IBKR are also advertising “No Transaction Fee for (some) ETF on Twitter, but I didn’t have time to check if it is US only.
I had a horrible experience with transferring assets from Strateo to IB where they just ‘lost’ my money for over a month. Surely this was also due to problems at Strateo but I do not wish this for anyone.
I will definitely stay away from asset transfers if possible.
I can’t find any list of ETFs but on their official page (Commission Free ETFs | Interactive Brokers LLC) they mention the companies such as WisdomTree, GlobalX, etc. So one could deduct that it would be all ETFs from these companies but yeah it’s not clear.
By the way except the two companies I mentioned above, I never heard anything about all the others…
I am glad that IB removed inactivity fees, and not only for my own benefit. In fact I opened a “personal” unmanaged IB account (in addition to CapTrader one) recently and transferred there way over 100k USD - just 2 days before elimination of the inactivity fees (full story follows).
I don’t like inactivity fees not only because these are fees, but also because they create a wrong motivation. Because, the way this inactivity fee was organized, you don’t actually pay if you trade and you are “losing” money if you don’t trade. I was doing some kinds of simulations, and the conclusion was more or less always the same: the best way to invest is to minimize transactions and never sell (will also write later). So even if you know it, it is difficult to resist temptation to do some “free” trades. I hope that with the elimination of the inactivity fees all beginning investors will be rather motivated to think 10 times before doing any types of transactions.
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They are free to buy and I as fas as I understood only for US customers. I looked through it and did not find anything interesting.
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And now I would like to ask a quick and possibly not very related question (sorry if it does not fit).
If the inactivity fees are eliminated, you can have as many (sub)accounts as you want without paying extra. Did somebody set up (sub)accounts in a spouse/child name, buy ETFs from your account and “deposit” them into their accounts? You know - estate tax, blocked account of deceased people, investing for children… Critical points as I see here is to be able to transfer shares in and dividends out, but I don’t know how does it look like from a fiscal point of view, or actually how IB thinks it looks like from a fiscal point of view.
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i transfered earlier this year (degiro to ib) and it took about a month. The cost depends mostly on how many positions you want to transfer; from Frankfurt it was € 28 per position if i recall correctly.
Cambria’s should be interesting. At least for what one of the guys responsible for it does.
Hi - I did set up a sub-account for my child but it is “simply” a partition of the main one, it is not in his name.
One the other hand, transfers of positions and funds from one account to the other one are very straightforward
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I recently transferred from Fineco to IB and it took less than a week with no charges.
I am now trying to transfer from IB to Fineco but it is taking longer…not sure where the problem is but it has been 10 days that IB informed me to have concluded the process but I still cannot see the shares in my Fineco account.
Also this one should be free of charge
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Thanks, sure, this is simple, but not what I meant.
That is the only available option for kids, as IB does not allow accounts in the name of people < 18 years old, afaik.
For spouse one can open a joint account; more info here:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=4945&p=accountstructures
I would be interested to learn if anyone has different information.
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I’m starting now with investing and the whole FIRE approach. I’ve recently set up the 3a Pillar account (5 portfolios for potential tax optimization), filled it up with the max amount for the year and now I was about to set up an account with a broker (with Degiro, since I would have < CHF 100’000 invested) to start investing in ETF.
Based on the comments I’m reading here, it seems that now the IB is the way to go also for < CHF 100’000 investors, am I right? My plan is the same as for probably most people here - invest in global ETF and hold. Is there anything Degiro is better at / has better conditions (fees) for? Or is it a no-brainer now to use IB?
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Well, at DeGiro, you can buy VWCE for free, while at IB, it will cost you $ 0,35 per transaction… but that’s about all.
TER of VWCE is 0,22, VT is 0,11.
I have both, but find IB much more convenient, among other because you can easily store cash there and funding is quick. At DeGiro, I need stay below CHF 3000 and wait for days.
Besides that, it is very convenient to use IB for currency conversions - haven’t used Transferwise any more since then.
The only reason I’m keeping DeGiro is to not have all eggs in one basket, but at least until the end of this year I concentrate on buying VT at IB.
DEGIRO has some are other fees that end up making a difference (I don’t remember the exact numbers):
- Some percentage of the dividends
- FX conversion fees from your base currency to the purchase currency
- FX conversion fees from received dividends’ currency to your base currency
- Some negative interest rate if your CHF cash balance is too high (understandable nowadays)
The fact that a DEGIRO account can only ever hold one currency is limiting, that’s where some fees creep in and it also means that you can’t use it for cheap FX conversion as mentioned above.
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Degiro will charge you 2$ + 3% of each dividend payout. Also 0.1% FX exchange fee. Even with “free” ETFs it will be more expensive, especially if you compare the TER to US ETFs.
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I agree with all your points, exception the last one, which is, unfortunately, true for most banks nowadays, including IBKR, where the limit is CHF 100’000.
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Hi guys,
I moved from Degiro to IB. I sold my assets and will buy VT. I transferred CHF 100k then I converted them in USD. My question is : should I buy VT with fixed or tiered fees on IB ?
Thanks !
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tiered pricing is lower
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