Howdy. Moved to the UK three months ago from the US (via a brief stay in Germany). I have about $14,000 saved in a US bank account, and Monzo is my only UK bank account - I have about £4,500 saved up in a fund for buying a house (eventually) in the UK.
I’m very worried about Brexit, though. It’s looking more likely there won’t be a general election before we crash out with No Deal and I’m worried that the UK economy will… well, to be blunt… collapse like Detroit. I’d like to take my £4,500 in savings and convert it to Euros (preferred), or send it to my account in the US. What options do people use here for saving in non-Pound currencies?
Given that the effect of a no deal Brexit is largely priced into the pound/euro rate, why would you convert to euros at what is probably the low point?
Anarchist
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3
In addition to what @DaveTMG said, I’m not sure that any profit might be largely swallowed up by fees and currency spread on £4,500. You’d be banking on a fairly large slide in £/€ (not that it’s out of the question!).
Another thing to consider is that the pound has been lower against the Euro. It was around €1.05 in 2009.
The price of No Deal is certainly NOT priced into the pound currently. The pound is currently priced against the dollar on the assumption that there’ll probably be a deal.
Very rough guesses would be along the lines of:
Remain = $1.50+ to the £
Deal = $1.30 to the £
No Deal = $1.10- to the £
It’d make more sense to hold your money in $ than € though if you’re convinced there’ll be No Deal, as € will likely also take a hit against $ considering that No Deal hurts the EU too (but to a much lesser extent than it hurts the UK).
Starling might be ideal if you just want to save it - you can hold £ and € in one place but I don’t believe they offer interest.
Other than that, large international banks in the UK have a fairly decent offering of foreign currency accounts. HSBC and Barclays May be ones to look at.