With all this chat about the incredible exchange rate (CHF to Sterling), isn't this a good opportunity to move as much wonga as possible back to an English bank account, - for those of us that have one that is. Apart from the obvious (but unlikely) pitfall of the Pound never recovering against the Swiss Franc - what can go wrong!?

maybe.......

I had been thinking exactly the same.....but fairly new to the game so have been hunting around the EF for other opinions.

In my opinion, if you have investments in the UK or other reasons to spend sterling then I think it's a very good idea. In terms of sterling returning to strength in the future, this may take a long time if you want to make a profit purely from the forex changes.

You can open a GBP Sterling account here, and avoid complications with UK tax status. 30 years ago £1 bought CHF 10,--

If you have to change it back to CHF in the future and the rate has continued down you would lose out. That has been the general trend for years.

It makes more sense if you use it to pay interesting bearing loans such as your mortgage, but just sitting in the bank its devaluing with record inflation and low interest rates.

GBP deposits tend to yeild 0% in Switzerland, Offshore accounts yield much more. Just having a bank account in the UK won't make any real difference with UK tax status, especially if you still own property in the UK.

Almost 4 is the real answer, you need to go back a lot longer than 30 years .

The USD was worth 2.1698 CHF on 1st August 1981

The GBP was worth 1.8201 USD on the 1st August 1981

General trend is irrelivent, swings are much more important to look at , in 1994 the rate was 1.80, increaded to 2.6 approx 2001 and only started really falling 3 years ago.
UK assets look cheap in CHF terms, they wont be for ever.

On the same token why not just sit back and let the mortgage devalue? It will be cheaper to pay off in 5 - 10 years if your correct, however I suspect last week will turn out to be about the bottom for the £ v CHF.

Assuming the SNB continues on their hard-currency policy and the UK continues on its devalue-as-fast-as-possible policy (in place since about 1900 or so) I would advise you to stay in Swiss Francs. That is assuming you don't want to park your savings on a longer-term basis in gold

Talking about gold I see the dollar price has just gone through the psychological barrier of 1800 $/oz and here a new record of CHF 46,169 per kg.

I suppose that all depends on the timescale you are looking at.

However UK assets have risen more due to inflation, my parents house has increased 100 times since 1962 (a new house), a old house in the same street sold for £8,500 in 1958 was on sale recently £5,600,000.

Gold has been a very poor investment since 1900, it's only in the last 10 years it's been sucessful. The joke is if the price stays above $850 then a huge no of previousely uneconomical mines become viable. Therefore there will be a lot more gold above ground so it will devalue the rest.
The price of Gold minning shares has not risen very much indicating that the future value of gold will not significantly be above $850 for any long period of time.

Last 10 years. Couldn't get back any further unfortunately

5 to 10 years is the normal cycle, £ has been going down for 3 years & based on purchasing power the CHF seems expensive & the £ cheap. Fairly obviously out of balance, markets can stay out of balance for some time, however they always overcompensate in the end.

Which is a big shame as the £ was winning from 1994-2001 when it went from 1.80 to 2.60. Above 2CHF to £ Switzerland does not seem expensive.

Going back to 1990, apart from 1996, the overall trend is down
http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates/

A little humour....

Rates going back to 1975 can be found on the bank of Englands website. I am trying to find out when it was last 10!

31 Jul 81 3.9547 31 Aug 81 3.9392