[Question] Best brokers that can register shares for free

Investing / Brokers
1

I am correctly with IB and pretty happy with it. Except that it charges negative interest on CHF once it goes beyond 100k. Also it cannot register the shares for free. I really want the chocolate box from my 1 share of LISN. haha

Therefore I want to transfer my swiss stocks to somewhere else, that can register shares for free. So I want to looking for some suggestion and comparisons only within this scope. I know it is possible with swissquote. Any other choices? Somehow I have heard with migrosbank? post finance? Are they cheaper than swissquote?

2

On cash, liquidity. I hope you’re not using IB to keep your cash!

Apart from the ones you mentioned TradeDirect, which belongs to BCV, does it as well. However while the share registration is free, they have quarterly fees and higher trading fees than IB. Up to you to run your numbers and make an informed decision by yourself.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the reply. Say that I don’t trade often with swiss stocks, then what are the other costs?

What does quarterly feed mean? Is it another name of inactivity fee? Do swissquote, migrosbank, postfinance, TradeDirect all charge that?

4

I hate to answer with this tone but you really need to do your due dilligence on this one. We can tell you what brokers allow for the registration of swiss shares (Swissquote and TradeDirect are the two I know of) but you’ll have to take a look at their fee structure and evaluate by yourself if it’s worth a box of chocolate a year to you…

There’s a lot of incredibly good articles and data floating on the internet, but the financial world is still not a kind and compassionate animal: if you outsource all your research, you’ll get eaten alive.

5 Likes
5

Well said (especially for a wolverine :wink:)

All I know is that Swissquote will charge you 200.-/year for the service of keeping your shares! Total rip off.

1 Like
6

Thanks! I consider asking question here as a small part of the research. As you suggested, the research of course doesn’t stop here. Do you have some articles in mind to recommend, in this scope?

7

Thanks! Is this 200/year the quarterly feed? What doest that mean? Market data feed or something else?
Or is it the inactivity fee on top of the quarterly feed?

8

I’d mainly study the fees displayed by the brokers and calculate to what they would amount with what you have in mind, as well as giving them a call to ensure that you can register your swiss shares with them and what actions on your part are required for your shares to be registered (it’s usually not done automatically but doesn’t necessarily incurs aditionnal fees).

There’s a thread on this board about “free swag in CH” about the benefits of registering 1 share of specific companies. It probably holds some discussion about the best brokers to do so and the potential benefits of it.

My take is that if it’s just for the free chocolate, watch or pajama, the extra fees and complexity are not worth it. If your idea is to use those accounts for other purposes too, then it might be worth it.

For the record, I’m using TradeDirect as my main broker, I’m willing to pay higher fees to use a Swiss broker that allows me to register my swiss shares. I’m mainly buying and holding swiss stocks, though, so the fees, even though higher, stay within reasonable range for me.

Edit:

Thanks! Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for more exuberant money to enter the market and add to my gains. :smiley: I find it fair to remind those who want to wander out of the “keep your investments simple with low fee total stock market ETFs” path that most actors in the markets, including brokers and insurers, are out to make a living out of their money.

@Jiamin: make sure to buy the right stock too. I see LISN and LISP on the Six list, one is CHF 88,000.00 a share, the other CHF 8,500.00. Neither justifies buying it for a box of chocolate in my opinion (but your opinion may vary).

9

With Postfinance I pay CHF 90.-/year. This can be used as trade credits. If you do nothing, you just pay the CHF 90.- a year. I think usually just the broker you take it from charges a fee to move it (usually per title). Therefore it might make sense to buy it with one broker (cheaper buying fees) and move it to another. The one you move to shouldn’t charge you as they expect you bring them money. Don’t take this (or any advice) as gold and obviously check both sides before spending any money :slight_smile:

10

Quarterly fees mean exactly that - fees charged per quarter.
(custody fees I suppose)

11

Swissquote charges custody fees of 0.025% per quarter, min. CHF 15, max. CHF 50 (plus tax).

So with your one box of chocolate for 88k CHF, those 0.025% will play out to 22 CHF per quarter, aka 88 CHF per year.
Unless you have more than 200k in Swissquote (why??), you won’t pay nearly 200 CHF. Still, it’s super expensive compared to other (non-Swiss) brokers.

12

I have never looked into this, but some companies, e.g. Unser Bier in Basel, sell their own shares directly themselves? If one is interested only in the free swag and not in easy tradability on a stock exchange, this could be an option worth looking out for.

Why not? The more you have, the smaller the percentage of your capital that you pay as deposit fee.

13

Well, yes, I always think in maximum fees and the amount you need to get there. If you think in percentage, then a 200CHF cost on a 1M deposit only costs you 0.02%.

For long term investors, this custody fee is the most expensive fee, and I really don’t understand why Swiss brokers charge so much for basically doing nothing. I guess they don’t make enough money with share lending, so they need to milk the customer one way or another.

14

True, I didn’t think of it in that way, as I’m nowhere near 1M in assets :sweat_smile:. But compared to IB’s 0 fees after 100k invested it’s still a lot!
I believe Swiss brokers are mainly in competition to the horrendous custody fees of traditional banks here, where they’re comparatively cheap.