[Glenn]

Can anyone help me with somewhere to get the best rate to exchange money before leaving the UK for NZ?

We have tried our local banks but they will only offer us a tourist rate and not the commercial rate.

We have set up an account with HIFX but can't use it until we have a NZ Bank Account

Regards

Glenn

[clg]

I assume you are just talking about small ammounts here?

It is hard to get good rates from abroad. I always use ATM's once I arrive, you get the best rates that way and it is fairly easy to do. One option would be to bring a small ammount of cash (sterling I guess in your case) that you can exchange at the airport in NZ if you need to.

We are headed to London for a wedding in a couple months and we will probably have a couple hundred US with us for an emergency but we plan on ATMs while there. Most airports have lots of them.


Chris

[Glenn]

Thanks for the reply Chris, we are looking to exchange around £3000-£5000 to get a rntal and purchase a car etc.

Regards

Glenn

[clg]

Well, you could always do lots of ATM trips :mrgreen:

Why not just open up a NZ account now? Then just wire the funds from account to account?

I checked with my current bank and I can basically call them and have them wire the funds from my US account to the NZ account at the bank rate.

There may be a difference between the US and UK but I don't need to use a third party like HIFX

[veronica]

If you are physically taking the cash with you take it in travellers cheques as they get a slightly better exchange rate to notes. the best one is to transfer it to a NZ sterling account and not change it up until you need it. the exchange rate is BAD at the moment. If you phone one of the NZ banks in London I am sure you can organise it through them. Westpac ANZ BNZ theres plenty of them and most have a branch in London.

[veronica]

If you are physically taking the cash with you take it in travellers cheques as they get a slightly better exchange rate to notes. the best one is to transfer it to a NZ sterling account and not change it up until you need it. the exchange rate is BAD at the moment. If you phone one of the NZ banks in London I am sure you can organise it through them. Westpac ANZ BNZ theres plenty of them and most have a branch in London.

[Moorf]

We are looking at going thru Forbar based in Chch (who are today offering 2.62 compared to our NZ bank sterling account (National Bank) who are offering 2.57).

Forbar are money/stockbrokers - www.forbar.co.nz

They can transfer funds within 24 hrs from UK into NZ bank account.

[karltsmith]

Hi All

brokers work on smaller margins than banks and so you can get a better deal through them! As a rule of thumb they charge 200'pips' (2 cents) on the Reuters exchange rate whereas a bank is in the order of '500 pips'. Multiply this up and it is a signifacant saving on large sums of money!

Hence Moorf was able to get a better deal via a broker! :P

A broker I talked to yesterday said that he thought the Kiwi dollar was nearing the peak of its cycle, however I have my doubts! When the reserve bank meets again I fully expect another 0.25% increment on the base rate which will only serve to strengthen the dollar further! :no

On a personal note its killing me having just bought a house! I've decided to weather the storm though and see where we are in one months time...gulp!

:hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso

[bbq]

On a personal note its killing me having just bought a house! I've decided to weather the storm though and see where we are in one months time...gulp!

:hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso

fingers crossed fror you Karl

alex

:hopeso :hopeso :hopeso

[Michelle and Richard]

Karl, I heard they are expecting 2 further .25% increases before Chrsitmas. Scary, very scary.

I hope your right about it reaching its peak.

Michelle