Well you all seem to be the authority on Europe. I am not! I am traveling to Germany in September. I am watching the Euro fall daily. This is good for what my dollar is worth. Correct? I was thinking of purchasing some Euros now from Wells Fargo now and sort of dollar cost average each month until September. Buy $500 now, $500 in June and so on. Does this make sense? I found an exchange desk that will charge me a flat rate for transactions up to $1000. Is this a good deal? Thanks for your help & ideas.
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
Usually, buying euros here is a bad deal compared to the rates you get from an ATM once you get there. The falling euro makes this a tempting strategy but it usually doesn't come out to be an advantage in the end once you factor in the fees you pay to get them. The exchange place may charge a flat fee, but their exchange rates probably aren't the best, either. And I would be very hesitant about carrying so much cash, as James said.
Posted by
Breckenridge, CO
239 posts
I would just wait until you arrive. Even if the Euro goes up, which it is not forecast to do (a lot of experts are predicting 1.15 by year end), I wouldn't want to be carrying all that money, plus by the time you add in fees, you will probably pay more!
Posted by
Myrtle Beach, USA
12314 posts
I would wait until you arrive primarily because it's easiest and rarely worth it to purchase cash ahead of time.
I would also wait because chances are good the Euro will drop some more before September. News about Portugal and Spain hasn't really broken yet. When it does, the Euro will take a fresh hit - possibly bigger than the hit from Greece. Day to day exchange might go up or down a bit but the near term trend for the Euro doesn't look positive.
In the longer term, when Greece turns out not to be living up to Europe's all but impossible austerity demands, there may be another round of shaken confidence in the currency. Alternatively, Merkel could be voted out of power by Germans who are fed up with bailing out others (sort of a European tea party) and create an international sell off of Euro.
Or, of course, the opposite could happen and the dollar could drop like a rock - but that's probably not how the institutions are betting today.