With the Aussie dollar going up, many people are wondering what is the best way to take advantage of our soaring dollar. Here are some suggestions and I hope that you will also contribute your ideas as well and pass on these tips to others.
1. Online shopping in US Dollars/British Pound On websites such as Book Depository, you can choose to purchase books in your own currency. This is usually not a bad thing but often the currency rate that they give you is worse than if you bought the item on your credit card and paid the ~2% more in foreign currency
2. Change your money If you are going on a holiday soon, perhaps it is a good time to change your money. However, you can still get ripped off even in these prosperous times so make sure you shop around for the best currency rate. We have a post here about how to get the best exchange rate.
3. Ebay? This one I am not sure but if you are buying from ebay, its probably best to go for the international ebay site because buying from an Aussie in Australia on ebay.com.au won't benefit you in terms of taking advantage of the AUD.
4. Watch out for the Overseas Transaction Charge There are credit cards that charge more for international transactions than others. For example, in another post, we looked at how the American Express card was charging 1% more than the Everyday Money card as an Overseas Transaction Charge so find out which card is best for an international transaction.
5. Make sure your retailer is saving you money If you are in the market for a new TV, retailers will be getting cheaper imports in soon so watch for the change in prices. It may not be available just yet, because existing stock is still at the higher prices when the AUD was lower so this may take a little waiting.
6. Go overseas! When the dollar goes up, the travellers get going. In the last two years, the AUD has gone up by 50% against the British Pound! That is like saying that everything in the UK is now 33% off!
Having said all this, we must also remember in doing all these things that the Aussie Dollar could and probably would go up even more. The most important thing is not necessarily to get the BEST price but a price that you are comfortable with because even the best of us cannot predict what happens tomorrow. Happy spending and all power to the AUD!
In other news, best mortgage rates as mentioned by the Barefoot investor.
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