No Aussie Dollar Threads?
 

They are talking about 65cents to the USD by the end of the year. Have to say I had kind of started to accept the prospect and reality of the USD more or less equal to the Aussie. Very welcome drop from my point of view :thumbsup

the 1% internest rate cut we just got is going to help us see 60's very soon

I agree Chief. I remember when it was around 50 cents to the USD about 7 or more years ago. It's a relief to see it coming down again! :)

I wouldn't be surprised at the rate it is sliding. Didn't expect we'd see this territory anytime soon.

The only constant in life .... is change!

Remember that to, hope to see it again soon;)

Likewise. With the Aussie dollar falling, interest rates dropping and housing prices on the slide. The property market might start looking interesting again on the east coast.

Won't it shoot back up once they finally bailout the banks?

Nice to see the current rate though...

Back in 2001 I was cashing cheques at 0.55 and filling petrol up at .88 a liter. At least with the AUD heading south again, currently 0.72, it's sort of getting back to the old days. :)

-N

No need for a bank bailout in Aussie they are doing fine.

I think that with the 1% cut the banks will keep .5% of it and cry poor.

Manna from heaven.. After working so close to the bone at 98 man it's nice to see 69....

the further down the better!

what do you guys reckon about the property prices?? you reckon they gonna come down too?

so 1 USD is 1.37 aussie dollars. hmmm

Nah I meant the US bailout..

canadian conversion is looking better everyday too

All moot until the Euro drops big time...

congrats :)

I fucking love it. Put in a fortnight payment cheque for a small program of US$1188 today, and got A$1625 in my account.

Happy days :)

I'm loving the drop too. $1000 USD = $1300 as of last night.

Good for Australia Tourism too.

I'm too busy counting my money to post about it. http://www.xe.com/ has it sitting at 72 cents as I type.

I have a multi currency account so I deposit "in USD" and then choose when to convert from USD to AUD. Haven't got much USD balance at the moment otherwise I'd be shifting a fair amount. :D I watched the dollar briefly touch 0.70 this afternoon.

I just had a few usd cheques show up late here today, so plan to dash of to the bank tomorrow as fast as my legs can carry me. :)

-N

Slightley off topic...

Does any one know of a bank in Oz where I can join online? I know there is the 100 point system.

For those who don't know yes I am an Aussie but have been living over seas for 15 yeas.

Rob, non that I know of. I think you have to go to the bank yourself to get an account.

Thanks for the input mate I appreciate it :thumbsup

Most of our banks are in the dark ages along with everything else when it comes to teh interwebs.

-N

Who's that with Rowan? I didn't know you could do that. Smart move.

I just get mine converted to AUS$ at Westpac when I have 3 or 4 cheques to put in, and the time looks good.

www.anz.com I bank with these guys (really good) I signed up online but did have to go into local branch to confirm ID.

Not sure if you can possibly mail info in might be worth looking into mate.

I think the market is still to volatile for any sort of change at present banks are getting wary of lending due to credit crunch and house building levels (least in QLD) have dropped I would be thinking more towards early next year possibly later.

nice to have some nice news! paid my tax at 96c.. and converted it for free at 72.. cant complain about that!

I was going to post a thread, but I've been masturbating far too much to this page:

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Am...rom=AUD&To=USD

The issues in the US are only part of why the Aussie dollar is slipping against the US. The Australian dollar is a commodity currency. Commodities go down - the Aussie dollar goes down. Gold's dropped something like 200 bucks per ounce and Oil's gone from nearly $150/barrel to about $90 last time I bothered to check.

Add to that the lowering of interest rates recently coupled with a rate drop due any day, which will makes Australia a less tempting market to invest in, which in turn will weaken the Australian currency. Which will probably help Australia because our exports are cheaper to buy and that's where Australia really makes its bank.

That's my understanding, at least.

I used to be a loyal Westpac customer until they decided to no longer clear my cheques on the spot, which they had been doing for around 5 years previously. There was no good reason - no bounce, or overdraw, or any financial issues - other than "we don't normally do that." They have $450k in (my) property security but I guess advancing me $5k worth of funds with a near spotless past record is too much. :)

I remember CBA used to put a hold on foreign cheque funds for 28 days, but depositing a new cheque often cleared any existing holds. :winkwink: I often deposited them on sequential days to exploit this loophole. :winkwink:

Anyway, enough ranting, to answer your question - HSBC. http://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/...multi-currency

BTW, with HSBC please be aware there are a lot of fees and charges... the PDS listing fees is something like 40 pages long (!!!!). The relevant fees/requirements are:

1. Incoming wire in USD costs 1% of the amount with a minimum charge of $AUD10. This isn't as bad as it sounds because their T/T rates are better than say, Westpac.
2. There is an additional incoming wire fee of $AUD10 (ie: a wire up to about $USD700 will cost $AUD20, then the fee goes upwards from there)
3. Foreign cheque deposits cost 0.25% of the amount with a minimum charge of $AUD10 - 2-3 day negotiation under $AUD500, 4-6 week collection above
4. $2.50 account keeping fee per account per month (eg $5 for USD and AUD)
5. 3 withdrawals and 3 deposits free per month, after that it's $1.50 per transaction. I'm still not 100% sure whether transferring between the AUD and USD accounts is considered a deposit/withdrawal 'cos I don't seem to have been charged any excess transaction fees for September.
6. Minimum deposit to open the USD subaccount is $USD4,000. Minimum deposit to open the AUD subaccount is $AUD10,000. You don't need to maintain these balances, just present at least that amount when you open the account.
7. Being able to actually use the account online may take a couple of weeks, because they send you a PIN and a keychain security device separately.

Hope this helps you or someone else considering this product.

NAB are best for US$ cheques. .instant clearing for me for years, and only a small fee for the checks. I have a US$ account as well with them, and that has no fees to deposit cheques

Thanks mate I looked into it a bit and I think I saw a 3% Fee for international transactions which is not good and also a 3% fee for international ATM withdrawls or $5 per withdrawal. I will have to look around.

Is a conversion to AUD considered a wire? When I looked into a foreign currency account with Westpac it was basically a separate (and somewhat arcane) entity, with transfers into a normal Westpac savings acount effectively being an international telegraphic transfer. I think it was $50 to wire and $8 to receive.

I hear Bush has asked for a Visa to come to the big island. Something about an office opening.


:)

Fuck me 66.78 cents! Scary how quick it's dropping...

64.5 now! Might get to 60 before the nights out

Yeah for many years Japanese investors (as an example) have been borrowing cheap Yen 0.5% and investing in a basket of high yielding currencies, including the AUD and NZD. They've been making a pretty penny taking our interest rates. Now however as interest rates come down and things look dicey, they're all trying to repatriate their funds back to Japan. This trade (the carry trade) has been built up over probably the last 5 years so when everybody tries to exit it over such a short time frame the results can get pretty volatile!

This is ridiculous.

Converting Euros at the current rate of 0.48 to Aussie dollars is a license to print money. :)

-N

Does anyone here have a USD credit card? By the time you factor in the shocking conversion rate (I don't mean the value of the Aussie dollar, rather the difference between a typical bank exchange rate and Visa or Mastercard's cash rate) and add international currency conversion and cross border fees you're looking at something like a 5-6% hit. I asked HSBC but they said it was unlikely, unless I was able to travel to the US to open the account.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u.../tsAUDUSDX.png

0.6749 USD

VERY interesting Op-Ed in the International Herald-Trib....

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/.../edbowring.php

"Now it is back to the realization that an economically crippled United States is good for almost no one, not even a China that would like to supplant it in influence in Asia. For all its recent success and demonstrations of power, its Olympics and space triumphs, China remains a developing country that has little technology of its own, limited capacity to lead, and is often viewed as having long-term ambitions to restore the hegemony that it once exercised over its neighbors.

Most of Asia has bought into the U.S.-led, trade- and investment-based globalization that has brought prosperity to so many in East Asia, and more recently has become the basis for raised expectations in South Asia. Asia cannot afford for that process to be reversed by the West. Hence, Asia must look beyond the financial mess to the bigger problem of its impact on the U.S. economy and its potential threat to trade. This is no time for making the U.S. feel unloved.

It is time for wondering how a U.S. facing huge fiscal problems can be persuaded not to further reduce its military presence in the region, which would increase the chances of a China-Japan arms race, and perhaps lesser races elsewhere in Asia."

1 aud = 0.719675 usd

Convert your USD now while you can. The sky is falling!