Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The best deal I've found so far is banking my cheques with Barclays (who I have a current account with). They charge me just £9 for as many cheques as I want (in this case three)
My question relates to the strength of the Dollar .. as I type the rate is £1 = $1.90691 ( www.xe.com )
Are there any economic forecasts as to whether the Dollar is expected to slide further or recover? Am I better off getting Google to hang on to my cheques and then bank them later in the year, when perhaps they will be worth more in UK Pounds Sterling?
Also, would it be to my benefit to open a US Dollar account with Barclays, and just stick my cheques into that?
I'm still waiting for my first adsense cheque, it's been 3 months now. What can I do?
If you think $9 is high you should see what they'll charge you if the check does not clear!
<added>just noticed that was $10.50 not £ - that's a good rate</added>
I was with the Halifx, but they charge £10 per cheque (and that starts at cheques over £50!), and they take like 3 weeks to get the money in your account. I think it depends on if it's a bank or building society. Lloyds has masses of resources, and thus is quick, while Halifax has to send their cheques elsewhere to get it done.
In terms of the US exchange rate, I looked into all the options about waiting, opening a $ account etc. I decided it wasn't really worth it. Yes if you wait it could be a better rate, but then again it could get much worse. However my cheques are only just into three figures a month, so the exchange rate loss doesn't matter as much as say someone who is getting 4,5 or 6 figure sums per month.
<added>just noticed that was $10.50 not £ - that's a good rate</added>
Sorry - I goofed. it is £10.50 NOT $10.50
If the dollar would go up to the same level as 2-3 years ago I would earn a quarter more.
Actually I think Barclays charge 2.5% (with the minimum charge being £9). I'm just about earning 3 figures a month, so when my earnings increase it might be worth my while to bank my cheques with a different UK bank.
I always thought Natwest was a bad place to bank my US Dollar cheques... Last time I enquired I seem to remember the commission they took was massive. Myabe things have changed... I'll double-check next week
Haven't looked at Lloyds bank before.. again I'll find out before I bank my next Google cheques
Try asking the bank to cash the cheque via 'negotiation' that way the money enters your account immediately, and you just agree to pay back the money if the cheque was the bounce in the future.
If you are UK based and receive cheques from Google I really don't think there is a better bank than HSBC at processing and sensible charges.
I looked into this but the cost was too high considering most of my payments are made by companies who understand technology i.e. don't issue checks!
Nobody can predict the dollar-rate, but now he's low (can go lower) so one day it must go up.
But will it go up enough? I've been around long enough to remember when the U.S. dollar was worth four Swiss francs. The dollar has had its ups and downs over the years, but it never got back to that four-francs-to-the-dollar rate (or anywhere close).
From the articles that I've read, it sounds like the dollar's trend over the next few years is likely to be downward or at least not upward. Don't forget that the U.S. government has gone from a budget surplus at the end of the Clinton years to a massive budget deficit, and any balance-of-trade gains from a falling dollar have been nullified by a growing reliance on foreign suppliers for everything from consumer goods to oil to business and industrial products. Foreign investors are getting nervous, and if a country like China or South Korea starts moving significant amounts of money into euros from dollars, the dollar is going to get smacked hard.
Bottom line: Banking your dollars in the hope of a recovery is a high-risk strategy. (I'm just glad that I earn a significant chunk of my income in euros!)
I think being charged just 2.5% (minimum £9) - regardless of how many cheques you bank - is pretty reasonable.. I'm banking 3 cheques every quarter
If i were to convert $100 into sterling, i would lose 25% for bank charges. How's that fair?
As well as adsense I run a software download site that charges in dollars. When I started in 2002 the exchange rate was about 20% better. So I get less dollars now, but I got to thinking that the product will now look cheaper for European customers, so selling more to them would offset the exchange rate loss. This might also apply to adsense - perhaps European advertisers will now spend marginally more per click if they're priced in dollars?
In the medium term the dollar could very well decline even further, but currency speculation is a notoriously difficult game - remember how much money the UK government lost in 1992!
It's a per cheque charge, not per transaction, so there is no benefit is saving cheques up and depositing them together
You can always ask Adsense-team to NOT send your cheque. They will keep your money and put it together with next month's earnings on one cheque. You can do this for max 6 month's I think. You must ask this before the fifth of the next month.
If you have large amounts, then you could lose out in the exchange rate. But if you have small amounts, the cost-per-cheque is lower as there is no flat fee.
Don't forget that the U.S. government has gone from a budget surplus at the end of the Clinton years to a massive budget deficit, and any balance-of-trade gains from a falling dollar have been nullified by a growing reliance on foreign suppliers for everything from consumer goods to oil to business and industrial products.
Yes, but that budget deficit was caused by the US spending a lot of money on invading foreign countries. They are expecting a lot of exports to these foreign countries. I'm sure the ROI on the money spent will be very good indeed.
It is by no means an ethical investment, but it is a profitable one.
Yes, but that budget deficit was caused by the US spending a lot of money on invading foreign countries....
That may have been part of it, but tax cuts were the real culprit--and those won't improve the balance of trade or encourage foreign investment.
Would it be a violation of the AdSense TOS to run a line that says "Strengthen the dollar--click on our non-U.S. advertisers' AdSense ads"? :-)
I use the Citibank US$ current account. I post the monthly cheque and they credit it to the account. There is no fee...
I too use Citibank and can generally recommend them. Note, however, that there is a USD20 fee for the USD account if you don't maintain a balance of GBP2000 across all your accounts with Citibank.
Even with the USD20 fee, it seems as though this is a good offer.
(My first post, BTW, and on such a dull topic. Well, they can't all be zingers, I suppose. So, umm: hi!)
I think this means you can cash a cheque or a bunch of cheques up to five or six thousand dollars for eight pounds.
The bank's pretty good too.
