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$US Australian $ conversion

MMDown Under

By MMDown Under,
in Australia & New Zealand

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OHCruisinDad

OHCruisinDad

Posted
Posted
OhCruisinDad,

 

How unbelievable that you rented a house in Lorne back in 2000. We had a beach house there for over 27 years and only sold it in 2001 after our children had grown up and we found we weren't using it as much as we should have.

 

It is my favourite place on our coast and I hope you enjoyed your stay there and spent time doing some of the beautiful drives and walks that surround Lorne amongst the Otways.

 

Jennie

 

Jennie -

 

What a small world we all live in. My wife's family had rented a house in Lorne for twenty plus years. As the kids grew up and moved on with their lives, Mum and Dad downsized their holiday rental but kept going back each year. We were there on a couple of day trips in the 90's and spent about 10 days there just after Christmas 2000. In fact, we were there for the big annual Pier to Pub swim. It was one of the few nice days that year as the weather was all mixed up. We still had a great time as our kids were 8 and 5 then and their cousins from Melbourne were also there with us. We love the main street and spent several evenings at the Hotel for dinner and a few VB's. We also frequented the little seaffood restaurant at the pier (can't remember of the name of the place).

 

Although we were recently back in Melbourne for better than a week, we stayed in town as we had been to the beach in north Qld and no one was interested in the drive to the Lorne beach in mid-winter.

 

I'd love to get back there on our next summertime visit.

 

Mac

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  • 1 month later...
moojar

moojar

Posted
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Wow! What does the Australian press say is the the reason for such a dramatic shift? See this chart:

http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/AUD/graph120.html

 

Our interest rates have peaked and are now on the way down. Mid-July, our RBA (equiv. to your Fed) hinted that their bias was turning to lowering rates (you can see that point on your chart.) Early / mid August they did cut them by 25 points, more to come by all accounts. Plus with the world economic situation, commodities are not so much in demand. Those two points had international investment $$ flowing out.

 

For all that, I think it has more to do with the USD making a comeback. Look at a chart Euro Vs. USD and the shape should look similar to yours.

 

The big factor lately has been your Wall Street investment-bank geniuses; lots of money flowing out of Oz, the newspapers call it "risk aversion / flight to low-yield currencies."

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SelectSys

SelectSys

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...The big factor lately has been your Wall Street investment-bank geniuses; lots of money flowing out of Oz, the newspapers call it "risk aversion / flight to low-yield currencies."

 

These guys must be geniuses as they have figured ways to make many millions while sticking the taxpayer with $500 billion in obligations and at the same time avoiding jail. I should be that smart ...

 

Sorry for the rant

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moojar

moojar

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These guys must be geniuses as they have figured ways to make many millions while sticking the taxpayer with $500 billion in obligations and at the same time avoiding jail. I should be that smart ...

 

Sorry for the rant

 

Don't worry about the rant - I meant "geniuses" in a sarcastic way! Lots of anger all over about their self-enrichment schemes costings us all many $$. :mad:

But the way that you put it, maybe they are real geniuses after all, eh? :rolleyes:

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moojar

moojar

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I lied, got the proper posting on the credit card today. I actually ended up with 76.68 after fees.

 

Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Were the fees 'currency conversion' fees? 'cause there was a thread recently about cards that don't have those. (Wizard)

 

I wonder how many Aussies will decide that the "extra" 20% or so is not worth it, and cancel? With all these US ships coming our way this summer there could be some last-minute bargains about...

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Aussie Cruisers

Aussie Cruisers

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We ended up paying at $0.84 which was much lower than I was hoping. To think I could have paid when it was $0.96. However when I booked the cruise we were at $0.80 so our cost was lower than when we booked it.

 

With the costs going up for groceries, fuel and other 'stuff' this may be our last cruise for a very long time. Also, with the limited choices for cruises departing Australia, factoring in the cost of airfares on top of the cruise is also a biggy.

 

Anyhow - we will enjoy the good times while we have them. I think we are about 18 months behind the Americans.... sadly.

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cands

cands

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We have been very, very lucky. I think we got about 95c for our final payment on our big Seabourn cruise (phew!!).

 

For the first time in recent memory we booked our Volendam cruise next March with a fixed price in Australian dollars :) , and we got a great deal on a verandah cabin. This was with HAL's agent company in Australia.

 

Steve.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Globaliser

Globaliser

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What a difference 6 weeks can make!

 

Aussie dollar now close to 80c US.

I don't intend this as any form of schadenfreude, but it's worth noting that the Aussie is now at 72 cents US, which is a level last seen in the first half of 2006.

 

Against sterling, it's at 41 pence (or AUD 2.44), a level last seen in the middle of 2007.

 

Much of this is due to the commodity markets tanking in the last couple of days. That may turn out to be unsustainable.

 

Also, the dramatic cut in Aussie interest rates will have weakened the Aussie dollar. But it can't be long before the central banks in Europe and North America follow suit.

 

Therefore, it's very possible that this is actually a decent time to lay in some Aussie dollars if you're about to travel there.

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M&A

M&A

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A big drop in the Canadian dollar today 90 cents against the US$. As oil and commodity prices drop the Canadian dollar will drop.

But $1 Canadian will get us $1.26 Aus right now.

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MMDown Under Holiday Sharing Rare

MMDown Under

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Therefore, it's very possible that this is actually a decent time to lay in some Aussie dollars if you're about to travel there.

 

I agree.

 

Certainly not a great time for Aussies to be travelling overseas to cruise, with the additional cost of long haul airfares and the falling Aussie dollar.

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charliegirlac

charliegirlac

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why oh why oh why did I not pay for my future cruise in July when I was onboard!!!!!! Cant complain too much seeing I was on board paying US dollars and then in Europe with Euro when the exchange rate was good BUT still!

 

Make the Princess cruise to NZ look a lot better than the Rhapsody cruise to NZ as it is in Aussie dollars on board...

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moojar

moojar

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Paid for our cruise when it was still in the 90s - less than three months ago. Now trying to convince my wife we should cancel; "buying" USD at 94c then "selling" three months later at 66c is a great investment! :p

 

But she won't hear of it. :(

 

Gee, but the profit would pay for an airfare to Europe. Hmmm.

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M&A

M&A

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Huge drop today!! Canadian dollar at 83 cents!

Why didn't I pay for my cruise in full this summer when the Canadian and US dollars were at par!

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Aquarians

Aquarians

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Huge drop today!! Canadian dollar at 83 cents!

Why didn't I pay for my cruise in full this summer when the Canadian and US dollars were at par!

Kia ora,

Spare a thought for New Zealand , where current exchange rate for NZ$ is around 60cents!!

Aquarians

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Pacific Sandy

Pacific Sandy

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Huge drop today!! Canadian dollar at 83 cents!

Why didn't I pay for my cruise in full this summer when the Canadian and US dollars were at par!

 

How true - Our TA had a special promotion last April offerring a $100 OBC if we paid our cruise in full early - SO glad we went for it. We saved a bundle especially since the Cdn dollar was even above the US dollar then.

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