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I have over AU$20,000 in savings in an Australian bank account, currently earning me 1.75%.

I am now living in NZ where my savings account earns 3.75%.

In about a year I will be transferring the money to my British account.

I dont know whether I should transfer it over now or wait until the exchange rate is better. I dont really understand exchange rates enough to predict any changes or know how good it is right now.

Does the fact that I'm going to transfer it to my British account in about a year change whether I should just leave it in my Australian account? I believe the currency is usually stronger when converting Australian dollars to the Pound than when converting NZ dollars to the Pound.

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  • I'd look into what costs the conversion will have and what other options you have an AU$. Converting twice (and paying the conversion fees twice) may well cost more than you gain. Perhaps you can get that AU$20k in a better earning account that will be superior to paying the conversion fees. Otherwise, you're mostly just talking currency speculation here. If there were a consistent preference here, it would be easy to make money trading off of that.
    – Joe
    Oct 26, 2015 at 19:33
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    "I dont really understand exchange rates enough to predict any changes or know how good it is right now." Neither does anybody else.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Oct 28, 2015 at 0:29
  • I suppose one tip could be to reduce the impact of exchange rate volatility by transferring the money in multiple intervals so you aren't locked in to a single exchange rate which could be better or worse than the average (see cost averaging).Of course, if there are significant per-transaction costs involved that's not really an option.
    – Lilienthal
    Nov 4, 2015 at 14:21

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Unless you want to invest a lot of time into learning about ForEx, I think the best time to convert is whenever it's most practical for you. This is because, as some of the comments say, no one knows when which currency will go up and down. Unless something major happens, you're unlikely to gain/lose a huge amount within a year.

Whatever you do, try to avoid converting the money twice (NZ - AUS - GBP) and I'd suggest a provider like Transferwise for actually transferring the money, instead of using your bank (its usually cheaper).

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