90c. When it dropped to 80s stopped because I thought it would go back up.

Now I wish I had bought in the 80s. USD to THB yesterday was 34.75 compared to 24.8 for AUD.

 

[Foreigner]

Well, don't we all? - but that's just like saying I wish I'd bought my house in 1951...

Hmmm...i was thinking of not hindsight but insight, that the stronger AUD was not going to keep momentum.

 

[anat0l]

Wish i had hoarded USD when the Aussie was riding above par.

My folks did, but not that it's necessarily doing them any good.

If you are travelling to the USA, fine - you have plenty of cash and it's not so expensive after all.

If you stay within Australia, it's not really useful unless you really, really need the money so convert it to AUD. So it is basically as useful (or as useless) as gold.

 

[Flashback]

My folks did, but not that it's necessarily doing them any good.

If you are travelling to the USA, fine - you have plenty of cash and it's not so expensive after all.

If you stay within Australia, it's not really useful unless you really, really need the money so convert it to AUD. So it is basically as useful (or as useless) as gold.

Well you'd still gain on the fx spread so I'd see that as useful...? Or am I missing something?

 

[Foreigner]

My folks did, but not that it's necessarily doing them any good.

If you are travelling to the USA, fine - you have plenty of cash and it's not so expensive after all.

If you stay within Australia, it's not really useful unless you really, really need the money so convert it to AUD. So it is basically as useful (or as useless) as gold.

They could gift them to you, right. USD is global currency and i am guessing it's made gains against most if not all other currencies. So USD can be useful even if travelling to destinations other than USA.

 

[anat0l]

Well you'd still gain on the fx spread so I'd see that as useful...? Or am I missing something?

As I said, it's really only useful if (a) you're travelling to the USA, or (b) you really, really need the money.

If it is just going to sit there, it really isn't worth a lot.

Since the greenbacks were versatile, even when the AUD was doing better than it, the folks bought lots of it at the time. But it's not an immediately useful instrument (although much more immediate than shares or gold bullion, admittedly).

I'm in a funny similar dilemma owning CHF. Fairly versatile currency right now - do I retain the CHF and maintain its relative versatility (even if it weakens against other crossrates, it's bound to still be better than at least before the unpegging) or do I convert lots of it to AUD and make a "windfall" but otherwise end up with a currency that is relatively weak and I don't necessarily have an immediate use for?

 

[Flashback]

As I said, it's really only useful if (a) you're travelling to the USA, or (b) you really, really need the money.

If it is just going to sit there, it really isn't worth a lot.

Since the greenbacks were versatile, even when the AUD was doing better than it, the folks bought lots of it at the time. But it's not an immediately useful instrument (although much more immediate than shares or gold bullion, admittedly).

I'm in a funny similar dilemma owning CHF. Fairly versatile currency right now - do I retain the CHF and maintain its relative versatility (even if it weakens against other crossrates, it's bound to still be better than at least before the unpegging) or do I convert lots of it to AUD and make a "windfall" but otherwise end up with a currency that is relatively weak and I don't necessarily have an immediate use for?

Depends if you're moving back to AU or not. If you're not, then I'd say keep it and use it for whatever further travel you do.

 

[Foreigner]

Few years back i had a stack of travellers checks from years gone past when these were commonly used for overseas trips. During the first of my many trips to USA in 2013/4 I converted them into notes.

 

[cove]

Because we are going to the US in a month I have been looking through giftcardgranny ,cardpool and raise to try to neutralise some of the fall in our currency. Anyone have good/bad experiences with buying discounted gift cards.
I started at Costco and have moved to raise.com. Both of these have worked well.
I saw a $1,000 Hyatt card at $850 so that would save about $215 AUD.
You have to buy these cards in the US it seems which I can do and have done with raise and Costco.
Your thoughts?

 

[Flashback]

Because we are going to the US in a month I have been looking through giftcardgranny ,cardpool and raise to try to neutralise some of the fall in our currency. Anyone have good/bad experiences with buying discounted gift cards.
I started at Costco and have moved to raise.com. Both of these have worked well.
I saw a $1,000 Hyatt card at $850 so that would save about $215 AUD.
You have to buy these cards in the US it seems which I can do and have done with raise and Costco.
Your thoughts?

I'm here for the next few days - want me to pickup anything for you?

 

[cove]

Thanks Flashback....I can fix the purchases within a day of arriving. I have Flemings , Jerrys and McCormick and Schmick's in a drawer.
I have Coles and Woolies ones down here in Oz but they are only 5%.
The US ones can run upwards of 20% in some cases.

 

[Buzzard]

Wish i had hoarded USD when the Aussie was riding above par.

I jokingly said to +1 when the dollar broke parity that we should all now convert to USD and just do away with Australian currency.

 

[cove]

I have staff heading for a trade show where the Hyatt is the key conference hotel in California so I will get the Hyatt gift cards to reduce that cost by 15%.

 

[serfty]

I was looking at those Hyatt card for a trip to Japan (Easter weekend, hotel prices are UP there), but turns out they are valid in USA (N/A?) only.

Anyhoo I ended up buying 24K points with an August Hyatt 30% bonus promo - cost AU$660 for 3 night award booking to replace the $1100 (in ¥) booking that I had.

Fortunately, I purchased 10 days ago.

 

[PLANT]

So anyone know the onsite van cost at Bonnie Doon?
Cause this gold coin is going to the pool room..... Tell them yanks their dreaming!!!!

 

[bryanjones]

As I said, it's really only useful if (a) you're travelling to the USA, or (b) you really, really need the money.

If it is just going to sit there, it really isn't worth a lot.

Since the greenbacks were versatile, even when the AUD was doing better than it, the folks bought lots of it at the time. But it's not an immediately useful instrument (although much more immediate than shares or gold bullion, admittedly).

I'm in a funny similar dilemma owning CHF. Fairly versatile currency right now - do I retain the CHF and maintain its relative versatility (even if it weakens against other crossrates, it's bound to still be better than at least before the unpegging) or do I convert lots of it to AUD and make a "windfall" but otherwise end up with a currency that is relatively weak and I don't necessarily have an immediate use for?

Likewise. The CHF to AUD is up about 25% in the year, with a big factor also being the CHF/EUR unpegging. I converted some in April but obviously would have loved to be converting at today's rate.

But I spend most of my money in CHF, so its a dilemma to balance short term and long term plans and where you want your nest egg to grow.

 

[anat0l]

Likewise. The CHF to AUD is up about 25% in the year, with a big factor also being the CHF/EUR unpegging. I converted some in April but obviously would have loved to be converting at today's rate.

But I spend most of my money in CHF, so its a dilemma to balance short term and long term plans and where you want your nest egg to grow.

This brings up another interesting "dilemma".

Let's say I lose my Swiss residence status. This would mean I'd cash out my social security, withdraw all my money from my Swiss bank accounts and leave the country.

Putting aside the inherent difficulties of transporting 10,000 units of cash or more in and out of given countries, would it be better for me to maintain versatility by carrying CHF cash back to Australia, or simply exchanging the lot into AUD? The assumption is, of course, there's quite a bit of conversion loss to be had if I bring CHF cash to Australia in order to be converted to AUD, versus using online services which I have available whilst I still have Swiss bank accounts. Whilst I know that the cheapest currency conversion merchants make at least 4% when buying foreign currency using AUD, I don't know what those margins are like when selling foreign currency for AUD.

 

[drsmithy]

This brings up another interesting "dilemma".

Let's say I lose my Swiss residence status. This would mean I'd cash out my social security, withdraw all my money from my Swiss bank accounts and leave the country.

Why wouldn't you leave your accounts open and your money there, pull it across as you need it or use your Swiss credit cards to buy stuff locally ?

 

[cove]

No need to rush out of a strong currency into a weak currency in the short term. You need money in the country you choose to live in. We split our living between 3 countries so we have bank accounts in each of those 3 countries.
I think I missed the time cut to become a Swiss citizen. My grandfather was from Zurich and we have relatives in Switzerland.