British Pound Sterling to Australian Dollar exchange rates aren't all the same.
The total cost you are charged by your bank or foreign exchange provider consists of a margin from the interbank mid-rate plus fees.
These margins and fees vary significantly for International Money Transfers and Travel Money transactions as shown below.
At 1.8653 GBP/AUD is trading 1.8% above its 90-DAY average with range 1.7734 to 1.8983. There are no current alerts. Updated: 08:01-AEDT21:01-GMT16:01-EST
Exchange rates can vary significantly depending on the transaction type (transfer, cash or card), currency pair and amount. The below table shows an example of total costs charged by FX specialists and banks for GBP/AUD International Money Transfers. Costs are calculated against the current interbank mid-rate.
Example of the margins and possible savings when you order travel money online with a currency specialist rather than in-person from banks and currency kiosks.
In early August the US labels China a "currency manipulator" pushing the GBP/AUD rate back up through the 1.8 level. Brexit and 2019's RBA policy shift are the dominating themes for GBP/AUD. A "no deal" Brexit is likely to induce exchange rates near A$1.60, HSBC has said. Read more
GBP and AUD in the Markets
When determining the best time to make a foreign exchange transaction, in this case the GBP vs AUD, you should pay attention to the recent market trends for both currencies.
British Pound Sterling (GBP)
Sterling has climbed more than 5 per cent in October since Boris Johnson announced a new Brexit agreement with Brussels that has reduced the possibility of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal. Pound valuations will continue to fluctuate based on Brexit No-deal, Deal and Remain probabilities. Currency strategists predict that gains in the pound would remain limited for now while parties prepared their election campaigns.
The pound would be doing far worse if it weren't receiving some support from the Bank of England which, surprisingly, is the only major central bank still considering higher interest rates in 2019.
Earlier in the year the pound was the worst-performing major currency by some margin. It slipped in late June to multi-month lows against a number of important currencies, including the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, euro, Canadian dollar and Swiss franc.
At the end of October the AUD surged to a three month high against the US dollar following the third rate cut in a year by the US Federal Reserve. The gains were mainly due to the fall in the US dollar after the market sensed that US rates are more likely to rise now than fall further.
The RBA also added to the positive sentiment with an optimistic assessment of easing risks from the US-China trade war and Brexit. Accordingly markets are pulling back from bets that the cash rate will drop to 0.5 per cent and the possible start of quantitative easing.
Interestingly, AUD has decoupled from commodity prices in 2019. The price of iron ore (Australia’s largest export) nears multi-year highs while AUD languishes.
Further RBA interest rate cuts this year are now a certainty, and that doesn’t bode well for currency valuations. Westpac has predicted three cuts this year.
Why can't I just get the GBP/AUD market rate I see online or in the media?
The mid-rate is the rate you will see quoted online or the news. It is actually just the half-way point (hence mid-rate) between
the last rate at which the GBP / AUD was traded (bought or sold) in the international markets.
All foreign exchange providers charge a fee for providing their service and this fee is usually contained within the exchange rate margin (or difference to the mid-rate).
Some providers such as Transferwise will quote you the mid-rate (or close to) and charge a separate percentage fee.
Getting a good market rate is mainly about timing however the transaction margin
you end up being charged can be considerably reduced by around a few percent (of total amount being exchanged) for
travel money and possibly over 5% to 6% when sending money.
The exact potential savings depends on the currencies being exchanged and the amount you are transferring and if you are willing to shop around.
