So i'm off to New York in November with a few friends and wondered when would be the best time to buy some $ and where is the best place. I guess this is quite a small amount but between us we're probably going to need around £3000 so the best rate and any savings would be handy. Have I missed the peak? should I wait or just go for it now?

Thanks for any advice

Go for it now, Pound is weakening against the dollar slightly now

Have a great trip!!!

NOW!! BUY BUY BUY USD ---- its up from here for the dollar lock it in now because tommorow the rate will have moved....

do it now,sterling is good to go south

I'm off to the US in November too and I advise you to BUY NOW!

M&S is usually the cheapest place in town, don't go anywhere near the rip off travel agents/post office.

I've no idea where the exchange rate is going (this could be a temporary blip) but my website earns $'s so I'm well chuffed at it's reversal of fortune against the £ .

DYOR etc.

So I checked with M&S and the post office has a better rate than them, I found that www.travelex.co.uk was the best price but you can only pick that up in store or at an airport. I thought that would be ok but you can only order your currency 60 days before you travel which is no good.

Any ideas?

Is todays price a mere blip or is it on its way down for good?

So got my currency from travelex and got just under 1.82, not awful so I have reserved it for pickup at no extra cost (up to 60 days before traveling). Now here's a trick, you can reserve the money and cancel it 24hrs before pick up and you only have to pay £10 cancellation fee, so you're able to effectively reserve the money at the current rate, if it goes up, cancel and re-order it, if not then just stick with the rate you got whilst everybody walks round with a frown as they only got 1.65

This is only worth it if you have enough currency to get and there's a maximum limit of £2500 for each person but it's a good method to insure yourself against future fluctuations


£2500 x 1.82 = $4550

£2500 x 1.65 = $4125


4550
-4125
=$425 saving

*Make sure to double check the T&Cs before doing this.

I'm off to Japan in October and panic bought my Yen yesterday. I went to M&S, as I just wanted to get the currency ASAP. My holiday went up in price by £40 overnight!

I would think this is a classic sign of "buy on rumour, sell on fact". The market is pricing in interest rate cuts. But when they happen the currency probably won't move much.

Whether any of us will be able to afford a holiday outside of our island in 12 months time though is another matter...

One warning about using any website for purchasing currency. Even though you're making a transaction in sterling, your card provider may charge you a foreign currency charge. I bought some euros from Travelex on my debit card, and was rather annoyed to find this currency charge. It's a Visa charge rather than my bank's charge, and I'm going to complain about it - as far as they should be concerned, I'm making a transaction, within the UK, to a UK company, and asking Visa to settle a payment in sterling, so I can't see why I should have to pay this fee.