Stupid Australian $

[AllHailBlackout]

Hey with all this chatter about global economies and currency conversion rates, anyone here an economics expert? I don't know too much about it so I don't get too involved. My simple equation is - wait for stability NOT try to buy in times of volatility if I'm looking for a sharp change in exchange rates. Better yet, wait for the odd sale in K-mart. lol

[griffin]

Paypal rate are not as per "official" exchange rates, they are 2 cents lower.. Ive learned that when I paid for certain stuff and checked on the Am shows for the rate. They always have 2 cents lower for some sh*tty reason.

No currency exchange medium will use the official rate, or else how are they to make any money for their service. Some charge a fee, but all would charge a few percent in their favour to make sure they cover any immediate rate changes.

It's just up to the consumer to shop around for the best conversion rate, if you have a choice.

[dirge]

The "official" rate which you'll find on websites/TV news, etc, will usually represent the midpoint of the buy/sell rates. If you were to head to a bureau-de-change and look at these two rates, the market rate quoted by a website will be more or less in between them.

The reasons that the rates aren't the same:

1) Profit (obviously).

2) In the case of cash traders, to cover _themselves_ against the fact the rates can move against them by the time they get that cash exchanged into their local currency/bank account. Which is why you'll usually find Visa/Telegraphic Transfer rates are closer to the market rate than the cash rate - because they don't need to worry about that extra premium since there isn't the lag in getting the cash out of their hands while the market keeps moving around. The Visa/TT transactions see your bank or PayPal (or whoever) dip into the market in real time to buy the currency electronically.

[kup]

Watchout, the Australian Dollar has dropped dramatically in just a couple of days. from .92 it is now .88 and falling

[5FDP]

Glad I made my last Ebay purchase for the year a couple of days ago. It's a shame Animated Arcee isn't up for pre-order yet... it could get quite expensive and scalpers will be taking advantage of the low Aussie dollar.

[mknell]

Glad I made my last Ebay purchase for the year a couple of days ago. It's a shame Animated Arcee isn't up for pre-order yet... it could get quite expensive and scalpers will be taking advantage of the low Aussie dollar.

Looks like they already are

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Transformers-...item33587bf557