My wife, who was in England last month, recieved a check this week
from her host in the amount of 150 pounds. I told her that would
convert into approximately $300. She thought it would be about $75,
both of us assuming a 2 dollar per pound conversion rate. Her US
checking account ledger, which just came in the mail yesterday, shows
a $150 deposit. Who is right?

Hello bradt304,

You are more correct than your wife on this account. The check would
convert to approximately $300.

You can easily check currency conversions with an online currency
converter such as xe.com.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Just type in the two currencies you're dealing with and you get how
much the rate is at the current exchange rate!

150.00 GBP
United Kingdom Pounds 	= 	280.649 USD

 1 GBP = 1.87099 USD  	 	 1 USD = 0.534475 GBP

It's a very convenient tool. The easiest way to perform a quick
conversion is to approximate that a pound is currently about two
dollars, as you did.

If you need any other assistance, ask for clarification and I'll be glad to help!

--keystroke-ga

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Clarification of Answer by keystroke-ga on 08 Oct 2006 08:17 PDT

You also may want to contact her bank ASAP if they seriously credited
her with only $150... there's quite a difference between that and
$280.

I suspect that your wife may have paid in the check in the usual way
and a bank clerk simply assumed that it was for a $ ammount.

The correct procedure is to call the bank clerk's attention to the
fact that it was a £ check.

Banks usually make a charge for negotiating a foreign check. I would
consider up to $20 reasonable.