How to avoid early withdrawal fee in the context of home ownership

Real Estate
1

Hello everyone,

I’m planning to make an early withdrawal from my 3A account and my wife’s for our mortgage with UBS. Our 3A accounts are with VIAC and CIC, and I noticed both charge 300 CHF for early withdrawal. Is there any way to avoid these fees? Also, I have 3 portfolios with VIAC—does anyone know if they charge the fee for each portfolio separately?

Thanks in advance for your help!

2

The fees are for the withdrawal request, so they should charge you only once.

3

I haven’t done it myself, but when I’ve seen these Wohneigentumsförderung/WEF-Vorbezug fees, I’ve often thought “why wouldn’t I just transfer somewhere else, a few weeks before, to a 3a provider with 0 fee for a WEF-Vorbezug” .
Most of the time the transfer to another provider is free. (maybe even always due to regulations?)

There’s a table with WEF-Vorbezug fees per provider in this article.

https://finpension.ch/de/wissen/3a-konto-vergleich/

Like I say, maybe I am missing something though.

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4

I thought the same.
If investor moves their 3a to Migros bank for example, theoretically it seems there is no fees for early withdrawals for home ownership

However I think if funds are withdrawn with very short period of holding, there might be other penalties.

Either financial or just a bad look from the foundation:)

5

Why not ask ubs and transfer to them?
if you take the mortgage with them, would they accept a 0 fee on a cash 3a account?

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6

Thanks for your response.
I did ask UBS about the possibility of transferring our 3A accounts, but my concern is the delay:
VIAC mentions 31 days, while CIC states 3 months for the transfer.
VIAC seems quicker, with a transfer happening a week after the next trading day, but I’m still waiting on CIC’s response.

7

I asked VIAC to withdraw my 3A accounts two weeks ago. (You just need to pay once 300.-) otherwise you may transfer it to you bank, however they also ask for some fees when you wish to use it :slight_smile:

8

That is the logical thing to do. Thanks for sharing the useful link.

There are some banks/retirement foundations that charge a fee for closing your pillar 3a account (Swiss Life charges 50 francs, for example). There are also some that require notice for transfers (3 months notice, for example). But those are the exception more than the rule.

I’ve transferred between pillar 3a foundations a number of times as better offers became available, and the transfers were always free and pretty fast (max. 1-2 weeks, usually just days).

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