I would like to put some savings into $US as all the talk is of the Aussie dropping further.
I know this had come up before and CitBanks Multi Currency account http://www.citibank.com.au/aus/investments/multi_currency_ac… gets a mention or two but it has the drawback of minimum amount of $10,000.
What is the easiest way to flip between the $AU and $US for the least fees?
Simplest & Cheapest Account to Hold $US + $AU and Change between them?
King Tightarse on 15/03/2015 - 16:58
Last edited 15/03/2015 - 16:58
Last edited 15/03/2015 - 16:58
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I had a quick look at Forex but have 0% experience with it. Would be interested to hear from anyone that knows.
Just some thoughts, please do your research to verify.
Regarding Forex. You could look at Igmarkets.com.au to transfer Aud between your different currency accounts to Usd or others. Live data: http://www.ig.com/pricestream/outside/getMarketList?webSiteI…
This whole process will cost you I think their fx rates x 2 round trip, or maybe < 1/2000 of value as a guess, as opposed to buying and holding cash though cba/travelex ect. which may cost you 1/10 round trip (10%) from memory.Ongoing cost should be nil, and in/out transfers by bpay or debtcard(mc) costs nil. So you would just lose bank interest.
The interesting thing in theory, is if you made a small deposit from your usd hsbc (or citi) oz-based account to your usd igmarket account, then most of your funds in aud to your aud igmarket account. Transfer all funds within Igmarkets to your Usd account,then request All funds be returned to your USD Hsbc account. Your local usd funds could then be held, withdrawn very cheaply in cash, or sent to your us-based hsbc I believe free, and you might have saved an enormous lot in sending large funds overseas.
Should work with Eu/Gbp & maybe other currencies.If this idea got Ozbargained, I think Igm would close the feature quickly.
Also for fx you might look at Oanda and CMC.
Have also been thinking the same. There is an ETF on the ASX:USD by BetaShares, you need to buy this through a stockbroker and its meant to increase in price as the AUD falls against the USD.
I sometimes put on a tinfoil hat and think maybe cold hard cash is the best way, and then keep it in a non-bank safe deposit box with some gold and other items.
Assuming that you don't expect to earn interest on the savings you convert to US$ while you're waiting for the AUS$ to drop more against the greenback (it's already pretty low hombre; do you really think it will go much lower in a short enough time to make it worth your while?), then wouldn't your best 'bet' be simply converting it to cash (US bank-notes)?
I'm extremely UNknowledgable in this area, so there may well be some reason why this is is actually dud advice… I'm just throwin' it out there, cause isn't a cash conversion usually done at pretty close to the actual exchange rate? As opposed to various types of "E-transactions" (including Paypal etc.), where they seem to automatically jag you by at least a couple of percent above-and-beyond the actual exchange rate.
Paypal is the worst for this; they seem to under-'estimate' (calculate) the Aus$:US$ rate by more than 2% when converting my money from Aus$ to US$, but on the same day they'll calculate a conversion from US$ to Aus$ at a totally different conversion rate; 'coincidentally', again about 2% off the actual conversion rate, but again in their favour (i.e. they swing the rate the other way). I rang them about it once, and they (very politely, at least) informed me that they were allowed to do it, citing some crap about safeguarding themselves against minor fluctuations in the value of the respective currencies. I'm not sure if this is true or absolute BS, from that day I simply stopped using them for anything substantial … anyways, maybe consider "converting to cash", to avoid any substantial fees?
I would step carefully. Nobody KNOWS where currencies are going. I have been trying to track it for 12 years, and it jumps about a lot & the experts are correct about half of the time from my experience :)
If you can find a way to do it cheap - i.e.; minimal fees, minimal transaction costs, then sure, have a gamble on the trend continuing and you getting out in time before it bucks back up.
In the mean time I live in USA and Aus, so have accounts in each place, I keep a bit in each, but mostly to facilitate buying cools stuff and shipping it over. I could offer my bank account to hold your money…but I am a stranger, so don't advise that ;)
"the experts are correct about half of the time"
Statistically pretty easy to do.I noticed many finance experts make big prediction after the fact.
Personally I think like many others do, longterm AUD likely will drop to 50c Usd maybe 10-20 years though. And RBA interest rates on upward trend 80% chance in next 1-2 years. House prices set for steady upward trend longterm as they're at or maybe below 100+ year trend as of 2013-2014.
That's my best guess.
Better than the Citibank account is one offered by Arab Bank or HSBC. No minimum amount of $10,000.
Perhaps a FOREX trading account? But I have never done that. Perhaps someone else can clarify.