Tiermelk Posted March 22, 2016 Report Share Posted March 22, 2016 Guys, has anyone considered moving cash from ZAR to USD and later on to AUD? You can open a foreign currency account in Australia which will accept your USD which you can then hold till the AUD weakens. This is risky but maybe less risky than keeping funds in ZAR and waiting for the AUD to weaken while the ZAR is weakening at the same time. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrendanH Posted March 22, 2016 Report Share Posted March 22, 2016 Consider the commission that you will pay converting twice. Also the AUD is busy strengthening against the USD. Then again I'm probably the worst person to be taking financial advice from. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted March 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2016 24 minutes ago, BrendanH said: Consider the commission that you will pay converting twice. Also the AUD is busy strengthening against the USD. Then again I'm probably the worst person to be taking financial advice from. Yep - Considered double conversion fees. My feeling is that the AUD will pull back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 Hi @Tiermelk. We have put our money into USD. Mainly because we already had a dollar investment account and needed to move some money in a hurry and at the time there was still a chance that we would be moving to UK. I have done so many calcs on moving your money out of rands and I have come to the conclusion that it's very difficult to make any real gains when you start with rands. We have all just chosen a bad time to be liquidating but needs must 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted March 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 2 hours ago, JackoFam said: it's very difficult to make any real gains when you start with rands You telling me! I am more looking at reducing the loses... But it`s a risky move. The AUD could come down to 65c to the dollar where the RBA says they want it. But then it really seems that a stronger AUD would be better for the country as we`re not exporting much at the moment. Ugh, I don`t know. But it seems the experts does not know either... let`s just toss a coin, red or black. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 It sure is! And the way the rand fluctuates at the moment. A day or two can make a massive difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobSA Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 I think holding AUD from the start and than transferring straight into your Aus bank account is far easier. Plus late last week and even today the rate is the best is has been for months. R11.22 to R11.30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhardk Posted June 16, 2016 Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 A bit of a late reply! We have done this before and it worked well when AUD was 1.07 to the USD. Our last transfer I did this again partly as a diversification so not all in AUD, we still have these USD. It was easy to open a USD account with Commonwealth. There is a commission for USD to AUD but our first 'batch' I used exchange-for-free's platform to convert it so the commission was low, you cannot afford to do it with the banks. I am guessing all the forex agents can offer you this 'low commission' transfer. The downside is the USD earns no interest and my AUD mortgage is unforgiving so you have to factor this in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted June 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 Thanks for the reply Gerhard. Opened by ComBank USD currency account last week. Now I am just waiting for the USD to weaken, won`t say for the Rand to strengthen as that won`t happen. I you are looking for a "cheap" way to exchange currency have a look at https://www.currencyfair.com/ if you are lucky you can even get a better rate than quoted on xe.com. I`m sure when the AUD hits 0.50 to the USD your mortgage will be laughing all the way to the bank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhardk Posted June 16, 2016 Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 Thanks for that link, are they solid / trustworthy? Yes, I am going to make a plan with that mortgage, the bank suddenly started charging monthly fee and I can get 0.5% better at another bank (and get some kind of an incentive). Personally I would start looking around 14.5 and hope for 14.2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted June 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 22 minutes ago, Gerhardk said: Thanks for that link, are they solid / trustworthy? Yes, I believe so. I have not used them myself (Couldn`t get Nedbank in SA to transfer Rands to their Rand account in the UK) but I know of a few people that`s used them. They also have an Australian office. So the plan is to use them when I want to exchange the USD held in Aus. They are a peer-2-peer exchange service that`s why you can get the rates not seen elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrodoBeanbaggins Posted June 17, 2016 Report Share Posted June 17, 2016 Speaking of peer-to-peer exchange, has anyone tried or considered Bitcoin? In theory it is the most efficient way of converting currency since there are no overheads. I'm not very familiar with the ways of exchanging Bitcoin, but one way seems to be P2P (i.e. you buy an amount that someone has put up for sale at a certain rate, and then put up that amount for sale and wait for someone to buy). For small amounts this should be OK but I'm not so sure about doing it with a couple R100k... Given Bitcoin's potential volatility you'd want to exchange as quickly as possible. Of course if you'd bought Bitcoin a month or two ago you'd have a nice 20% return now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted June 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2016 Interesting idea Frodo, but is it really "free"? Or free as in exchange4free free? I have never meddled with bitcoin, I do however remember that in the early days of bitcoin a friend of mine said we should look into mining these coins, but we stupidly never got around to it. This blog post seems to indicate that there are some costs? http://blog.kraken.com/post/97016109057/what-does-it-really-cost-to-buy-and-sell-bitcoins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starbucks Posted June 17, 2016 Report Share Posted June 17, 2016 The longer you leave you money in rands , more you going to lose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrodoBeanbaggins Posted June 17, 2016 Report Share Posted June 17, 2016 Interesting article, @Tiermelk. It seems to depend a lot on the exchange. See for example this and this - depending on how you trade you can avoid fees on BitX (although I'm not sure if those two links provide the full story). If you are willing to wait for market orders to be fulfilled at your chosen rate, you can even make a profit. Or a loss... @Starbucks, too true... It's like saving for retirement, the earlier the better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhardk Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Tiermelk, 14.56 to USD, beginning to look like a good time to buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted June 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 22 minutes ago, Gerhardk said: Tiermelk, 14.56 to USD, beginning to look like a good time to buy. I`ve got my finger on the trigger as soon as they wake up in SA! Can`t see this continuing after the dust settles from Brexit, I guess there may be more weakness in the USD in the short term but I`m not going to chance it any longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberJoe Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 9 minutes ago, Tiermelk said: I`ve got my finger on the trigger as soon as they wake up in SA! @Tiermelk, you and me both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhardk Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 You guys managed to lock in good rates, I see USD on 15.57 now? Was a good day yesterday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 49 minutes ago, Gerhardk said: You guys managed to lock in good rates, I see USD on 15.57 now? Was a good day yesterday! I went in at around 14.60 and got a rate of 14.70... Too early could have gone better as it went to down to 14.30. 51.7% for Brexit at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 I also managed to buy USD yesterday at 14.65. Unfortunately only a relatively small amount as that's all I had liquid at the time but am happy I held on until yesterday. Rand is going to be very jumpy for awhile now with the bad news in UK. But then again I bet against the rand just before the last S&P ratings announcement and lost out big time. Its all such a gamble with the rand at the moment. I liken it to the rand being a tiny rowboat being tossed about in the wake of giant ships (USD and GPB) not much we can do about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavePE Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 The Rand/AUS $ was at 10.9 early yesterday and then hit 11.5 after the Brexit announcement. It has calmed down now to 11.3 but still a major blow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrodoBeanbaggins Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 2 hours ago, JackoFam said: Its all such a gamble with the rand at the moment. I liken it to the rand being a tiny rowboat being tossed about in the wake of giant ships (USD and GPB) not much we can do about it. I recently got into Bitcoin trading and like the rand, it should come with a government health warning. This sums it up pretty well: http://www.brainlesstales.com/images/misc/bitcoin-roller-coaster.gif 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 43 minutes ago, FrodoBeanbaggins said: I recently got into Bitcoin trading and like the rand, it should come with a government health warning. This sums it up pretty well: http://www.brainlesstales.com/images/misc/bitcoin-roller-coaster.gif Bitcoin seem to have tracked the gold price up... Would have been good to know what next week will bring! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Love it @FrodoBeanbaggins I feel like that on Rand roller-coaster too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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