will it keep on going down? i need to make a large-ish UK payment and am wondering when the best time to do this might be?

The million dollar question.

-As US interest rates are historic laws,Dollar is losing interest at the moment so going down

-GBP to CHF is looking too oversold, so for long term holders it can be recommended to buy GBP, tough better to wait a few days.

It gave me a little ego boost to check my equivalent UK salary, I feel a lot richer than I did a year ago!

Think I might make a post christmas shopping trip.

i remember feeling quite pleased with myself when tranferring a bit of CHF to GBP a few months agao at about 1:1.98.

Oops.

Of course you can never be sure!
However, since it has been known since a few months ago, that UK economy is suffering much more compared to CH, GBP decrease was expected up to some extent. It may still go down for a while, though I will call it oversold soon.

The GBP has lost more than 13% this month and is now pushing 1.62.

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']A little bit of history:[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']UK for long (even since 19th. Century) strategically focused on GBP strength, to become powerhouse of Financial institutions and trade. What was sacrified due to this, was industries and export. (how often do you see products made in UK in CH for instance !?). Nowadays governments don’t interfere too much with currency rates beside interest rate changes. [/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']And now with fin. Turmoil, UK suffers almost as much as US. UK housing bubble is also another factor, same as US. [/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']So perhaps GBP will not recover to full strength in foreseeable future.[/FONT]

I've already changed 30K CHF to UK pounds. Also made a holiday via the UK.

800 pounds (1300 CHF) for a caribbean cruise from the UK including flight, there are some bargains to be had over there at the moment.

I am stuck here over the Christmas and the New Year so this is some kind of Christmas present to myself.

i am looking forward of a day when 1sfr=1euro and Gbp

Well, 2009 will probably show the FX market the full concept of "volatility", so you might yet have your chance.
G'luck!

Paul

I really hope you're wrong on this one !

You betcha. But wishing problems away doesn't solve them, right?
So tighten your seatbelts...

Paul

From www.xe.com

Live rates at 2008.12.26 09:21:56 UTC

United Kingdom Pounds, Switzerland Francs
1 GBP = 1.58562 CHF, 1 CHF = 0.630670 GBP


i am not expecting the pound to get any better in January, as I have a feeling there's more bad news to come.

Hmmm. Had a look at the pound this morning?

cable 1.4680
gbpchf 1.5330
eurgbp 0.9770 (=1.0235 gbpeur)

And hell... it's VOLATILE like hell. I hope it's just because of the thin markets and not a foretaste of what will happen on the 2nd of january :-/

P.

Am in UK and back to CH next week.Local Rate to buy CHFs from £s was 1.47.

I feel as Swiss Companies pay their fees to us in sterling and it is too late to change.

Have a stack of bills to pay back in Vaud next week. Must have a stiff drink before I pay those.

I agree with you. In fact, I'm moving to CH to switch my income into CHFs!

Anyone wanting to buy GBPs, I'm happy to do an exchange and we can cut out the middle man!

You should see the Aussie dollar. Crikey!

Pam

In the 80s 1 Aussie dollar got you 2 CHF.

Yes, I remember 2 for 1. Even 1 for 1 was nice but I'm starting to think my planned year or two in Switzerland might be a bit pricey! Still, as another thread said if you are paid in CHF and think in CHF it might not hurt so much!