Cheap ways to change currency?

I’ll need soon to convert 6 figures CHF (my pension fund disbursement) into EUR or USD.

For tax reasons I can’t use any broker which requires wiring any money into UK - this sadly rules out IB as their CHF wire account is in UK. What’s the next best thing?

TranferWise maybe? Or not.

They charge 0.5% AFAIK, that’s a tad too much. And London based, which is a hard no for me

0.43% according to their web site.

I don‘t think you‘ll find money transfer/remittance services for consumers that are much less expensive.

If anything, a forex trading facility at a broker might be.

If you can’t use IB, I would use TransferWise. I do not think you are going to find much cheaper than that.

Might also look here: EUR to CHF conversion

Can only say positive things about Transfer Wise. It is transparent, quick and you get notifications on every step and I was not able to find anything cheaper on the market.

You have to open an account and it sees your credentials like name, address etc. But there is no personal banking information you need to share with them. Except those where you have to send the money of course.

P.S. There is also a reffering link available, which I will not show here.

Maybe SBB if you have a GA? I am not sure about their rates.

Since it’s cash exchange, I’d be surprised if it’s less than 1% spread (prob much higher)

Maybe also contact your bank, for large sums they might offer a decent deal (remember to be explicit about fees and spread).

TransferWise are UK-based, this is a hard no for me. If I could use UK based companies I’d just use IB

What about Degiro? I heard they also have cheap FX conversion, anyone has experience with them? Do they let you take the cash out after conversion? (i.e. unlike say Swissquote where cheap conversion is only for CFD)

What’s the problem with UK-based corporations? Brexit?

Do you also have their Mastercard?

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No, but it looks very interesting as far I can see it. It is a Debit Mastercard and not a Credit Card, but the expenses are really low as I understand it. Probably similar to Revolut? Thanks for the tip with the card, especially for holidays.

I have a Neon card and am very happy with the conditions. Making Revolut obsolete for me.

iirc the advantage is that the markup from Revolut on the weekends is not added when using Transferwise or something like that. I might mix it with Neon tho.

I thought Neon still has the 1.5% markup from Mastercard for forex exchange?

Remittance taxation for non-domiciled residents

I cannot have my non-UK money touch a UK bank account else I would have to pay tax on it

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What markup do they have on fx exchange?

There’s a separate thread for Neon: Neon-bank fee free worldwide

Speaking of Neon, they have a cooperation with TransferWise. One can send money abroad from within the Neon app. In addition to the TransferWise fees, they charge 0.4%. So it’s better to go with TransferWise. I must however look into this taxing issue that you mentioned…

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