I moved in this topic the following trick from @hedgehog that was lost in another category of the forum
I think I may have just found a way to transfer money to Interactive Brokers for free through PostFinance.
I’ve just looked at how BCGE treats IB’s Citibank IBAN - they automatically recognize payment to it as a domestic transfer to BC 89095. That’s why I didn’t get asked stupid questions about SHA/BEN/OUR. Entering a BC number manually in PostFinance UI allows you to enter a domestic payment as well. I’ll learn on Monday how it goes
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I use a “trading account” 'cause I still have ETF’s with them. I think it should work the same with “private banking” but I’m not sure about this…
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I’m not sure I’ve understood correctly. Can you elaborate a little bit further once you are confirmed it works ? Thanks !
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That would be awesome! Then I wouldn’t need a Swissquote tunneling account! Please let us know if it worked out.
And there’s no monthly account fee for a trading account?
You pay custody fees (0.025% quarterly, min CHF 15, max CHF 50 - excl. VAT) that means a minimum of about 65 CHF year
As a proxy account to transfer money to IB, it’s probably better to take Swissquite Savings account:
https://www.swissquote.ch/sqw-static/savings/fees/transaction_fees.jsp?l=en
Maintainance is free and outgoing payments cost CHF 2.
I’m sending money to a Citibank’s postal account that according to PostFinance corresponds to Citibank’s BC-number 89095, with a note please credit it to this final beneficiary account. This is a domestic transfer, so there should be no charges from PostFinance here.
[quote=“weirded, post:17, topic:296”]
You pay custody fees (0.025% quarterly, min CHF 15, max CHF 50 - excl. VAT) that means a minimum of about 65 CHF year[/quote]
They only charge custody fees when you hold any securities with them. An empty or cash-only trading account is free
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Where did you get the swiss IBAN displayed in your previous post (CH29 0900 …) ?
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By searching for that BC number in PostFinance UI:
It’s also published on SIC website: https://www.six-interbank-clearing.com/de/home/bank-master-data/inquiry-bc-number.html
If I screwed up and money goes to a wrong recipient, it’s not a very big deal - within Switzerland I can claim it back from the recipient as unjustified enrichment (Art. 62 OR, Art. 137 StGB).
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Hmm, so it didn’t work so far as I can see so far, or takes longer than usual. I’ll talk to Citi later unless they would automatically bounce the payment in the next few days
Another idea to try out is transferring to IBAN slapped together by hand from BC code (89095) and IB’s account number (10569674) at Citi: CH20 8909 5000 0105 6967 4
Schwab’s wire instructions here use a similar IBAN for the same Citibank, so I’m more confident it’d work
http://international.schwab.com/public/international/nn/open_an_account/wire_instructions.html
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Yay, it went through at the end of the business day! Full amount arrived, no charges. I’ll try IBAN thing next
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Woohoo! That’s awesome news @hedgehog. Thanks for letting us know.
Now I don’t need the Swissquote account for wiring to IB. I already have 3rd pillar at LUKB, personal at PostFinance + two Polish accounts, investment at CT and now I’m pending for approval of IB account. That’s already insane.
Transfer via IBAN (CH20…) also worked as i expected and was much faster, credit same morning
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That’s fantastic news. By the way, what information you had to provide in the form to ask Citi to transfer the money to your IB account?
I posted above the form for the transfer through postal account - just the final recipient IBAN is needed. For transfer through CH IBAN nothing besides your IB account and name in the message, just substitute GB35 IBAN
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Hey,
would any of you (who seem to be well in the matter) make a new thread that summarizes all the relevant information from this thread? for all those ppl that will arrive at this forum in future 
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tldr summary is use this IBAN: CH20 8909 5000 0105 6967 4 instead of GB35 CITI 1850 0810 5696 74 when transferring CHF to IB, it’ll go through swiss interbank clearing instead of SWIFT and is free of charge with any swiss bank as a domestic transfer
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Hi @nugget! I haven’t tested that method yet - still waiting for the IB account. I think though it’s perfect material for a @_MP 's blog post, but he seems to not be a user of his own forum. 
Despite the fact my original idea wasn’t too good, we’ve got a much better one So there’s nothing like bad idea, just something that ignites a better one
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