By Pakinam Amer
Published: December 31 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 31 2008 02:00
Behind headlines of sterling-euro parity, the British high street still offers a wide range of exchange rates as buyers and sellers haggle over the value of the currency in their pocket.
As sterling dropped to new lows yesterday, signs outside bureaux de change along London's busiest shopping street offered variations that ranged from £92 to £96.50 for €100. Several reported increased traffic from European tourists happy to take advantage of the sliding pound.
"Before they used to get £65 for a €100, now they can get up to £95," said Sanjay Arora of Eurochange on Oxford Street. "They can enjoy themselves more with the same amount of money."
"This last week there has been an increase in customers, especially tourists, and especially since Christmas," said Vinicius Maya, an employee at Fast Intertransfers. "Some try to negotiate prices but most are happy. It's almost one to one now."
But with the pound on the ropes, triumphant European visitors are haggling prices down even further to squeeze out better deals.
"That's why they prefer exchange offices to banks and post offices," said John of Star Exchange, who declined to give his surname. "Here, people negotiate and haggle - in a bank you can't," he said. He follows the latest rates on his computer, where the "prices fluctuate by the second".
"Tourists always try to negotiate - most of them bargain even though the prices are so low," agreed Raj Ram of Roundworld Trading, whose bureau is just a few yards further down Oxford Street.
But good news for tourists is crushing for Britons or anyone paid in sterling and looking to travel abroad. "For British people, well, it's a problem," said John of Star Exchange. "British people go around trying to get rates of €1.10 or even €1.50 for their pounds, but this is impossible now. It will be a miserable summer for British people if the prices remain the same."
At Christmas, British people usually bought euros, Mr Ram said, "but this is not happening this year. People are selling but not buying".
In another bureau, a European customer working in the UK was trying to find more euros for her pounds before she travelled home. The customer, who did not give her name, said that for people paid in sterling it was only getting worse. "Last week was better, but everything is changing," she said.
Maria Giraldo, a resident of London who hails from Columbia, said she was planning to go to Paris for the summer, but this might change if the exchange rate continued to worsen. "I could cancel the trip altogether," she said.
The falling pound is not only bad news for UK holidaymakers but for exchanges themselves - at least in the long run. "The holiday season will not last forever," said Margaret, retail manager at TG Money Exchange.
"It's Christmas time so naturally we get more tourists, people coming here on holiday. But we definitely have fewer British clients, and the work with tourists doesn't balance it out," she said. "We're praying for it to stay stable."
But for French tourist Ruffino Gilles,a weak pound meant a longer holiday. "It's cheaper," he said.
Analysis, Page 9
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/922c802a-d6db-11dd-9bf7-000077b07658.html
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