How to Convert United States Dollars to British Pounds
Converting U.S. dollars to British pounds is a matter of checking the daily exchange rate and doing the math. Both currencies are considered "hard," or stable, currencies and do not fluctuate much from day to day. There can, however, be dramatic fluctuations within a year, so you should check the exchange rates often.
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Things You'll Need
- Online currency exchange-rate service
- Amount of money to be exchanged
- Calculator
- Currency exchange kiosk or large bank branch
Instructions
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Calculate the exchange rate
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Banks calculate exchange rates among all the world's currencies for the purposes of interbank loans. Use a financial services online site to check the exchange rate. Forex is very reputable and gives real-time exchange rates using the internationally accepted abbreviations for each currency, Great Britain pounds (GBP) and United States dollars (USD).
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Go to Forex's currency exchange site (see References) and check the current rates. The rate will be presented in a ratio for how much GBP it costs to buy one USD and how many dollars it will cost to buy one GBP. The GBP has been valued more than the USD for most of the last 50 years, so each USD will buy some fraction of a GBP. Each pound will buy more than one USD.
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Multiply the number of dollars you wish to exchange by the current rate of the GBP. For example, if the daily exchange rate is .65 GBP to one USD, and you want to exchange 100 USD, your 100 USD will purchase 65 GBP. The reverse will work as well, but you must divide. If you have 100 GBP, divide 100 by the daily rate to find how many USD you can buy. At a rate of .65, 100 GBP will buy 153.84 USD.
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Take the amount of USD you want to exchange to a bank or exchange kiosk and exchange them for GBP.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are traveling to Great Britain or Northern Ireland (together they make up the United Kingdom), take a small amount of GBP with you to use at the airport.
You will get a better exchange rate in the U.K. than you will in the U.S.
Try to avoid exchanging money at airports or train stations.
You can obtain the best exchange rate by using your ATM card in a British bank machine. However, you might be charged a fee by both the British bank and your own bank. Check with your bank before you leave home to see if it charges a fee for currency exchange.
Once you have found a good rate with little or no commission fee, change a large amount of money to avoid running out of currency and being forced to exchange at an unfavorable rate.
Currency exchange is itself a market, and like most markets, the price for any item varies from store to store. Most exchange kiosks and many banks will charge a fee for currency exchange, so shop around. Also, not all give the same rate, and most do not offer the bank rate, so the actual amount of GBP you receive will probably be less than what you have calculated online.
Make sure to refresh your browser window before using the Forex exchange rate. The rate fluctuates minutely constantly.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit good exchange rate image by Christopher Nolan from Fotolia.com
