Interactive brokers just told me it is not possible at the moment to make a deposit to a Swiss IB CHF account, i.e to an IBAN starting with CH. This is important to avoid transfer fees. Are others experiencing the same? What is the recommended way of transferring now? How much will the fees be?
Your title says from UBS to IB, but you say that IB can’t transfer to a CHF iban. So, which direction are you talking about really?
Edit: nabalzbhf understood. You meant that you have an IB acount not in CHF and want to move it to a CHF account. What if you open a new account? Is the transfer from two different accounts free?
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I just tried, IB still gives me a CH IBAN to transfer to (and a GB one as a backup).
Thanks. I was suspicious about it not working for me. But the support guy claimed the change was related to brexit (after coaxing him to actually answer instead of avoiding the question). I thought the difference might be that I am using a European account. Are you using British one? If not where you migrated recently?
I’m on the uk platform yes. AFAIK there’s no migration planned for swiss residents.
Thanks. I was stupid and didn’t think it would matter. Now I don’t think I can make a Swiss account anymore since I am no longer a Swiss resident.
They would have moved you anyway, so don’t beat yourself about it 
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They gave me a German IBAN but with a CHF account. At least that will avoid currency conversion fees. I have to see how much my bank charges me for a CHF transaction to Germany.
Right the problem is I think that these fees are really obscure. Your bank might charge one fee but there will be “intermediate banks” and some money just disappears there are other threads on this. Also your own bank might do everything to obscure the cost. To the point that people were charged only at the end of the month for a foreing transaction. With the CH IBAN account this could be avoided. Sigh…
If you do go this route I would appreciate if you let me know how much it cost in the end.
A USD transfer from Postfinance & Migrosbank to the USD account of IB (at a bank in New York) costs $15-17, so maybe that can give you an idea of the costs (ballpark figure).
You could try opening a multicurrency account with Wise (the new name of TransferWise). My understanding is that they provide a Swiss IBAN as well as the ability to transfer money abroad at a reasonable cost (0.50 CHF). I imagine Recolut could also work but if I recall correctly they have some caps and higher fees for large amounts.
Late reply. I think both Wise and Revolut explicitly don’t work. Money can only be transferred to IB from a bank account in your name (due to anti money laundering regulations I believe). Does either Revolut or (Transfer)Wise supply you with in this case a German (or perhaps other European) IBAN account in your name in order to transfer to IB. (As well as allowing the transfer to Revolut/Wise from a Swiss IBAN to a Swiss IBAN of theirs.)
Indeed they do if you create an account.
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Great! Thank you I will check them out. (It might be stupid to obsess over this but I prefer transparent fees over the vague and unpredictable banking fees that traditional banks have for international transfers.)
Well I tried Revolut and they don’t provide you a Swiss CHF unless you are a Swiss resident (Maybe they do for Swiss residents? Is the Euro account Swiss in that case too?). They will give you a Lithuanian CHF account. So that is useless.
I guess I can test TransferWise too. But my hopes are not good. Also with TransferWise do you really get a European Iban in your name? I used them before and I they only transferred money directly, which IB would not allow.
Does anyone have a working (tested) setup for transferring CHF from a Swiss IBAN account (UBS) to IB (Europe, german IBAN for CHF) that avoids unpredictable international transfer fees for people residing in Europe?
Does any fintech over a suitable solution?
(I know this site is Swiss based but there must be more people who moved abroad but still have CHF funds.)
As I wrote a week ago somewhere else, the transfer is - to my understanding - “unsupported” by Wise’s acceptable use policy.
Wis’s borderless account provides you with multiple personal IBAN (in your name) in different European countries - notably not Switzerland / for CHF.
Generally your best bet would be a Swiss domestic transfer. IBKR do provide Swiss bank transfer details, at least to Swiss customers.
Otherwise you might check this older thread. Maybe you can get away by making a BEN transfer - but still somewhat “unpredictable” IMO.
Transferring CHF to IB from a Revolut or UBS account works for me without problems.
As I said in the first post, IBKR does not offer Swiss bank transfer details unless you are residing in Switzerland. Otherwise I would of course have gone that route (as was my initial attempt).
Did you put a Swiss residence in Revolut? (I, perhaps stupidly, honestly put my French residence, although I don’t remember them asking for proof of residency.) It does not allow me to transfer to a Swiss Iban number, only a Lithuanian one. Meaning I would be subject to the very international transfer fees that I am trying to avoid.