Need help with Euros,Pounds, etc...
 

My husband wants to vacation in Europe next year, either Paris or London. I am doing the research now, and I am little confused about the exchange rates. I just did a conversion on a website, and 50.00 US dollars = 64 euros, which means an additional $14 american dollars? Is that correct??

(Math was never my strong point!!)

It seems like pounds in London are more costly than euros in France.

Once I have narrowed this down, then I can move on to researching hotels, things to do, etc. If we do decide to go, I am not sure if we should go with a tour company on our own.

Thanks for your help, its very much appreciated!!!!

I haven't checked exchange rates recently, but the last time I looked it cost about $1.30-$1.35 to buy just one euro, so buying 50 euros would cost you at least $65. Also haven't been following the pound lately, but the value recently has been around $1.50 to one pound. Buying 50 pounds would cost about $75.

I think you're a little confused.

A pound is worth approximately twice the dollar- so a hotel for 150 pounds is actually $300.

The euro is also worth more than the dollar - about $1.30. So a hotel for 150 euros would actually cost about $195.

(In your example 50 US dollars is actually worth about 38 euros.)

These rates are naturally subject to change - you can get the day's rates on-line every day.

Also note that the rate listed on-line is the Interbank exchange rate - used if yhou are changing millions of dollars. The closest tourists can get to this is to use a credit card with low fees or pull cash from an ATM. If you try to change either cash or traveler's checks - not only will it be difficult and time-consuming - but you will get a much worse rate of exchange - and often pay fees as well.

Just did a quick check of www.oanda.com

The exchange rate today was
$1.00 = 1.29 Euro = 1.89 Pound

If you went to the perfect money store that charged you nothing extra for the exchange, you would currently pay $1.90 for 1£ sterling.

You would pay $1.30 for 1€.

$50 would buy you about 38.46€

I think you divided the wrong way.
If the euro costs more than the dollar, you will get fewer euros than dollars.

Since the euro first went into use, the price has gone from about 88¢ for 1€ to the current price. That is why we say the dollar is falling, or has fallen.

The pound and the euro are two very strong currencies right now whereas the US dollar has lost considerable value in the last two years.

I think that should be:
$1.29 = 1.00 Euro
$1.89 = 1.00 Pound

bob and topcat, you are entirely correct. I wrote it backward.

Yet another reason I am not an international banker!

:)

But the exchange rates don't mean a thing until you see research prices and how you will be spending money (for instance, how much is the hotel room, lunch for two, a bottled water, or whatever). Simply doing math conversions isn't the information you need for the "big picture" IMO.

You can use websites like www.x-rates.com which will calculate equivalents from one currency to another.

Those are the interbank rates everyone is quoting. Once you tack on the 1% conversion fee plus whatever fees your credit card/debit card/ATM card company add on, the actual rate you will be getting will be slightly higher. ((b))

Regardless of exchange rates, London is far more expensive than Paris.

<It seems like pounds in London are more costly than euros in France.>

Maybe I'm repeating myself, but you need to understand what they BUY for you in each place, not just how much U.S. dollar it costs to get them.

For instance I believe ~$150USD (changed into pounds or euro) will get you a nicer hotel room in Paris, than that amount will get you in London. Because London is a more expensive city, generally speaking (having nothing to do with the TYPE of currency being used).

As many have pointed out on other messages, the British pound sterling prices as almost exactly the same as US prices---only the actual cost is 2x higher. For example, a meal in the States might cost $10. The same meal in London will cost you 10 GBP, or almost 20 US dollars. For Euros, we just mentally use a 1.5 exchange rate, as it's easier to do the math. If you use those conversion figures (2 and 1.5) you'll be estimating on the high (and safe) side.

kswl's comments are a little off as far as I'm concerned. A meal that costs $10 in a small town in middle America might also cost 10 pounds in London -- making it nearly double in price, but one that costs $20 in a major city, particularly New York, is
more likely to cost something like 12 or 14 pounds in London. I recently looked up menus from Joe Allen's, a restaurant in both New York and London with virtually the same meals, and found the prices in pounds in London were vastly lower than those in dollars in NY. By the time the currency changes were made, the prices in London were only slightly higher, and sometimes even the same, certainly nowhere near double. I also mentioned theatre prices which are actually slightly lower in London than New York.

So while it may take you almost twice as many dollars as pounds to buy something, don't be fooled into thinking that everything is actually costing you twice as much. That is way off. At least if you are comparing the same type places in a major US city with those in London.

BUT!!!

There are WAY too many examples of food truly costing DOUBLE the comparable price (in the US), if purchased in the UK - - ESPECIALLY at grocery stores. Apples, for 1 GBP per "pound" (weight) at the grocery area sticker shock, no matter how you slice them.

Not that it isn't worse in other parts of Europe.

See the recent essay about life in Oslo in the NYTimes - - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/we...icle_popular_5 - - "We're Rich, You're Not. End of Story."

The paradox of Europe's richest country, with an average family income of $50,000 - - but offset by the average price of a pizza at $34 to $48!!!

Best wishes,

Rex

Aside from theater tickets, which I'll grant are a tiny bit more reasonable in London than in New york, everything on our last visit was just about double what it was in New York a few months before. Patrick probably eats higher on the food chain than we do, and understandably his restaurant prices wouldn't be double at that rate. But a $6 or $7 sandwich in NYC cost 6 or 7 GBP in London--about $13 or $14.

Another exception: our hotels, which we purchased in USD in advance through Priceline. The rack rates, incidentally, were actually higher in GBP than the prices we paid in dollars (listed price 85 GBP, we paid 75 USD), although obviously no one pays published rates. Everything else--cough drops, pens, t-shirts, scarves, video games, shoes--we priced or bought was about the same number of GBP than dollars for comparable quality.

Whichever way you look at it will cost you a lot more than it did before, and even then it was expensive, paris will be cheaper than London though. You can still find cheaper places in Europe like Croatia and Greece where we managed to get fairly decent accommodation without crazy prices, Western Europe though was just way beyond our reach trying to find decent accommodation for a family of 4 so it's off the agenda for a long while. Prcies do vary from one country to another and also you have to condior the 'value' that you are getting for your buck, the quality of the hotel room, facilities, whether you get air conditioning, quality and quantity of food and just how much you need to spend on transport.
On the subject of the cost of a sandwich the NY sandwich is bigger and tastes better too!

Last week in the USA, on, I think the 13th, I purchased 300 Euro. I paid $407.16. This is around $1.36 per Euro.My bank waived the fees so this is excatly what I paid. One of my banks was a panny higher. When you call your bank they will check with their international center, then give you a quote. The lower rates that are posted in the newspapers are for transactions much larger, say $100,000. Also, on that very same day the bank was buying Euros for approx. $1.23. So use all your Euros in Paris, you'll get lots less for them back home ....... even if you bought them from the same bank for more......unles the dollar has become stronger while you were away. Hope this helps.