Where is the best place to exchange your money?

If you are thinking about travelling to an exotic location for the holiday season or buying a home in a foreign country, you may want to forget about Europe and consider countries in the lines of Brazil, South Africa or Malaysia. The reason for this being you will get more value for the money exchange.

Over the course of past 12 months, the Pound has gained considerable value against currencies from other countries. Topping the list of places where the Pound has strengthened most is Brazil with a rise of 42% against the local currency (Real). The above information is in agreement with data compiled by the Post Office. Their online exchange rates for purchases between £500-999 show that on the 17th of November this year, 1£ was buying 5.26 real as opposed to 3.71 real, the same time last year(2014).

Other countries on the top ten list include Russia, Turkey, Malaysia, S. Africa, Norway, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Hungary. Currently, the Sterling pound has gained against 75% of its best-selling currencies across the globe when its performance this year is compared with 2014’s; this is according to Post Office Travel Money’s, Andrew Brown.

In recent weeks, the pound has gained substantially against the South African rand and Malaysian ringgit; that is good news for holidaymakers visiting these countries as they will have over an extra £100 when they exchange £500.

The Euro, on the other hand, did not make it into the top ten list; nonetheless, the pound had gained 14.1% to it when it closed at 1.38 on November 17th, 2015 compared to 1.21 on the same date last year. Thus, leaving Britons with an extra £61.91 for every £500 money exchange transaction they make. This makes it high time to book your next winter break in Europe. Or, if you dream of buying a holiday home in the havens of Spain or France, you stand to enjoy buying at lesser prices. For instance a €350,000 house will go for about £253,623 unlike 12 months ago when it was £289,256; thereby saving you a hefty amount of about 36,000.

Despite the pound’s impressive performance against some currencies, it appears to have weakened against others. For instance, it had declined against the Hong Kong dollar by 3% that was considered its biggest fall against the currency. In November this year, £1 bought 11.05 Hong Kong dollars a drop from 11.38 during the same period last year. Other gainers against the pound include the U.S, U.A.E, Qatar, Oman, Barbados and Jordan. When comparing the pound against the US dollar, the pound lost 2.4% over the past 12 months. However, this is not something to stop Briton shoppers from utilising the pre- Christmas sale offers coming up in the coming weeks.