Swissquote forgot to ask me about this form and sent the extra 15% to the Yankees instead of the Swiss. Do yourself a favor and open a ticket.
I just opened an account with Saxo, as they have eliminated custody fees, and will transfer some ETFs from IBKR.
Through this link, youâll supposedly receive the eTax document for free:
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The owners of Saxo are trying to sell them for over a year now; most promising talks are with Safra Sarasin.
Personally speaking, I avoid having accounts with financial institutions who are being sold.
But fee related Saxo is more interesting than Swissquote, indeed. But at what price?
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Potentially they lure cuetomers now and the new owner raises prices âŠ
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As far as I read Saxo is considered a systematic important institution in Denmark.
I think their owners want to sell their stake because of the ownership structure & maybe they want to do something else. But I donât think itâs because of profitability issues
Quite possibly.
On the other hand: I only have 1 position with Saxo (World ETF). If it gets expensive, I can simply transfer it to another broker. But at the moment itâs (probably?) the cheapest broker with a FINMA licence. So for me itâs a good way to diversify my broker choice, 50% IBKR and 50% Saxo. Going to Swissquote or others and paying hundreds of francs because Saxo might become more expensive in the future would also be crazy (The Poor Swiss has a great pricing comparison).
Note that Saxo only waived the custody fee in Switzerland. In the rest of Europe it can get waived if you enable stock lending, but otherwise and in the rest of the world it is 15 basis points, unless you trade a lot.
I am a bit puzzled with this as it is not like there is a ton of low cost competition in Switzerland âŠ
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Why pay this much? PF is 72 CHF per year max. (You can continue buying with IB and transfer once in a while)
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Maybe they want to take market share away from Swissquote in CH
If you compare SWQ & Saxo, for larger transactions, ETF leaders trading fee at SWQ is not very different versus 0.08% (min 3) fees at Saxo.
So if they remove the custody fees, they become a very compelling Finma approved brokerage.
If they keep custody fees, then perhaps clients of SWQ donât have enough incentive to jump the ship.
Saxo have higher assets versus SWQ but I wouldnât be surprised if in Switzerland, SWQ is bigger than Saxo. To break into clients of SWQ, Saxo needs to offer better costs.
Agreed, Iâm just like it is not like the rest of the world doesnât have a lot of competition either, with brokers like Degiro, Tradegate in the EU and lots of near âfreeâ brokers in the US.
Dear all,
I tried searching in this Forum, but could not find anything. Did anyone ever done or heard of recent analysis made to compare / outline differences between Interactive Brokers vs Swissquote?
I have family friend who is managing some of my savings via My IB account, however I thought it would be good to diversify exposure from keeping most of my wealth with one broker. I thus want to move some of my portfolio from IB to Swissquote (also Swissquote offers some bonds Iâm interested which are not available on Interactive Brokers). My friend so far only has experience with SAXO (not using it anymore) and IB.
I know from previous experiences moving positions from SAXO bank to IB itâs a tedious task, thus if anyone heard of a recent insights comparing both brokers & could share any tip, recent experience - would be super helpful."!
Thanks a million !
Fees and stamp duty taxes are obviously the main downsides of Swissquote compared to IBKR. And Swissquote is typically also significantly more expensive than Saxo. I have accounts at all 3 mentioned brokers. I think the important points/tips to consider are:
- Swissquote has custody fees. While they can be significant for small portfolios, I consider them acceptable if you hold 500k+ (less than 0.05% p.a.).
- Swissquote has high currency exchange fees of 0.95% (lower fees possible for 50k+ in a single transaction). Assuming youâre anyway keeping your IBKR account, I would suggest keeping all non-CHF trades at IBKR and using Swissquote only for CHF positions.
- Swissquote also has high trading fees but it depends on the details. Keep the number of trades to a minimum, e.g., one trade a month. If you want to regularly invest into multiple ETFs, alternate. For ETFs, choose âETF Leadersâ (large and good selection of ETFs at SIX) as they have a cap of CHF 9 per trade (excl. exchange fees and stamp duty).
For CH-domiciled funds, you can also consider (mutual) index funds, some of which are available for a CHF 9 flat fee without any exchange fees and also without stamp duty. - If you only buy CH-domiciled securities at Swissquote, you can reduce the stamp duty, but that may be too limiting.
- The eSteuerauszug costs an additional CHF 85. Itâs not required, of course, but OpenSteuerAuszug doesnât support Swissquote yet (there is a PR, though).
If that sounds too limiting, I would suggest going back to Saxo as second broker and use Swissquote only for the products that arenât available at IBKR/Saxo (if needed).
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Wow, a very comprehensive review!
I donât use Swissquote, just for my curiosity: are there many such products? Do you have examples?
For me itâs mainly Swiss mutual funds. There are no ETFs that track, e.g., SBI AAA-BBB, SBI AAA-AA, SBI AAA-BBB 1-5, SPI Extra. IBKR and Saxo offer almost no Swiss mutual funds, last I checked.
For people that want a single fund solution that includes both, stocks and CHF bonds, UBS Vitainvest Passive funds are the only option with a reasonable TER (0.25%), to my knowledge. They are available at Swissquote but not at IBKR or Saxo. (I donât hold any Vitainvest funds, though).
@kristtina mentions bonds. I assume itâs about CH-domiciled bonds, but I havenât checked that myself.
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I agree. I also have all three (IB, Saxo and SQ)
Swissquote ETF leaders is a good deal but other than that Saxo is more interesting for people looking for Swiss brokers.
And indeed there are some funds which are only available there (SWQ). If anyone needs those is a different matter anyways.
No.
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I am with both SQ and Saxo.
All my new trades are with Saxo who are significantly cheaper and donât have the crazy tiered pricing structure of SQ.. eg look at the SQ fees for a CHF 2100 trade versus a CHF 1995 trade!!
Saxo has no custodian fees versus SQ at CHF 200 per annum plus vat!
And SQ want more custodian fees when my fund exceeds CHF 1m !!!
Saxo has no fee for an eTax statement (CHF 100 for SQ).
Saxo has a friend referral scheme with CHF 500 credit for trades over 3 months.. SQ it is CHF 100 trading credit over 3 months.
Should be an easy choice?
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Earlier Saxo was half owned by China and SWQ was Swiss. Now both are Swiss and Finma regulated. Saxo is better choice right now.
I think SWQ having actual offices helps them get more credibility
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