The US Dollar has been dropping like a rock lately and this has many online financial services looking for safer options.
Even online poker networks are moving away from US Dollar accounts in favor of the Euro. This should be no big surprise for anyone since the UEIGA prohibits play and US gamblers are no longer a ‘target market’. However, when you read the poker network’s reasoning for dropping the dollar, they don’t even mention of the new laws. It seems their actions are mostly due to, “…a possible response to the devaluation of the US Dollar” or “…limit their[customers] exposure to currency exchange fluctuations.” *Gamingintelligencegroup.com
Do you want to help preserve the purchasing power of your online funds?
If your answer is YES, then your best bet might be to move those online funds into a gold backed digital currency account like Pecunix, Webmoney Gold (WMG), C-gold or even GoldMoney. Gold has for thousands of years been a safe store of value.
However, if digital gold currency is not a possibility at this point in time, you may want to switch your current account(s) to a non-USD denominated option like the Euro. Accounts held in Euros, or another strong global currency, can help protect your online purchasing power from a falling US Dollar. Since most digital money accounts are backed by national currencies, the option you choose can have a dramatic effect on the purchasing power of your balance over time.
When offered different currency options, which do you select and why?
PayPal offers multiple options from a list of 16 national currencies. You can toggle one or several national currencies to hold your PayPal balance(s). In all PayPal accounts, the Manage Currency table displays the currencies in which you can maintain a balance. One convenient option PayPal allows is a quick currency conversion. From their selection page in your account, you have the option of converting funds from one currency balance into another.
Moneybookers allows new account holders to select their primary account currency at the time of opening the account. Again, you may want to look at the Euro or another strong currency such as the CAD or AUD and right now avoid a USD backed account. About a year ago [Oct] if you wanted to convert US Dollars to Euros, one Euro would have cost you about $1.25 USD and today that same Euro will cost you about $1.40 USD.
The Euro and the Canadian dollar are both at all time highs against the US Dollar. This fact is easy to recognize from all the Canadian shoppers pouring across the border into the US on extended shopping trips for merchandise and real estate!
While your funds are on deposit in a Digital Gold Currency account, the balance is in denominated in gold and not currency. Consequently if you read the balance on a GoldMoney account, you will see those number as gold grams or Troy ounces. A Pecunix balance of 2, does not mean 2$ it usually means 2 gold grams (about $48).
In the second part of this series I’ll take a closer look at how why a gold balance is a very good thing in today’s world.
