How far down will the Euro go???

[Thunder]

Will it hit $1.20??

$1.10?

Will it hit 1:1 with the US Dollar..or lower?

I am going to Europe in July, and I wanna buy at least $500 worth of Euros before I go. Just don't know when to do it...as this thing may just keep crashing.

[Michael Redman]

Why buy Euros before you go? I hear they have them in Europe. All over the place.

[Thunder]

Why buy Euros before you go? I hear they have them in Europe. All over the place.

do you think I will get a better exchnage rate over there?

Chase is offering me $1.30 for today. Im sure it will be lower tomorrow.

[Tatyana]

It would probably be cheaper to get Euros in the post office.

I hope it goes down as well, I am going to Italy in July for two weeks (yah, we still have pounds sterling).

[GreyArea]

do you think I will get a better exchnage rate over there?

Thunder, would you consider using ATM's in Europe? If your ATM card here in the States uses the same interbank network as a cashpoint abroad, you can still access your money. Look for matching logos like PLUS and Cirrus (for example).

Consider the fees, of course, but you might be able to avoid pegging your exchange rate to what it was on a single day before your vacation. Take out what you need every couple of days, and the exchange rate changes might give you an advantage over the course of your trip.

This has worked for me. What do other people think?

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I never try to guess where the exchange rate is going. I show up and use an ATM.

[GlennB]

I never try to guess where the exchange rate is going. I show up and use an ATM.

Unless your strategy runs *very* deep this would be my advice. If the margin of buying currency at home vs. using the ATM abroad is a major factor then stay at home. Travelling is too difficult for you.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Unless your strategy runs *very* deep this would be my advice. If the margin of buying currency at home vs. using the ATM abroad is a major factor then stay at home. Travelling is too difficult for you.

Not to mention, if you could successfully predict currency movements on an ongoing basis, you should probably be investing in currencies instead of spending them!

[Thunder]

i will pay an extra fee if i take out money in Europe. same if I use a CC. i will find out how much the fee is.

more importantly, its 5:26 in NYC, and the value of the Euro keeps changing. when does the trading start and stop?

[TraneWreck]

I just use ATM's when I'm over there. I guess if you're gambling on the rate going up it's good to buy ahead of time, but if it's relatively stable or dropping, you might as well take advantage.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

i will pay an extra fee if i take out money in Europe. same if I use a CC. i will find out how much the fee is.

But you'll only pay the fee once, twice max.

[Michael Redman]

My bank give me a couple of out of network ATM withdrawls a month for free. I don't need them at home, but we use them when traveling. I really don't want to carry more than $100 or $200 worth of cash on me, as I always worry I'll lose it somewhere (although I never have).

I usually start out with about $100 in US currency, hit an ATM upon arrival, use credit cards often, try not to worry about the exchange rate, and have a good time.

[Marduk]

How far down is the sewer ?
;)

[Foolmewunz]

i will pay an extra fee if i take out money in Europe. same if I use a CC. i will find out how much the fee is.

more importantly, its 5:26 in NYC, and the value of the Euro keeps changing. when does the trading start and stop?

It's more a question of when trading starts. There was a slight recovery at the end of the EuroDay, but that, like the stock market, could be traders taking their short-term gains. If the RoTW thinks it's over-valued, the opening in the morning will tell.

If you have massive amounts of dollars to exchange, just do it before roughly June 1. There's a traditional bump in the Euro exchange rate then because all the northern hemisphere vacationers, students, etc... are hitting the continent. But the difference between 1.21 and 1.11 is only really of significant worry if you plan to be trading, say, over 2 or 3 thousand US. It'd equal the equivalent of a good meal in a Paris restaurant (or a cup of coffee in Lac Luzerne).

Meh? I'd wait. But that's just a hunch, as I think the Euro was far over-valued for a few years - sort of natural when you invent a new currency and have to find a highest common denominator for all countries.

But I'm the guy who also predicted gold would crash last year, so take that with a very large grain of salt.

[timhau]

Chase is offering me $1.30 for today. Im sure it will be lower tomorrow.

That amounts to €0.77 for every dollar, which is not a very good rate (especially if they slap service charges on that). Forex (http://www.forex.fi/en/), an exchange bureau that has offices in all Nordic countries except Iceland, gives you €0.79 (and that's without further expenses). You might want to see if your destination country has exchange bureaus like this.

[timhau]

Meh? I'd wait. But that's just a hunch, as I think the Euro was far over-valued for a few years

That's my impression too. And let's not forget -- even though the euro has come down from $1.50 to the current $1.23 in just under six months, it's still not cheap by any historical standards. It was under $0.90 when the dot-com bubble burst, and well under $1.00 when it started to circulate as cash money in 2002.

But I'm the guy who also predicted gold would crash last year, so take that with a very large grain of salt.

I'm with you there too; I can't predict the timing, but a time will come when everyone who wants gold, already has gold. It's a speculative instrument anyway, so bubble-formation is sort of natural.

[Tanja]

I usually just use ATMs in countries I am travelling to, as I am much more worried about carrying large quantities of cash on me than about losing £2 at a time on withdrawal fees.

[Foolmewunz]

I should amend what I said above... "... when trading starts...". That should've read "when trading starts in Europe". There are two drivers to the Euro right now. The first is the general malaise and the loss of confidence. That's a powerful downwards trend, what with bank failures, no sign of real recovery, the wrath of His Noodliness setting off volcanoes and shutting down airports, etc....
The upwards push, though is that there are all sorts of institutions out there trying to make about a trillion Euros available for The Great Bailout of 2010. That's a lot of Euros. Anyone heading to any institutionalized borrowing of same is going to drive the exchange rate up. This is the only thing holding the Euro above 1.10 to 1.12 in my opinion.
Combining those two factors, you have the programmed trading with certain narrow bands. Over the past few hours it almost looks as though one of the big banks or trading companies has programmed in a sell at 1.222. It's inched up to that level a few times, only to drop below the 1.21 mark again. That could just be profit makers/speculators, but it could also be one of the big banks dumping Euros to keep it lower because they need to borrow a whole lot of them in an hour or so when Zurich, Amsterdam, and London open.

[DC]

do you think I will get a better exchnage rate over there?

Chase is offering me $1.30 for today. Im sure it will be lower tomorrow.

sure, normally thats always the case.