The Qatar Riyal vs UK Pound exchange Rate
By london1975 •
Hey All,
I see that the Qatar Riyal has dropped from 7.3 to 5.3 against the UK pound in the past year.
Are there any hotshot financiers on here who can offer some insight to what way this is likely to go over the next year or so. Do you think it has bottomed out and will start to rise again?
If you had the choice what would you take payment in, considering that my main expenses will be in the UK (still have a flat there and will come back here one day so want to save some cash), as all my accommodation and car expenses will be paid for in Doha by my employer.
Thanks
if you have some risk appetite (big risk=big reward) you might want to consider being paid in qatar riyal. there's been talk about the govt planning to unpeg the riyal from the US$ as early as march09. if this happens, the currency is said to be 30% undervalued. consider this....
It's swings and roundabouts. I have seen it go from
£1 = 7QR (1982)
£1 = 3.47QR (1983)
£1 = 8QR (1984)
It has been (pre 1982) as high as £1 = 11QR
The only thing saving the Pound in regard to the Riyal is that the dollar is going no where fast.
They call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to see it... --George Carlin
As many of you will know, one of the major reasons the UK pound has plummeted is that the Bank of England have been dropping interest rates like crazy over the last six months in an attempt to stimulate the UK economy.
Its my understanding that the rates are at or very near zero now so the upside (one hopes) is that sterling has reached its lowest point against the US$ and if the lower rates start to pay off and the UK economy starts to improve, we could start to see the pound recover.
Two banks in the UK that I use don't allow you to transfer money abroad unless you are in the bank itself. You can only tranfer money online to another bank within the UK from a UK bank. I have enquired about this with Abbey and Barclays.
Disagree with the bank bit. You can transfer online to and from just about any bank so pick one that suits your needs. Agree with Tallg on 'worst' bank. I use Commercial Bank and get Qmiles for credit card use - very useful for getting home for free!
Did you Google it first?
We're paid in GBP into UK accounts and have obviously felt the hit of everything becoming more expensive to buy in Doha.
But then if we'd been paid in QAR then the mortgage and other expenses back in the UK would have been more expensive to start with. It's swings and roundabouts I guess.
I know some people have it written into their contracts that they'll be compensated if the exchange rate changes drastically, or they get paid in both currencies.
We've survived here without needing a Qatar bank account. We did try HSBC but they proved to be anything but "The World's Local Bank". We could only transfer money from UK to Qatar branch if we were physically in the UK branch. Perhaps they've changed things now though.
Thanks for the responses guys.
Im heading out there on Thursday to discuss it all. The guys I will be working for all all Brits so I will discuss the ins and outs with them and see what they are doing.
You will clearly need accounts in both places. Standard Chartered and HSBC are both here representing British banks. I am with the latter. They have on-line banking and you can transfer money from your Qatar account to any other bank / any other currency without having to go near your branch. I expect most other banks here offer the same facilities. Banking charges here are generally lower than those charged in UK.
I was in a similar position to you trying to decide what currency to be paid in...the riyal is marked against the US$ at 3.6riyal to US$1. So if the dollar starts to weaken so does the riyal - so if you get paid in riyal you could stand to lose. Sending money back to the UK is pretty cheap - around £10. Possibly a safer option if you have mortgage payments and things in UK is to get a £ based salary. Plus I think it is highly unlikely for the dollar to strengthen any more against the pound - the current rate is around where it was at for years before the dollar crashed.
I agree on the hot shot financier bit!
My salary will be determined in Pounds. I may have the option to be paid in Pounds in my UK account or locally in Rayals into a local account - still working out the details on it all.
Given the present mess, I think most of us have stopped listening to "hot shot financiers."
Which currency you "take payment in" is not so important. You appreciate this currency is freely convertible. Whats more important is what currency is your salary determined in. Thats not something most employees have a choice in.