Interactive Brokers: no transfer fees apparently

I finally wrote a message to IB asking how much would it cost to transfer some ETF (irish or us) to a swiss account (I said Swissquote and Postfinance).
They replied stating that it is free from them. The receiving bank might ask for something, but for what I know both PF and SQ are free.

Can anyone try it? :slight_smile:

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Just out of curiosity: Why would you transfer funds to expensive Swiss brokers?

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It’s documented that they don’t charge security transfer fees.

I assume diversification (there’s already a few threads about that). Postfinance doesn’t cost that much (90CHF per year, which can be used in trading credits, and allows making the regular banking account free).

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Holding the funds at a Swiss broker is free of charge (apart from custody fees).
I guess it’s to diversify broker accounts. :slight_smile:

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Would be interesting to have some first hand experience. Otherwise it might turn out that the transfer is free, but the customers support work is not and so on.

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I have done it. it is free on both end.

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True. However, trading fees can sum up quickly in the long run, especially if you make monthly contributions.

Then there is another issue: UCITS TER (SWDA: 0.2%) vs US TER (VT: 0.07%). And lastly: 15% withholding tax with UCITS.

Or am I mistaken?

Yes, it’s for diversification.

It is only if you understand it. I’ve read their fees page and got so many different types of transfer that I got confused.They don’t have something like “Transfer to european’s brokers is free” written anywhere.

0% with Irish or Luxembourgish funds.

It would be possible to, e.g., buy shares monthly at IBKR and rarely (maybe once a year or not even that) transfer some of them to a Swiss broker.

You can hold US-domiciled ETFs at Swiss brokers, i.e., the ETF domicile/regulation is a completely separate question.

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I wouldn’t trade anyway if you already have IB, just transfer e.g. half of your holdings to diversify. The dividends can either be transferred back to IB (afaik costs 2 CHF) or reinvested using the trading credits.

AFAIK postfinance still allows trading US ETFs, and as other said even if that was an issue, you can anyway hold a US ETF position without any trouble. And still even if that was an issue (it isn’t so far), if you do worry about diversification you might not be far from the qualified investor threshold as well (2M wealth iirc).

It is true though that the (recoverable) withholding will be 30% instead of 15% but that’s likely a tiny opportunity cost in the end (esp. if you have enough assets that you worry about diversification).

(but we’re getting really offtopic here :slight_smile: )

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I did the transfer because I want some free chocolate. (check Free Shareholder Swag in CH)

Well, turns out it’s not free. It costs me 90 franks.

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You know where the free chocolate is :laughing:

Can you clarify? I thought since PF is not a Qualified Intermediary you are not able to get back the whole 30%?

What do you mean? Isn’t it US withholding with a standard swiss broker? I’d be surprised if it doesn’t work (but don’t have direct experience).

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I read in another thread that Postfinance is not a Qualified Intermediary and that 15% can be claimed back with DA-1 and the remaining only by filling a direct form to the IRS. That’s why I assumed it does not make sense to hold US domiciled ETFs at PF.

W-8BEN on your own & 30% withhold

I’d be very interested hearing more about your experience:

Who billed the 90 francs? Was it for the transfer of securities or for the transfer of chocolate?
Was it to Swissquote or PF?
How much time did it take for the securities transfer?
What was the process? Was it easy?

Post Finance

Neither. It’s for the e-trading account

I forget the time and process detail since it was very easy.

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Thank you for the details!