[Tia Maria]

I have to apologise to all those trying to bring money over at the moment, but I think the rate is so bad as it knows I want to bring some money over.

The last time it was this bad was about a year ago when we had to bring our money over for our house purchase.

Some might say that it has something to do with the time of the year being the same or other market forces, but I know otherwise .... so sorry about that! :(

Cheers

Tia

[jen]

:laugh :laugh

It's not just you, Tia - yesterday the NZ dollar was at a 23 month high against the US dollar which I know for a fact is because we have to move money over to buy our house!

Jen

[willsken]

Same here. We have to bring some over in the next mont or so and I am praying it gets a little better. I check every hour to see what it's doing and there's not much good news. :wah

[zardell]

Same here. We have to bring some over in the next mont or so and I am praying it gets a little better. I check every hour to see what it's doing and there's not much good news. :wah



Hey Nic, do you remeber the last time (back in the UK) when we were checking it every hour ??

When it got to $3.06 what a double edged sword that was, 'cos neither of us were ready to make the move to NZ !!

Doesn't look like our luck is changing any does it ??

But never mind - it's only money..........:wah

(Personally, I think that Mr.C.Irons has a lot to answer for......you reading this Steve ??.......:laugh )

Julie

xx

[Kim39]

When we came over in Nov 05 we got $2.43, we actually lost 21k with this rate.:wah :mad:

Kim

[willsken]

Hey Nic, do you remeber the last time (back in the UK) when we were checking it every hour ??

When it got to $3.06 what a double edged sword that was, 'cos neither of us were ready to make the move to NZ !!

Julie

xx

It was an exciting time though wasn't it?!! :yes Now I think I would get excited if it hits 2.8 :wah

[Pip]

ah-ha! - so you're to blame... I had been wondering..:laugh

yep, just about to buy a house, so have just bit the bullet and moved over all our money for the house and tried not to think about the extra $20,000 I would have got a couple of months ago.. (sob)

of course, you should now thank me, as owing to my cold feet when it got to 2.7, I fixed a rate with HIFX for the whole amount as if it carried on falling, we might not have enough money for the house purchase - ergo, the rate will now improve - Murphys law right!

[pinkpiggy]

I don't think the rate is going to improve in the near future. When we were at the Expo in Edinburgh we had a long chat to the Hifx money broker who said that he really couldn't see it improving. In fact quite the opposite. He seemed to think it may rise slightly for a very short time but that it may go as low as $2.40 again. He even suggested that interest rates in NZ may be raised again.

[Nettie]

:wah This is one of my major last things to do on long long list before we fly on 23rd. Not sure of best way to go with it either. Have read a few threads on it and I'm still panicking! It's such a big thing and we are coming with less than we'd hoped originally so the rate really really matters as you all know! Oh well, no good fretting is there, still a few days to wait and hope....:(

[marcia]

We had to move money over to buy our house,last week, and the rate was the lowest it has been since we arrived, we got 2.73, when we arrived in Nov we had got 2.85 on the money we sent across for set up fees.

The money had to be moved for the house so we had to accept the rate we were offered last week. At the end of the day you have to make a decision, and nobody has a crystal ball so you take a chance if it continues to drop you think we made the right choice but if it goes up you start kicking yourself - TOUGH CALL!

[Trigirl]

once you've moved your money STOP LOOKING AT THE RATE. you can't do anything about it afterwards and you'll only get annoyed if it goes back up.

[barryp]

Yup. Also, stop looking at comparable house prices once you've sold yours, prices of shares you've sold, etc. Very important and widely applicable financial truth: "All historical expenses are irrelevant."

[zardell]

once you've moved your money STOP LOOKING AT THE RATE. you can't do anything about it afterwards and you'll only get annoyed if it goes back up.



How true is that.

Got quite a bit to move over yet though, so I think I'll keep my eye on the rates for a while yet.

Julie

xx

[Sarah & Alex]

Waiting on the exchange rate - know the feeling well.

For what it's worth, the exchange rate is being propped up by some of the the highest interest rates in the OECD. Money people borrow in Japanese Yen where interest rates are 0.5% and invest it in NZ where we are 7.5%. Bit of a no brainer at the moment. :laugh

It will get better, it's just a matter of when. NZ dollar is a volatile currency and when someone hits the 'sell button' it will be a case of last one out to sell is a rotton egg!

Us too are sat with money still in pounds waiting for better times to convert it. In fact, with some of our savings from working here, I am considering converting it to pounds!!!

I work for Bank of New Zealand. General commentary is interest rates may go up again at the end of April which will hurt some more. You are probably looking at at least september before things get any better exchange rate wise!

We will hang onto pounds for now and I will carry on searching for my crystal ball!

[zardell]

I work for Bank of New Zealand. General commentary is interest rates may go up again at the end of April which will hurt some more. You are probably looking at at least september before things get any better exchange rate wise!
We will hang onto pounds for now and I will carry on searching for my crystal ball!



We are seriously having to consider bringing over some £'s, so by your comments, I think we may have to do this no later than next week.

I would offer to help you look for your crystal ball, but I seem to have lost my own - along with a few thousand $'s ...........:(

Julie

xx

[Super_BQ]

If the reserve bank raises to 7.75%, expect a stronger NZ $. We may see 75 cents USD for $1NZ being the minimum. Remember the more overseas money you bring into NZ, the stronger the NZ $ will be (providing foreign imports are constant).

Quite sadly, raising the interest rate has little effect on the overal economy and the 'money supply' (M1, M2, etc). Macroeconomic indicators such as the unemployment rate are more useful in tracking the country's performance.

In times where a country experiences high unemployment with a major recession, lowering of interest rates does help. Business's have access to cheap $ for capital expansion and thus, provide more employment. Those who are lucky to have a stable job are more able to qualify for a home loan. I don't think NZ will see this for a long time....

[Pip]

We are seriously having to consider bringing over some £'s, so by your comments, I think we may have to do this no later than next week.

I would offer to help you look for your crystal ball, but I seem to have lost my own - along with a few thousand $'s ...........:(

Julie

xx


Hi Julie,

I can't help with a crystal ball, but at least now I've booked my rate, I can sleep at night and stop worrying about what the rate might be doing.. we might not have got what we would have got six weeks ago when we came out, but we got what we needed to meet our house purchase calculations.

n.b. - most people probably know this, but you can do a deal with HIFX where you buy your currency, but don't pay for it all straightaway - just a 10% deposit. This was great for me, as most of our money was on 30 day notice, so I wouldn't be able to get my hands on in for another couple of weeks, but HIFX let me book the whole amount at the exchange rate then and there, pay a 10% deposit and then I can pay them the rest when my money is available. This was great for me, or I might have spent the next two weeks having a lot of sleepless nights. If the rate goes up, I lose out, but at least if it goes down, I know that I'm o.k .. and if you're a born worrier like me..its worth considering..

best of luck with whatever you do...

[zardell]

we got what we needed to meet our house purchase calculations....



:clap And that's all that matters.

No use crying over spilt milk, as me Mam used to say........

Julie

xx