World Cup host assures fans good exchange rates

The Post Office revealed that football fans could expect good foreign currency rates for the 2010 World Cup tournament. A recent foreign exchange holiday spending study from the Post Office highlighted that the South African rand, a fast-growing foreign currency, has a favourable exchange rate to pound.

Thousands of World Cup fans are undoubtedly planning to take a trip to South Africa to cheer for the English team in next year’s tournament finals. And if the country’s current money conversion rates stay put until next summer, football match goers could at least have assurance that their cash could go further when the game kicks off.

The report also stated that South Africa’s cost of living is cheaper compared to other previous World Cup hosts. For example, a bottle of beer costs a reasonable £1.69.

In addition to reporting South Africa’s foreign exchange rates, the Post Office had also undertaken a research on football fans’ spending practices when travelling to earlier World Cup host countries to watch live matches. The recent survey from the Post Office Foreign Exchange of over 1,000 game followers revealed that 41 per cent had gone abroad in the previous three years just to support the English team.

The research had also stated that football supporters are knowledgeable travellers particularly when it comes to foreign exchange rates and travel budgeting. About 73 per cent of the respondents said that they purchase their travel money before flying abroad to avoid transaction fees and less favourable foreign currency rates.