I will also add Revolut. A quick account opening is required and I wouldn’t deposit everything at once, but it might be better. No fixed fees, so you can exchange in as many tranches as you want.
Meanwhile, I found the following information on the Neon website. So is Neon working with Wise?
I note that the fees are reduced for a transfer from CHF to foreign currency, but is this also the case in the other direction, from EUR to CHF?
see neon te propose des virements moins chers et plus rapides vers l’étranger
Revolut might be a bit risky though, since they might ask where that money came from and then just freeze your account while you deal with their kafkaesque bullshit.
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Neon+Wise offers outgoing transfers from CHF to another currency. If you need EUR->CHF then you can use Wise directly.
Yes I heard these stories, but there are probably similar stories about Wise. Or not?
For Wise such conversion transfers are their main business though, so I’d expect it to go more smoothly with them.
While Revolut is more like a personal bank account or prepaid credit card…
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I made once a 100k transfer with Wise and I just had to fill a form giving some context.
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OK Thanks for your feedback. I think I will go with Wise 
Thanks for the clarification. It was not really clear if low fees were for CHF to foreign currencies or for both directions. So I will go with Wise I think. 
Thanks for your feedback really appreciated! 
I am interested in amounts less than 1000 CHF/month.
Data:
- Revolut has added a hidden fee of ~0.5% on currency conversions recently. You can see that if you try to convert back and forth CHF to EUR.
- Wise also has some fees that make it unattractive, that are added after the nice exchange rates that they advertise on their side.
- Interactive Brokers has a minimum fee of 2$ for currency conversions that are not automatic.
My thought process:
- For an amount of 500 CHF to EUR, I see the cost on Revolut being about 2.5 CHF.
- For the corresponding amount in IB, I would pay about 2 CHF.
- From IB, I only have one free withdrawal per month.
- There is possibly some fees from IB to local bank (I use ZKB), but I didn’t notice anything when I transferred CHF in the past.
My conclusion:
- If I withdraw once per month EUR, for an amount over 400 CHF or so, going through IB is cheaper.
Is the thought process above correct?
It should be okay, but it seems like too much work and you dont really save a lot of money for 1000 CHF per month.
Revolut has fair usage policy. So for 1000 CHF per month, there should not be any surcharge. Are you sure that Revolut charges 0.5% for exchanging from CHF to EUR?
Thanks for checking my calculations.
As for the fee, right now, Saturday, I see:
1000 EUR → 925.17 (after 9.35 charges)
947.11 CHF → 1000 EUR
We subtrack the fee, since I can plan to avoid currency weekend fees:
947.11 - 925.17 - 9.35 = 12.59 which is close to 1%. Nevertheless, this is for two conversions (EUR → CHF → EUR), so for each conversion, the hidden fee should be around 0.5%.
There are a few Swiss neobanks like neon, or Alpian, but dude, are you seriously concerned about paying 2.5 CHF?
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It is actually less, given that the best option (IB) also seems to also have charges.
Nevertheless, I wanted to check my math to make sure I make a rational conscious decision.
From the links you sent, it seems Alpian is more expensive. Would be curious about the Mastercard exchange rate and how it compares with the one from Revolut.
I don’t think anything is hidden . Following fees apply
- there is a weekend surcharge 1%
- there is a extra fee above 1000 GBP per month exchanges , another 1%
Your total transaction was 2000 CHF and hence the second transaction had a higher fee.
If you want to do more than 1000 GBP transactions in a month, then Revolut will apply 1% surcharge for free accounts. Premium accounts might have lower surcharge
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I didn’t execute any of the transactions. The extra fees are displayed by Revolut and I tried to remove them. You can try also yourself if you doubt my methodology. As for the weekend charges, you can wait until Monday and you will see it the same results.
Charges that are not displayed, I consider them hidden. Revolut does charge 0.5%. That’s a fact and the test for it is quite simple.
Having said all that, it is likely still the best way to exchange small amounts of currency.
Ahh okay.
I thought these were actual transactions
Yeah I think for small amount Revolut is good. I use it for CHF to Euro when travelling
Check out wiLLBe.
My currency exchange EUR-CHF “cost” 0.1% by my calculations => I got 0.1% less than Interbank rate at that time.
That’s 50 cents for e500.
You can have EUR, CHF and USD accounts.
Good interest rates too.
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Wise has 0.4% fee. Is that really not good enough?
Going through IB you save 1- max. 2 CHF/month for a big hassle. Is that really worth it? I’m pretty sure you can way more easily optimize other cost to safe that equivalent amount, without more work.
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