facebook rss twitter

Are you benefitting from the stronger pound?

by Scott Bicheno on 30 June 2009, 07:00

Tags: eBuyer, SCAN

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qasuw

Add to My Vault: x

HEXUS.bang4pound

The beleaguered British pound has, for some reason, strengthened significantly against the dollar and the euro since its nadir in March, when you could get around $1.35 and €1.05 for your quid.

The exchange rates today stand at $1.65 and €1.17 respectively and, given that pretty much all technology products are originally priced in dollars, we thoughts we'd look at the prices of a few items in the US and see how they compare with what you have to pay over here.

To provide a cross section of the market we looked at a desktop, a netbook, a CPU, a graphics card and an external HDD. In most cases we looked at newegg in the US and both SCAN and Ebuyer in the UK. For the Dell desktop we went direct.

The US prices are listed without sales tax whereas the UK ones include VAT, so to gauge a UK equivalent price we have divided the US price by 1.65 and added 15 percent. This gives you a rough idea of whether the current dollar exchange rate is being represented in UK prices.

 

  US ($) UK equivalent (£) UK/SCAN (£) Ebuyer (£)
Intel Core i7 920 retail 279.99 200 212.95 217.78
BFG GTX 260 MAXCORE OCX 179.99 128 180.27 -
Dell Studio XPS desktop 749 534 679 -
Acer Aspire One 11.6" 1GB 379.99 270 - 371.72
WD Mybook Essential 1TB 119.49 85 76.75 77.58

 

The table above provides only a snapshot of what we're paying for our technology compared to the US but, perhaps unsurprisingly, we tend to pay more. The major discrepancies occur with complete systems, with around a 30 percent premium being paid in the UK.

The more immersed in the channel a product is, and the more competition there is among e-tailers, the better deal we seem to get over here. That could just be a coincidence, but there's certainly no obvious reason for some of the discrepancies we found.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Just shows that we get ripped off all the time.

The problem is its us as customers that let this happen. If we didn't by a product because it was priced to high and waited, then the price would have to drop much more quickly so that the E-Tailer could sell there stock off.

1) we pay way to much vat on some thing before it hits our hands
2) Import Duty is stupid
3) To many hands in to many pockets.
4) Loss leaders still going on !!!! though it was supposed to be illegal.
mayhem
Just shows that we get ripped off all the time.

The problem is its us as customers that let this happen. If we didn't by a product because it was priced to high and waited, then the price would have to drop much more quickly so that the E-Tailer could sell there stock off.
Alternatively we must feel that the products are worth what we're paying for them - these are luxuries for personal use after all. For business use just pass the cost onto your customer.

1) we pay way to much vat on some thing before it hits our hands
Our VAT is the joint lowest in Europe, and not paid by businesses at this point anyway.

2) Import Duty is stupid
Agreed, but it doesn't apply to every product and is an incentive to manufacture in Britain.
3) To many hands in to many pockets.
Sounds kinky, but I'm not sure what you mean.
4) Loss leaders still going on !!!! though it was supposed to be illegal.
I thought you were complaining that we're being ripped off - a loss leader can't be a rip off. And there's nothing illegal about them.

At the end of the day the pound still isn't *that* strong, and the comparison that has the most effect is with Asian currencies rather than the Euro or Dollar.
kalniel
At the end of the day the pound still isn't *that* strong, and the comparison that has the most effect is with Asian currencies rather than the Euro or Dollar.

+1. The pound is just about ok, but I wouldn't say strong. I need to buy a whole load of travel money dollars and I can't decided whether it's best to hold out longer or buy now.
GheeTsar
+1. The pound is just about ok, but I wouldn't say strong.
Indeed. Last time I went to America we were getting practical $2 to the £. Last time I bought Euros I got around 1.50 to the £. So the current exchange rate is nothing to write home about.
GheeTsar
I need to buy a whole load of travel money dollars and I can't decided whether it's best to hold out longer or buy now.
If you're actually going to America (rather than talking dollars to use in other countries that accept them) don't bother. Pay on your card or draw money from cash machines while you're there. Banks give you mid market rates, and even if you pay card charges you'll still get a better deal than paying tourist rates, either at home or abroad.
mayhem
Just shows that we get ripped off all the time.

Er, no it doesn't. The hard drive's US price is the equivalent of £85 but you can get it from Scan for £76.75.