CNN
CNN are renowned for being the first truly global 24 hour a day news channel and the inspiration for many copy-cat channels since. They are also very much on the ball when it comes to the use of the internet as a medium for disseminating information. While the CNN site may not be as popular as Reuters or Bloomberg or Yahoo!, it does contain a large array of features, tools and information that are very useful for anyone interested in currency.
Take me to the site! How do I get there?
The basic link for the home page is easy – it’s www.cnn.com. If you want to get directly to the main page you need for the currency converter, you need to visit http://money.cnn.com/data/currencies/.
What does the site offer?
The currency page is kept mercifully simple and that counts in its favour. At the top left of the page (below the menus) is a cross rate table. The table consists of only four currencies – the British pound (GBP), US dollar (USD), Japanese yen (JPY) and the Euro (EUR). This means you can tell at a glance what the relevant rates are. When it comes to the normal cross rate tables you have to read them like a chart.
You can also read the latest currency news items on this particular section of the site, although there are also plenty of other money related stories in the news section of the website. There is certainly plenty here to get stuck into, and you could spend ages browsing round!
And of course as you would expect from a big name company like CNN, there isn’t any worthy news here that you wouldn’t be able to get your hands on. You only need to visit the home page to see how comprehensive their site is, and as they report on the latest news stories, that front page changes quite a lot throughout the day.
What is their currency converter like?
The currency converter appears as a tabbed option on the cross rates table, and as you will see it is extremely easy and quick to use. If you wanted to convert $5,000 Singapore dollars to Hungarian Forints you would start by filling in the box labelled “Amount”.
For the sake of simplicity it is easier to enter any amount of base currency without any currency symbol, or number delimiter, such as commas for thousands. So in the case of this example it is better to simply enter 5000 than to enter 5,000. We might recognise both as the same thing, but computer programs can get confused by things like this.
The next selection to make is the actual base currency itself. This should be done using the drop-down box labelled “From”. There is a list of nineteen to choose from here. The USD and Euro appear first, but after that the currencies follow a vaguely alphabetical procession based on the country name and not the currency. One thing you’ll notice is that no currency comes with its three letter ISO code.
For this example, you would select Singapore Dollars in the “from” box. Directly underneath the “from” box is the “to” box, where you select the destination currency. As before there are the same nineteen currencies listed in the same format and order. In our example this is where you would select Hungarian Forint.
Directly below this is the “Convert” button. Click this to get the conversion you are after. The page reloads and in the white space to the right of the converter is the answer you need written out in full. In our case it would look something like this - 5,000.00 Singapore Dollar = 600,000.00 Hungarian Forint. This is just an example of course; the amount will vary depending on the actual exchange rate at the time.
So this is a good currency converter all in all. The only niggle is that you have to wonder why a company as big as CNN did not include many more than just nineteen potential source and destination currencies. With that said though, the conversion tool is very easy to use and ideal if you are sticking to the main currencies.
Supposing I need some help and advice – can they help me with that?
They certainly can. All you need to do is to scroll right down to the bottom of the screen you are on. You’ll notice a small link down the bottom on the left hand side which simply says ‘contact us’.
Clicking on that will take you into another screen. This may not look as though it will provide a lot of help to begin with, but if you look more closely you will see a picture of a computer on the left. Click on that and you will go into the contact page that will bring you help if you need it.
The first thing you should know about this page is that any up to date problems or issues will be notified here, which is useful as it might prevent you having to contact them in the first place anyway.
Secondly there is a contact form below that you can use if you need to get in touch with them for any reason. Quick and easy to use, it can get you the help you need.
In conclusion
CNN is a monster of a website, but it doesn’t forget the essential services – like a currency converter for example – that everyone needs. Hopefully it will add more and more currencies to the converter in the near future, but if you need something very basic it really nails it completely.
Why not give it a try now?
Rating (out of five stars)
We’re giving this site four stars out of five. It’s a good site with an easy to use currency converter, and the only thing that lets it down is the lack of currencies to get exchange rates for. Top marks for the efficiency of what it does… but it could add more!
- 4 Stars
Link: http://money.cnn.com/data/currencies