After the Swiss decided to surprise everyone by removing their Euro peg the other day....guess who is about to spend the whole of February in Switzerland? (not in the Eriba).

I have decided to just forget about it, safe in the knowledge that our 4 months with the Euro over the summer should offset the loss, given the sterling/euro rate currently. I think that the Euro has further to fall but who is buying their euros, or some of them, early, in case it goes back up?

Our month skiing is going to cost 20% more and there is also a distinct lack of snow!!

a whole month away, that sounds wonderful,
but no snow?? saw some on ski sunday

For me what's happening with the Euro at present is absolutely GREAT news and not before time. My UK pension amongst other things is paid in GBP which I then have to get transferred to my overseas bank account. At one time the exchange rate was something like GBP 1 = Euro 1.14 and along with bank fees etc I was really dipping out.

Today I'm getting more like GBP = Euro 1.31 - a much healthier state of affairs thank goodness. About sixteen months or so ago I also came across this site https://transferwise.com/ who offer the going exchange rate (not like the banks who apply the base rate or some other such nonsense) and charge less than a GBP 5 for doing so. Roughly speaking, for every GBP 1000 transferred this way saves approx GBP 45 in comparison to the banks.

I haven't a clue on it since needing none at present, but Carole got hers at the PO to go skiing yesterday for a week and didn't moan about the rates. Plenty of snow high in Val Thorens apparently.

Oh, I am not moaning about the Euro/Sterling rates!! what with that and the price of diesel, summer in Europe is going to be lovely!

It was just the timing of the Swiss peg removal, where the CHF shot up in value against the euro and sterling, leaving our month in Switz to cost us an extra 20%, when its already ridiculously expensive. Now, even more people will drive straight through to France or Italy etc. I feel very sorry for those in Switz who work in tourism away from the likes of Verbier, Davos, St Moritz etc. as things are going to get very tough for them. Such a beautiful country.

Much of the Alps have got snow but it's often been in short supply this winter and even some of the high resorts have had restricted skiing. Our eldest was in France glacier skiing at new year, where they were busing everyone up from the lower slopes to get a chance of skiing ad it was like Piccadilly Circus. Where we go there is snow now and most of the ski area is open, but there is nowhere near as much as usual. More snow is forecast there this week, so fingers crossed - that's if we can even afford a lift pass now!!

I know, I know, first world problems....

I have been holding on to buy some of our summer spending money - our awning from NL too, as that's 1500 euros so there's a few bob at stake. Don't know whether to wait for the Greece election but people say that that's (the possibility that they'll leave the Euro) already been factored in.

I decided it was better than it had been, could get better, could get worse so I got my holiday spending money yesterday. Watch this space as it just gets better and I find out I should have waited.

for us who live here in France it is very good, if you buy it now you are still up quite a bit on last year

Agree with Bryn - for those of us living in the Eurozone and in receipt of sterling remittances from the UK, the weakness of the Euro is just fine and dandy (in a narrow, self-interested way).

How long will it last? Anyone's guess I suppose but there is nothing at the moment to suggest a quick recovery for the Euro against sterling. QE will eventually work its way into consumer spending here, stimulate demand etc and start up the process whereby the Euro will recover. That will take a while.

On the other side, UK political developments could cause uncertainty in the markets and lead to sterling sales and a fall in the value of the £stg. My own guess is that the current exchange rate (£1stg = Euro1.30 (+ or -) ) or something close to it is likely to be with us for quite a while.

Having said all that, I will not be surprised to find I have got it all wrong. Such are the wonders of the market!

And if things don't change they will stay as they are !

I have an app on my Smartphone that displays in graph form the ups and downs of the Sterling/Euro exchange rate and I often set it to display just one day. It really is quite amazing the degree of fluctuation over any period of 24 hours as the market is played.

It really piss..... me off when I think that a handful of currency dealers can buy/sell every second of the day and in turn determine what we as pensioners living overseas get for our hard earned pounds. There is absolutely no good reason that I can think of that the pound is worth 1.40 as it was some time ago and then almost in a blink of an eye drops down to 1.10. I suppose we should now be thankful that it's hovering around the 1.30 mark but for how long I wonder.

The only uncertainty I can see is the central bank printing huge amounts of money to stimulate EU economy's and how that may change things, however I am unsure of the time scale for that.

As has been said whenever you buy looks better than last year.

Nearly forgot, the Greek elections may change things a bit.