Hello fellow Mustachians,
I’ve finally decided to put my life savings to work instead of letting it rot in a bank account. I’ve been lurking the forums for a while now, and I know there are already a lot of topics regarding the age-old question: Swissquote or IBKR.
While I’m fine with paying a little premium for some artificial security in working with a Swiss broker (especially since IBKR is not exactly some shady random broker firm), I’m sure that extra cost is not as small as it seems at first glance.
Did anyone face the same uncertainty at the beginning of their investor career and bother to calculate the actual difference between VT with IBKR and VWRL with Swissquote? What would a CHF 50k investment look like with those parties in 5, 10, 15 years? Assuming 5%pa while not considering inflation. I’m not exactly sure how to calculate as those different fees and costs are still pretty opaque to me.
As far as I know, IBKR does not charge the Swiss stamp fee, while I would be required to change the currency back to CHF once I sell a few years down the road. The exchange fee is probably a minor factor. But what about TER of the products? VT seems way cheaper. Apparently, IBKR also changed the fee structure and doesn’t charge any deposit fees anymore.
Am I missing something?
I also noticed that almost every Swiss finance blog recommends Swissquote and doesn’t even mention IBKR. Not even when they compare different brokers. I’m probably a cynic, but referrers on IBKR are limited to 30 referrals total and I suspect this is the reason.
Thank you for your time