I plan to spend a year in Cairo later this year, and have slowly watched the value of the £ drop from 11LE to 10.5LE now (on cbe.org.eg website).
I really want to change a sizeable amount of cash now, around £5k, just in case it drops furher, which seems likely with the current state of the UK economy.
Can anyone tell me how best I can achieve this and get a good rate? I tried with my HSBC account currency service, but they offered around 9.5LE per £ which is another 1LE less that the Central Bank of Egypt.
Any help much appreciated! Thank you in advance for any advice/guidance you can offer.
Regards.
PS
One more point: am I worrying about nothing?
What is the general experience of fluctuations between GBP to EGP?
Do people think that I worrying about nothing and that the rate will improve later this year (around Sept)?
Posts: 5 | Registered: May 2008
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I plan to spend a year in Cairo later this year, and have slowly watched the value of the £ drop from 11LE to 10.5LE now (on cbe.org.eg website).
I really want to change a sizeable amount of cash now, around £5k, just in case it drops furher, which seems likely with the current state of the UK economy.
Can anyone tell me how best I can achieve this and get a good rate? I tried with my HSBC account currency service, but they offered around 9.5LE per £ which is another 1LE less that the Central Bank of Egypt.
Any help much appreciated! Thank you in advance for any advice/guidance you can offer.
Regards.
This is my humble opinion I am not a specialist in this area:
Try currency exchange specialists rather than banks :
Or, if possibly you are coming over here before your 1 year stay, open an account in an Egyptian bank (all you need is your passport and yourself - normal 30day visa is fine) and transfer money over.
Or, consider changing it to Euros which are currently holding strong against sterling, dollar and egy pound and changing it nearer the time.
I regularly update graphs (approx every month) to show the currency trends (though these are the interbank rates so are higher than you would get). web pagePosts: 5593 | From: Egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Personally with the current state of the Egyptian economy I think its more likely the £ will increase rather than fall further. Even if it did drop as far as 10LE / £1 by the time you have lost interest on the £5,000 in the UK if you changed it now then it is not going to make much difference.
I am assuming you can't get to Egypt just now so its better to wait as you will get much better rate here than you would in the UK.
Posts: 3809 | From: Paradise | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
typically, the best exchange rate you can get is by wire transfer from one bank to another. it will be the interbank rate plus 2-3%. surprised at hsbc - did you try hsbc egypt or your local hsbc?
try contacting the egypt hsbc if you haven't - it's actually a separate company. you can always open up a foreign currency hsbc egypt account, and then transfer to your LE account - that will probably give you best rate.
this site is good for keeping an eye on the rate and provides a good history where you can track the exchange rates for specific time periods (from days to years) http://www.oanda.com/Posts: 2182 | Registered: Oct 2002
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Dont use banks to transfer money. You will get 'special rates' in bureau de changes' good one is opposite the United Bank up from the LG building on the main road in Mohandseen. He will better any offer from any outlet along that road. El Helal is the name.
I have noticed that the rate usually rises June/ July. Possibly because of school holidays? Watch the rate around that time of year.
You cannot have an HSBC account in UK or elsewhere and simply transfer money to an Egyptian one. I tried to do that. They are seperate entities and only use the same name. That is what I was told in UK
Open an Egyptian account here.
Then your UK bank will SWIFT all your money for around 20 sterling ( no limit on amount) if you use RBS and not sure about other banks?
Deposit it in sterling to the egyptian account, then take out the sterling and go to Helal or another bureau de change and get the best rate they will give you. DO NOT change up in banks! you will not get good rates.
posted
Harankash is absolutely right about the HSBC account in the UK being affiliated with the HSBC banks here in Egypt. They just use the same name, very loosely affiliated, and non transferrable funding from one to another. Works the same with some of the US Banks that operate here in Egypt. DUnno why...but that is the way that it is. Egypt is like its own little banking kingdom. Posts: 1103 | From: 6th of October | Registered: Jun 2007
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Swifting money from my UK Lloyds to my Egy bank cost £68 - if your bank does not have a 'corresponding' (not necessarily same name) bank here, then you will get hit with a fee at both ends.
Posts: 5593 | From: Egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I filled in an online enquiry form to open an account with HSBC Egypt, but it seems from harankash and Shanta Qadeema's advice that this may not be the best way forward!
Do you all feel from your experience that the rate may stabilise/lift by the time I arrive in Sept anyway?
I was also surprised by Exptin's info about receiving 2-3% above interbank rate with a transfer. Is that other people's experience too? Someone told me that HSBC charge £20 to make a transfer.
Thanks for all your advice so far.
Posts: 5 | Registered: May 2008
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posted
Well it might be a question of interpretation - one man's up is another man's down - I would not imagine you will get a rate BETTER than interbank, probably 2-3% worse.
I do agree that I think rates will stabilise - improve over the next few months - but the decision is yours to take.
One thing though - if you do change it NOW, what are you going to do with it? While its in the UK it can't earn any interest while its in a foreign currency I don't think?
If you were able to come here, open an account and SWIFT it, then there are some jolly decent interest rates available - up to 10% per annum on some certificates of deposit (but bear in mind inflation here currently running at 14.5% - eroding the value of savings).
Personally, I wouldn't change it until you have to - Egyptian currency is not 'hard' currency in the way sterling, euros and dollars are. Historically, Egypt tried to keep the Egyptian pound tied to the dollar, but are letting it float up against the dollar for now to try and counteract some of the effects of inflation.
Maybe if you were in dollars, change it, but if you're in sterling - I would personally in my humble unqualified 'man on the Clapham Omnibus' opinion leave it.
Posts: 5593 | From: Egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by harankash: You cannot have an HSBC account in UK or elsewhere and simply transfer money to an Egyptian one.I tried to do that. They are seperate entities and only use the same name. That is what I was told in UK
I don't know your "guy" but travel bureau always has much higher rates than any WIRE transfer between bank accounts.
If you read my posts, I also said HSBC are separate firms. All that means is that you have to pay a fee per wire transaction but you ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CAN wire transfer from anywhere in the world to an egypt-based bank account! You just need the bank's international sort code.
I don't recall the exact charge, but it's something like $30-40 per transactions when I transfer money out of an Egyptian HSBC account anywhere in the world. What's easy with HSBC Egypt or even HSBC UK is that you can have accounts in both local and foreign currencies IN THAT COUNTRY and it's simple to transfer money between those.
68 sterling pounds for a transaction is highway robbery!!!!
edit: interbank rate is only available bank to bank. +2% is credit card rate, +4% is cash rate. I found when I transfered with HSBC I received a rate that fell between that. (The credit card rate is low, but most credit card companies then tack on anywhere between 2-3% "handling fee" for any foreign transaction on your purchases, so while you get a better rate, you pay more! Read your fine print - my US-based one informed me that it was always their practice since I've been their customer from decade plus ago, but only recently did they actually print that on my statements)
Posts: 2182 | Registered: Oct 2002
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expat - can we just clarify terminology as I think its a bit confusing - when you say 'interbank + 2%' what I'm assuming is that if say interbank = 10LE to £1, then credit card rate of +2% will be 9.8LE to £1. (ie its a WORSE deal for a private person than for a bank) or are you saying its 10.2LE credit card rate?
With regard to the HSBCs I think what Haranks was thinking of was that if you had HSBC in the UK and here, you could just get on the internet and transfer your money free (not poss) not that you can't wire money through?
Posts: 5593 | From: Egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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I often transfer large sums of money from UK to Egypt.
Firstly I always do the transfer in sterling. I have a sterling account with Banque De Cairo. You get a much better exchange rate exchanging the sterling here. You can withdraw your money in sterling or exchange it into Egyptian
I have an HSBC account in the UK and it costs £21 GBP to transfer to the Banque De Cairo, it costs £10 GBP to transfer to HSBC in Egypt. The transfer is done by SWIFT.
I would suggest that unless you are a currency exchange expert you do not try and second guess the markets.
Posts: 2791 | From: www.flatsinluxor.co.uk, Luxor, Egypt | Registered: Jan 2003
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If no on else suggested, carry the 5k with you into Egypt - I done it myself.
What are your plans once you get here? Are you going to buy something in one go?? or live off it for a while?? any steady income??
I earn some money here, and only exchange the foriegn currency as I need them
Akshar, good point about opening a foriegn currency account - I never thouhgt there was any advantage init. I opened a local HSBC account for it's internet banking and just incase someone wants to pay me when im not in Egypt h
Posts: 212 | Registered: Aug 2007
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in bureau de changes' good one is opposite the United Bank up from the LG building on the main road in Mohandseen. He will better any offer from any outlet along that road. El Helal is the name.![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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