Stupid Australian $

[Sky Shadow]

Hell, even Zimbabwe is probably doing better than us...

I laughed when I read that. But then again... in July an Australian Dollar would have bought you $27,947 Zimbabwe. And today $1 AU = $177 Zimbabwe.

So in three months we're at 76% of where we were compared to the US$. And Zimbabwe have had something like a 23,886% improvement.

Sigh.

[griffin]

Ah, but about a month ago, Zimbabwe re-pegged their currency by cutting off 2 or 3 zeros, which makes it look like a huge improvement, when infact it is still fairly flat.

[jaydisc]

Thanks for the tip will have to have a look at it next time I make a payment on paypal

However isn't there a fee that is paid for a non AUD transaction on a credit card?

Every bank charges for currency conversion. There are just different ways in which you see this charge. NAB used to separate it out on the statement. Bendigo just silently tacks on 2%. Not really silent, it's disclosed in the product disclosure statement, it's just not itemized on your bill.

When I had a NAB savings account and went to a USA ATM, they'd gouge me with a straight AUD 4 Overseas ATM usage fee. But I've not seen any flat fee like that for an overseas/foreign currency credit card transaction.

I find this fee is easy to factor in to the conversions you get from RK or somewhere else. Just add 2%. The converter I use as an option to do that (in the pulldown called interbank rate + 2%) which is why I use it. Of course, it's easy to multiple by 1.02 anyway.

Never do your estimate based on a straight conversion rate you see at xe.com or elsewhere. You have to factor in the bank's cut.

[Sky Shadow]

Ah, but about a month ago, Zimbabwe re-pegged their currency by cutting off 2 or 3 zeros, which makes it look like a huge improvement, when infact it is still fairly flat.

Okay, that makes more sense. It looks like they cut off about ten zeroes... the former Zimbabwean $10 billion seems to now be worth ZW$1.

[dirge]

Okay, that makes more sense. It looks like they cut off about ten zeroes... the former Zimbabwean $10 billion seems to now be worth ZW$1.

Yes, 10 zeros. Not that it'll help much - inflation there is still running at about 200 _million_ percent...

[Pulse]

That may be so, but how many countries can lay claim to having a 10 million dollar note?

[GoktimusPrime]

Beats carrying a "wheelbarrow of pesos" as my economics teacher used to say.

[JuzMel]

Been reading AU Yahoo finance everyday to see which day the AUD is better so I can pay for my Henkei seekers and what I read today is "SO NOT GOOD".

Mr Carr said the Australian dollar was likely to trade between $US0.6500 and 0.7000 for the rest of 2008, before dropping to $US0.6000 by the middle of 2009.

Source Here

This means "paying lots more" for RK orders from now on.

[STL]

You never know really, Mel. The fact is, we were predicted to trade at the lower end of 70c over a year ago but that never happened either until this unprecedented crash. There really are just too many variables out there and no one knows for sure.

[DigDug]

I got gipped with the drop in the international exchange buying the Henkei Thundercracker and Skywarp and I still have yet to pay for city commander but the memory of 50c value in USD is still too fresh...

Buying in USD seems really expensive now but things could get a lot worse!