Post Office Travel Money statement on currency market

Commenting on what Post Office is seeing in the currency market on 26 September, Nick Boden, Head of Post Office Travel Money, the UK’s largest provider of foreign currency, said:

“The current fall in sterling against many currencies varies quite significantly. For example, while sterling is down by over 20 per cent against the US dollar and currencies like the UAE dirham, Barbados dollar and East Caribbean dollar that are pegged to it, there are much smaller falls of around five per cent against the Euro and most European currencies.

“For those Britons planning a late summer break to Turkey, sterling will still buy over 53 per cent more Turkish lira than a year ago and city break holidaymakers visiting Budapest will get almost eight per cent more Hungarian forints for their pounds.

“We recommend that people planning winter sun holidays consider destinations where the cost of living is low. Our latest research shows that prices have actually fallen in popular destinations including Vietnam, Thailand and Kenya.

“However, sterling’s volatility makes it impossible to predict how exchange rates will behave in the coming weeks. In these circumstances our advice for people planning overseas trips is to watch rate movements carefully in the weeks leading up to their departure and change money at times when the rate rises.

“We are committed to offering the best possible exchange rates in these challenging circumstances but do remember that the best ones are available online or for branch transactions of over £500, the amount most tourists spend while on holiday. If purchasing online, currency is delivered free of charge to any Post Office branch or to customers’ homes, whichever is more convenient.”