18 January, 2009 | Leave a Comment

It’s really amazing how far the British pound has fallen.  I just paid the second installment of my tuition for this year.  I get my funding from the U.S., so a check is sent to my British university in U.S. dollars, which is deposited by my university in their account and converted to pounds.  Normally, because the exchange rate was so awful, when my dollars were converted to pounds, my tuition wasn’t covered due to all the money I lost on the exchange.  I always had to pay money out of my own pocket to cover the difference.  This was usually around $200 to $300 a term, which under the old exchange rate was £100 to £150.  Last September I had to pay something small, around £50/$100.  However, last week I went to pay my tuition for this term.  I didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket.  No, they gave me a £700 refund.

Under the current exchange rate, that is about $1,000.  Unbelievable.  I almost fainted when they told me.  I’m just shocked at how things have changed.  Since I came here in September 2005, I have lost thousands and thousands of dollars because the exchange rate was so bad for Americans.  I know other Americans here who wiped out their entire bank accounts.  On the flip side, British people would fly to the States and go shopping for clothes and shoes, as if the U.S. was a big discount shopping mall.

Obviously, those days are over.  The dollar was weak before, but the British pound was grossly inflated.  I’m glad to recoup some of my money now, but in a way its bittersweet.  Not only is this emblematic of how screwed up the world’s financial situation is, but I would be in a much better position financially right now if I hadn’t literally lost 50% of my money between September 2005 and autumn 2008.  I’m trying not to dwell on this now, but it’s hard not to when I see, as I did recently with my tuition payment, just how much money I’ve lost since I came here.

1. Comments RSS

1. Ken Says:

   January 18th, 2009 at 7:50 pm

   Anglofille:

   Enjoy it while it lasts. The dollar is stronger because many advisors are scared to death and are buying US Treasury notes. The demand is so strong short term paper has a nominal interest rate of a fraction of one percent. I real terms buyers lose money.

   Yhis isn’t investment; this is just the equivalent of shoving money in to the mattress.

   This can’t last.