Lets compare the cost of exchanging 10’000 CHF.
Transferwise: 50 CHF fee and 0 CHF spread = 50 CHF
IB: 2 CHF flat fee (up to 100k) and 5 CHF spread = 7 CHF
I’m assuming that IB would have a spread of 10 pips, but usually it’s even lower. And I take the half of that spread to calculate the cost.
As @hedgehog said, with Transferwise the fee is as if you had a spread of 100 pips, which is 10 times more than IB.
Slightly OT, but has anybody compared the currency market rates between IB and Revolut? How much do they differ during the week?
As a fellow American, are you sure you can contribute to that Roth still? While I haven’t found a regulation prohibiting it, my wife and I can’t contribute to our IRAs at any Fidelity, etrade or TIAA-CREF now that we are non-resident citizens. I’d love to though! Brokerage accounts are still OK, and the fees certainly are low by comparison.
I’m not 100% sure, as in I haven’t done it yet. However, I was told by the people in charge of my Roth that I could contribute. They also said once that as long as I’m “in the States” when I contribute then it’s okay? I have no idea why that would matter, but essentially it sounds like when I go back throughout the year to visit family I can just call them, transfer some funds, and call it good. I’ll know next year though if it works out! haha. Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help.
That sounds similar to what I was told! And I was able to walk into a Fidelity office and fund an IRA. It was just that later I had to back it out when the system realized that I was still not a US resident. I don’t think there’s any real reason for this, just their systems can’t handle edge cases like ours well, so they err on the side of convenience (for them, not us). Good luck!