How to Send Money to Your Interactive Broker's account for free

[ajPT]

@demian91

Just one question: If you sent CHF and you want to buy USD based funds do you need to convert manually the balance in your account via a Forex trade? If so how does it work?

Yes.

You can follow the steps bojack described here:

Interactive Brokers for dummies

Alright, I’ll check it out for the next transfer. Thanks! So the simple instruction for dummies of your first purchase at IB would be: Transfer 10’000 CHF to IB using the CH IBAN (not GB) Login to WebTrader, check that you have 10’000 CHF Click on the Forex tab, enter CHF, look for the CHF.USD Enter the amount 10’000 and choose the type SELL You should now have 0 CHF and everything converted to USD Go to Stocks tab and type in VT, select the type BUY What I’m not so aware of: how safe it is…

If the base currency of your account is USD, you can follow the steps as described.

If it is in CHF, you need to “discount” the commission fee when converting, as I said here:

Interactive Brokers for dummies

I managed to do it successfully the way @Bojack said and paid 1,97 CHF commission to convert my CHF to USD. Basically I’ve put the full amount I wanted to convert and pressed “preview order” to check the commission. There, it said the commission will be 1,97 CHF for the amount I wanted to convert, so I modified my order to subtracted this commission (tbh, I subtracted 5 CHF to be on the safe side, but then 3 CHF stayed in my account). This was the way I’ve found to not have negative CHF balan…

[Mr.Paprika]

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to transfer again some CHF to my IB account, and this message popped up before I could do the details for the transaction.

“ CHF carries a negative interest rate as imposed by the relevant central bank. This means that you will actually pay interest to keep this currency with the broker rather than earning interest (this is because the broker, in turn, must pay interest to the banks in which it keeps client funds denominated in this currency).”

I made a short calculation, and meant: I’d pay 30 CHF (according to the actual rates in the IB calculator) for transferring/keeping my money in CHF, at a transfer of 2000 CHF.

Anyone experienced already this? How to handle with it? I don’t want to loose money at a transfer. After a succesful transfer of course the CHF will be changed to USD

[ma0]

Somewhere it says that the negative interest is valid for amount bigger than 100kchf.

[nabalzbhf]

And even if there was no 100k limit (there is but let’s assume there isn’t), you wouldn’t pay close to that. The interest rates are annual, if you hold the balance for one day you’d be charged a tiny fraction of 30 CHF (less then 0.1 CHF).

[Mr.Paprika]

Thanks guys, that makes sense. Have a nice weekend!

[derpinator]

@Mr.Paprika

I made a short calculation, and meant: I’d pay 30 CHF (according to the actual rates in the IB calculator) for transferring/keeping my money in CHF, at a transfer of 2000 CHF.

Just out of curiosity: how did you get 30CHF?

[Mr.Paprika]

Here is a calculator, where I just put the amount:

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=interest&p=schedule1

[derpinator]

Did you perhaps use the wrong calculator?

When I put 2000 into the " Interest Paid to You on Positive (Credit) Cash Balances" calculator I get 0 but in the " Interest Charged on Margin Loans" I get 30.

[mmm]

Thanks for this thread! I found exactly what I was looking for. I thought wiring funds to the London Citibank account would be considered as an international payment but apparently it is a domestic operation for Swiss banks.

[gsheert]

I’m still undecided whether I’ll open an account at IB.
Does anybody of you know how to withdraw money from the IB account in CHF back to my CHF account in Switzerland for free? I assume this is a SWIFT transaction and either IB or the receiving bank in Switzerland will put charges on this.

[San_Francisco]

@gsheert

I assume this is a SWIFT transaction and either IB or the receiving bank in Switzerland will put charges on this

“One free withdrawal is allowed per calendar month. After the first withdrawal (of any kind), subsequent withdrawals using this method will incur a fee of CHF 11.00”

Do check with your receiving bank. As for correspondence banks in-between, while Swiss banks and IBKR should be well-connected, maybe you can’t rule it out. Shouldn’t be a deal-breaker though, in my opinion.

In my case, I am making regular withdrawals via SEPA - for which a subsequent withdrawal will only cost EUR 1.00. So I’ll better make sure that they come last in a month.

[achpl]

Hi all,
I’m wondering if someone else had a similar experience.
I’m with Migros Bank and used the CH IBAN (CH20 8909 5000 0105 6967 4) to transfer CHF from Migros to IB.
Migros told me that it would cost 5 CHF because the IBAN may be ‘Swiss’ but the receiving bank is most definitely not.
And they charged 5 CHF.

[achpl]

Using postfinance it is free.

Sure, but it’s not trivial to amass 25k CHF at PostFinance with the risk that their payments policy change suddenly as well.

[boschika]

UBS doesn’t charge me anything.

[kilyn]

@achpl

Hi all,
I’m wondering if someone else had a similar experience.
I’m with Migros Bank and used the CH IBAN (CH20 8909 5000 0105 6967 4) to transfer CHF from Migros to IB.
Migros told me that it would cost 5 CHF because the IBAN may be ‘Swiss’ but the receiving bank is most definitely not.
And they charged 5 CHF.

Yes, receiving bank is not swiss but payment goes through same gross settlement system as payments to any other swiss bank, i.e. from one bank’s account at SNB to another bank’s account at SNB. It doesn’t actually cost them any extra in the end. They just feel like charging you more. Deal with it or vote with your feet/capital.

[ma0]

@kilyn

Deal with it or vote with your feet/capital.

…and be ready to give them 15chf for the luxury of closing your account.

[kilyn]

@ma0

…and be ready to give them 15chf for the luxury of closing your account.

Selbershuld for failing to consider the fine print

@achpl

Sure, but it’s not trivial to amass 25k CHF at PostFinance with the risk that their payments policy change suddenly as well.

Depositing 25k cash will not make postfinance account free, that offer’s expired like 2 years ago.

The “free” offer is if you buy 25k worth of their investment funds, which will actually cost you a lot more in management fees than the regular 5 fr/month account maintenance fee

[San_Francisco]

It is free from Neon.

[Gesk]

Free from Zak as well

[rolandinho]

@achpl

I’m wondering if someone else had a similar experience.
And they charged 5 CHF.

Yep. Same here. I’m using Postfinance for such transfers now.

@kilyn

The “free” offer is if you buy 25k worth of their investment funds, which will actually cost you a lot more in management fees than the regular 5 fr/month account maintenance fee

Not quite true. That value in 3a funds and/or normal stocks in their e-trading also counts. Of course e-trading costs Fr 90 p.a., but you don’t need their investment funds.