I have to take a punt on the behaviour of the pound against the euro. This afternoon someone offered me 1.195 euros to the pound for transferring £50,000 to ~France. I have been studying the business and financial news but it seems no-one really knows what is going to happen in the next few weeks. It seems there are no more European currencies on the point of collapse and the pound still has problems , so I am tempted to do the transfer. I will need the money in the next six weeks to buy a flat.
Is anyone well-informed, or a good guesser?

Have a look at the graph in the link http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eurofxref/html/eurofxref-graph-gbp.en.html, it might help you to make a guess in the right direction

I'd grab it...
That seems like an excellent rate to me - it hasn't been much above that for a long time.. It was up to 1.23-ish a few weeks ago but it seems to have stabilised at the rate you're being offered.
P

1.19 doesn't sound a bad rate of exchange to me.
As to whether the rate will go up or down, "guess" in Peake's posting is the operative word ....

Carol, wish I knew! Bonne chance. There is a section on sending money abroad in the latest WHICH money magazine.

Carol,

It's been hovering around the 1.19 for the last 2 - 3 weeks, with the odd break through the 1.20 mark. I would say the rate you've been offered is pretty fair - although for the amount being tranferred, I would have thought they may have offered a slightly better rate.
But there again, we live in hard times .

Best of luck with the purchase, and we all look forward to the party .

Take it and never look at the exchange rates again.

Very wise Dave .

Yes, I think you are all right. If it does go up a bit, too bad, but I will kick myself if the pound suddenly does a nose-dive.

You have to choose a price your happy with. What if never works.

It seems to be settling round about 1.20. We recommend Baydonhill www.baydonhillfx.com ask for Mr Howard Meikle.

Basher

Thanks , everyone. Basher, I will give them a ring and get a quote.
I have currently registered with Currency Solutions and HFX - I checked them both on the FSA website to make sure they were authorised. Money remitters don't actually come within the compensations scheme, but at least I know they are bona fide firms.

http://www.moneycorp.com/

Dealt with moneycorp for years no problems and with the sum your talking about, if you check the rate from others. then negotiate for a rate with moneycorp and also get them to drop any charges.

Do you require my bank account.

I transferred my funds last Wednesday, using Currency Solutions, and it has arrived in my French account this morning. I got 1.2035 - if I had waited a day or two I could have got a bit more, but I was very happy to get anything over 1.2.
I found Currency Solutions to be very efficient and they gave me better rate than HIFX or Baydonhill.