Hey,
I dont know if many people have though about this, but the GBP (£) is now worth a lot more than the USD.
At the minute £1 = $1.81 and $1 = £0.55

I think this is making it a lot harder for not only hosts from the UK selling in $, but all other businesses.
The price of products and services outside the net, ie. in the countries using the $ and £ have not changed.
This means that charging in $ on the net is now worth a lot less to anyone from the UK, but still just the same for anyone from the US.

Its a lot better for anyone buying on the internet from the UK and paying by $ but for those running a business on the net, its starting to lose a lot of its appeal.

I know its a lot harder for me now, unless I am buying and selling in $, which I can only do on the net.
The money I make from the net has gone gone by quite a lot, its a lot of money lost when you try make a living from the net.

I have been considering charging in £ recently because its a lot more stable, but this would mean a lot of people from the states would considering me to be overcharging, which is may well be for their country, but it would still be a normal price for me to pay for something here.

This means if someone buys an account which is $10 and pays through paypal, this is what a UK host would expect:

$10 - $0.30 and 2.9% paypal fees
That leaves $9.41
$9.41 = £5.18

£5.18 is really nothing in the UK, the minimum wage for a 22 year old and over is £4.50 (£4.85 in October 2004)

Just so you know how much things cost in Ireland anyway:
2 litre bottle of coke/fanta/sprite etc. : £1.30
512k cable connection: £30/monthly
Bar of chocolate: £0.40
1 litre of petrol: £0.80 (compared to around £0.25 in the US)
Vodka and red bull out anywhere..: £4.80

Thats just so you have an idea of the cost of various things here.

When you count up all the costs, software, servers, support etc etc it really doesnt add up to much at the end when taking the money out in GBP

I think if hosts from the UK were living in the US, they would live a better and higher quality of life for the same amount of money they are making.

I thought thought I would point this out to anyone that hasnt thought about it because I think the strong £ is making things worse and worse...

Come on people, get that $ up compared to the £!!!

John I have a suggestion for you.

When people go to your site. Have a main splash screen which will allow them to select their nationality....Then have 2 sites for your hosting company.... that way you can charge $ for people in the US and pounds for the people in the UK.

You could always open up a bank account in the USA and just use an ATM card to pull the money out in the UK. Its only like $3 for every $500 you take out. So it's not like you are losing a bunch of money on the transaction ( I did this while back in London visiting family ).

As far as the $ being worth less than the £. Thats a good thing... just means when you get your vacation time and you come to the US, you will feel like a high money roller

[b]Just so you know how much things cost in MICHIGAN, USA[b]
2 litre bottle of coke/fanta/sprite etc. : $0.99
256k UP/ 3mbit DOWN cable connection: $29.95
Bar of chocolate: $0.75
1 Gallon (3 liters??) of petrol: $1.62
Vodka and red bull out anywhere..: $4.50
Minimum wage = $5.65 i think....
Having sex with your girlfriend after a $80 tab at the local Pub. . . Priceless

John,

I know what you mean. I was hosting some backup files on a UK host and it was £5 p/m and came out to about $10 US.

Now, if that was $5 US for the same UK host then that would be more like £2.50 or so for the host.

I see the problem and really don't know of any solution. It has to do with the market and how well each currency is doing.

Yea, I can see some people making a killer off this. Buy from another country when that currency is lower then the other and vise versa.

Yeah its great for buying Robert, but when your selling online, it evens it out, and sometimes makes it a lot worse because of the stong £.

This cable is 512 down and 128 up Jon and its almost double the price

A bar of chocolate is the only thing thats near the same price in that list hehe

I really hate the cost of running a car for petrol here, in the states you can buy a huge Jeep which sinks the petrol like an irish man with beer on St Paddy's day and it would still cost around the same as running a small car in the UK, maybe even less.

Just that alone is a huge advantage to living in the states.
Include that and the currency exchange rate would make me a very happy man to move to the states for a bit

John,

I would hate to drive my truck in your country because of the cost. I have a Chevy Silverado and is drinks gas like it is no body's business. I filled it up last week at a $1.66 per gallon (about 23 gallons) was about $40. The gas should last 2weeks hopefully.

I can see that would be double where you are at

It evens out though so it shouldn't really matter

It doesn't really even out though as everything within Ireland and the UK isn't in $$, meaning a lot is lost, it only evens out for online business.
I would far rather the same currency was used, it might mean Im not making a profit from buying online, but it means I lose out on a lot less offline, which is where most of my money is still spent

John,

Which part of ireland are you from? I thought they switched to euros?

(Apologies for bringing up a 3 week old thread).

Wow turnkey - that thing only has a 20 odd gallon tank, should be at least double that. Only gets it half way over a hill

Hey rwaforums
Don't worry about it.

I'm in Belfast, technically its part of the UK so we use sterling here instead of Euros.

Euros used to be a really bad price compared to sterling but its becoming a lot stronger lately.
Haven't looked at how the Euro is doing in a while though, just know it came up a good bit against Sterling