Getting USD out of a PostFinance account

Investing / Funding & Currency conversions
1

Hey folks,

does anyone know of a good way to get USD out of a PostFinance account. I own ETFs which pay dividends in USD, so this will be a recurring problem for me. At the moment, I have tried 3 ways, none of which are good:

  1. Convert to CHF directly in PF. Seems like the best option for now, but rather bad exchange rate.
  2. Take out USD cash. It costs $5 + 1% of the sum, so very expensive.
  3. Transfer USD to Revolut. Seemed like a great option, but turned out to be rather expensive. PF took a CHF 2 fee, and then on a $500 transfer the intermediary bank took around $8 (worse yet, I was not told how much it would cost before executing the transfer).

Any ideas for me?

2

Best option: Get rid of Postfinance. Buy your ETFs with a broker with normal exchange rates like IB.

You basically have all your options already figured out.
Also worth checking out might be Transferwise

But usually it’s:
Small sums (~sub 1k): Directly in PF, Large sums: Revolut

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3

Not always a good answer. Someone here want to use PF as a second broker to avoid having all eggs in one basket. Only to hold ETFs.

I unfortunately have no idea how to get the USD. I have also a problem with USD. I have some USD cash and have no idea where I can put them other than my mattress :slight_smile:

Are your USD on a PF USD account?

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4

I have a (free) account in USD in PF.

5

Stay the heck away from swiss brokers

This comes with a steep price as OP discovered

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6

Is the price really that steep? I have not made the detailed calculation of the expenses, so I am not sure. But I feel more comfortable holding my savings with an entity like PF, rather than say IB. I understand other people may feel differently.

7

For any leftover cash, I just exchange at forex rates with friends or colleagues who travel. Either to the US itself, or to other countries where US are accepted (parts of the Americas). At least for USD/EUR/GBP it wouldn‘t take long to find someone who‘s happy to take some from me. Though I‘m not really a cash person


8

For amounts below 1k, try to minimise fixed per transaction fees (fees for bank transfers, cash withdrawals).

Can’t you have PostFinance just credit the dividends in CHF to your account? Sure, you might lose 1% or so on the exchange rate, but for smaller amounts that‘s often better than paying fixed fees.

9

Hi all
just to update the community, as it might be of help for someone else. I recently transferred 18k USD from PF to IB and I was charged 15 USD (!) by the intermediary bank plus 2.21 usd by PF.
Not a cheap option


10

You only paid <0.1%. Cheap is a relative concept

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11

Sure, and I prefer that over converting it to CHF through PF!
But it is also relative to how many times you need to do the transfer
this thread was opened by sb mentioning recurring transactions and, in that case, the transaction fee would be less cheap!

Also, compared to bank tranfers of CHF and EUR through PF it might be considered relatively expensive


13

Pretty inexpensive for a five-figure SWIFT transfer. Especially PostFinance’s own fees of only 2 CHF.
15 USD for the intermediary isn’t unusual at all either.

CHF would probably incur similar fees to your USD transfer when sent as a SWIFT transfer. Only Swiss domestic transfers are cheap/basically free (though it should be noted that Interactive Brokers’ CHF account in London can be reached through the Swiss clearing system).

Same is true for SEPA EUR transfers, which are cheap as well.

1 Like
14

It makes sense!
Thanks all for your insight

15


 cheap indeed!

and I guess, one has to distinguish between a USD cash account at PF (e-finance) and USD within e-trading
?

I’ve never paid more than 2 CHF sending USD out of my cash account (+ fees to an intermediary bank on the receiving side in some cases, e.g. 15 USD sending to IB).

16

Can you even transfer cash out of the e-trading account to somewhere outside Pf? It’s not an account that shows in my pulldown menu of “account to debit” when I start a transfer.

17


 then probably not? I’m not familiar with e-trading
 It was a guess as I never faced the fees OP is writing about (“costs $5 + 1%”) and he’s writing in context of dividends (-> e-trading)


18

Any news? Is it possible to transfer USD from E-Trading to IB (base currency CHF). Do I need to change my base currency in IB to USD first?

19

IB can receive funds in USD that’s not a problem. Tho do expect some wire fees. Depending on the amount might still be cheaper to convert to CHF first.

20

No, base currency at IB has no meaning for such transfers.
Set up a deposit notification for the transfer at IB, there it’ll ask you “what currency are u transferring?”. When you say “USD” you get an IB account (in USD) at a bank in New York to transfer to.
It’ll probably cost Fr 5-10 at Postfinance, and another 5-10 on the way, so it’s definitely better to transfer CHF’s. But ja, if you already have the USD’s then transfer USD’s.
(Ist Englisch ok? Sorry, mir ist erst nachher die Sprache der Frage aufgefallen.)

21

Thank you. Do I need to have a deposit account in E-Finance in USD? My brain interchanges the language, both are fine :sweat_smile: