2

As stated in the question. If i buy small amounts of Pounds consistently on a monthly basis, could that be considered a good way of saving with the obvious goal of ending up with more than what i spent?

1
  • No, the fees will kill you. You can do nothing with foreign currencies until you are talking 10s of thousands of bucks. (You don't mention where you're from so it's hard to be specific BTW.)
    – Fattie
    Jun 11, 2016 at 21:16

4 Answers 4

7

Maybe. It depends on the currency you are using to buy the GBPs.

If you are buying them with Venezuelan Bolivars, then it will likely be an outstanding investment. If you are using USDs or Swiss francs, maybe not. What you are really doing is simply speculating on the future change in value between the GBP and your other currency.

1
  • Google exchanging hard / soft currencies and hyperinflation if you want to understand the principals that make RaskaRuby's answer work.
    – emican
    Jun 11, 2016 at 23:04
1

No. Unless you plan on using the pounds for a trip of some sort in the future, there is likely to be a fee attached to the currency conversion that will at least mitigate and appreciation you see against your home currency.

If you just put the money in a savings account you could at least earn some interest.

1

There are two exchange rates: The rate for buying (for example) British pound, that is how much you have to pay for one pound, and the rate for selling, that is how much you will get in return for one pound.

There is usually a huge difference. For example, today I would get €1.22 for one British pound, but I would have to pay €1.36 to get that one British pound back. Which means I need to make a lot of gains before I draw even.

Now if your own currency has high inflation, then you might get more of your own currency back. But that happens because your currency has lost value.

0

If you are saving for a property, plant, or equipment acquisition for a new business venture in London, I could not advise against averaging the exchange rate. It is possible to end up with more or mitigate a loss than if you were to make the purchase in one transaction at a single point in time.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .