Switching from USD to CHF ETF

[siriusmo]

Hello everyone,

5 years ago I started buying SWDA in USD. Until now I didn´t notice the exchange fees that are charged with each transaction from CHF to USD. Postfinance takes about 1%. I would now like to swap to a ETF that is traded in CHF like VWRL. And this as cheap as possible.

To have less exchange fees when selling all of my SWDA, I thought about opening a USD account at postfinance. Then using (transfer)wise to send the money from this account to my CHF postfinance account. From there I then buy VWRL.

Is this possible? Do I miss something? I expect to save about 0.5% of exchange fees this way.

Thanks!

[larix.aurea]

@siriusmo

I would now like to swap to a ETF that is traded in CHF like VWRL. And this as cheap as possible

You could just leave SWDA as is and invest distributions and new funds in a new ETF in Swiss francs.

And not at PF but at IBRK…

[Wolverine]

In addition to what larix.aurea wrote, VWRL is distributing and the base currency of the fund are USD. The dividends are distributed in the base currency, no matter in what currency you trade your shares so you would receive USD.

You’d need an accumulating fund trading in CHF to avoid currency exchanges.

[siriusmo]

I think if I sell it now, I don`t need to pay TER fees for both. Also I consider to go back to EU on the long term. If I then want to sell some shares, there would be fees from USD → CHF → EUR.

I just switched to postfinance. Is it a big difference to use IBKR?

[siriusmo]

Oh thanks for the info. I also considered XDWD. With a accumulating CHF ETF, would it make sense to save some exchange fees when going the (transfer)wise route?

[siriusmo]

Other option would be to stay with SWDA in USD at postfinance, and use a postfinance USD account with transfer(wise) for buy/selling. If this is even possible.

[Burningstone]

@siriusmo

I think if I sell it now, I don`t need to pay TER fees for both

All the fees that make up the TER are accrued on a daily basis, no matter when you sell or buy, you always pay TER.

[larix.aurea]

@siriusmo

I just switched to postfinance. Is it a big difference to use IBKR?

How bad is it to avoid IBKR?

Happy to be schooled but not berated regarding my question. I am doing my investing with UBS, 0.35% fee custody account. Have about 70k split evenly between IE00B6R52259 and IE00B5BMR087, both in CHF. The bank takes 1.3% per transaction. That’s 910 CHF spent so far to just buy these shares. Not insignificant but not a problem to me. It’s something I agreed with myself to live with, it gives me peace of mind which I wouldn’t have if I had that amount in IBKR or any neobank. I have seen quite a …

[San_Francisco]

@siriusmo

I thought about opening a USD account at postfinance. Then using (transfer)wise to send the money from this account to my CHF postfinance account. From there I then buy VWRL.

Is this possible? Do I miss something?

This post from today suggests you should have or get a USD account at PostFinance?

[jmp]

To clarify :

• the e-trading environment of PostFinance has three accounts, in CHF, EUR and USD. Dividends are automatically credited to the account with the corresponding currency (for example, the dividends of VWRL go to the USD account); these accounts however do not have an IBAN and cannot be used to transfer money outside of PostFinance
• PostFinance also offers a USD account, with an IBAN and the possibility to transfer USD to/from other banks ; it also enables transfer to/from the USD account in e-trading.

[siriusmo]

Thanks that was very helpful