Transfer portfolio from Degiro to IB (how to?)

#1

After opening an IB account, I clicked on “Fund Your Account” and “Transfer Securities” in order to transfer my positions from Degiro to IB. As mentioned in other threads, I’m then confronted with several options (ACATS, ATON, etc.) and chose “International Assets”, which appears to be the correct option given that Degiro is indeed included in the “Contra Broker” drop-down menu.

But then I’m asked to provide an Account Number and Account Title, both of which are required but neither of which I can find on Degiro. I’ve checked my accounts information, 2018 annual report, etc. to no avail.

The page on IB also says that I have to “coordinate a matching transfer instruction with your carrying broker. Ensure that the instructions are sent to your carrying broker and follow your carrying broker’s required procedures or guidelines”, none of which I can actually find on Degiro.

tl;dr: has anyone successfully transferred their positions from Degiro to IB? If so, could you please share the steps you took to do this?

#2

Transfers are generally pretty expensive, like ~100€ per position. So depending on how big your portfolio is, it might be worth to just sell anything and transfer the money yourself. There will be some spread-loss, transaction fees, and taxes but it might be less.

#3

Thanks. In my case it’s a one-fund portfolio on Degiro, so probably simpler to just transfer it (if I can figure out how). It’s indeed good advice though especially for others who might also be considering a switch in light of Degiro no longer selling US-domiciled ETFs.

#4

Given the high transfer fees (found on reddit) depending in which exchange your positions are, you would have to calculate what is the best. Is there necessarily taxes that apply on top if you sell? Assuming it’s your only sell of the year and you were holding most of it for a while.

#5

Contact DeGiro by E-Mail. You get a form to sign and sending in. With this info, go to IB and fill in their web form.

#6

To follow-up on my points above in case anyone else is doing the same: “Account Number” is your Degiro username and “Account Title” is your name (i.e., name of the Degiro account holder).

@Strabor is correct. You then send an email to Degiro at customers@degiro.ch and they provide an “Outbound Transfer” form which you then complete and send back to transfers@degiro.co.uk along with the Interactive Brokers document that’s generated once you complete the process described above.

So while this all sounds fairly straightforward, I then received a fairly worrying email from Interactive Brokers three weeks (!) after submitting my documents to Degiro:

Unfortunately Degiro is not cooperating. Despite having a transfer order from you they were requiring additional information and documents from us which we have provided. But now they are not responding anymore despite several reminders. Unfortunately there is nothing more we can do since Degiro slowed down the process and made it difficult by requiring more and more documents and not responding now. Please contact them and advise to reply to us. It would probably help and they would cooperate if you could put some pressure on them.

So in case anyone is on the fence regarding whether or not to use Degiro, I would strongly suggest that you don’t.

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#7

So, a little over 5 weeks (!) later and my portfolio has finally been transferred. Interactive Brokers kept me informed every step of the way via their messaging platform which was really great service (by no means do I have a large account).

Regarding their interactions with Degiro, Interactive Brokers summarised it as follows:

Unfortunately their process is very slow, complicated and not up-to-date

This echoes my experience as well.

-Mustachioed

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Investing a larger sum at 20 years old (still in school so I can't invest for at least 5 years)
Swissquote, Degiro or IB
#8

Good to hear, did you have to pay any fees on IB side?

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#9

Congratulations! So we will start the process soon, to manage until December :grinning: thanks for sharing. And what about degiro transfer fees? Which ones are they applying? Especially as you don’t have almost any other option, as they quitted US market…

#10

I am ever confused by taxes.

I’m gearing up to transfer my account from DEGIRO to IB. At the moment I have 6 products (portfolio review is for another topic) and still unclear if it’s better/easier/cheaper to transfer securities or sell and re-buy. In particular, if I sell everything on degiro, transfer money to my bank account, re-transfer them to IB and buy back the same products… will I have to pay any taxes?

Consider I earn < 120k per year and income tax is taken at source. (and thank god since the whole tax system is in german and I don’t speak it).

#11

No taxes on capital gains in CH (provided that you would realize any by selling the assets), if that is your concern.

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#12

I’ll re bounce on this topic as I see many people here that moved from Degiro to IB. I’m looking to open an account at IB or Degiro, as I’ll start with low value I might save by choosing Degiro but then will I lost more than the fee different when I’ll reach 100k and want to transfer to IB?
Still not sure if I should: a) open now at IB and swallow the fee until I have significant money invested (it might just cover the fee first year), b) open at Degiro and when fee starting to get too high move to IB (might be in 3-5 years, again not sure yet), c) wait to have enough (like 10k or more) to start directly at IB.
Any advice would be welcome.

#13

First 3 months are fee-less.
What amounts do you plan to invest and at which pace?
Don’t forget that the 10usd/month count towards the transaction fees (which renders your effective mgmt fee lower).

#14

I’m not sure yet as I’ve just started tracking expenses, my target budget should allow about 500CHF/month on top of the 3a (that I’ll maximize to get the tax reduction, worth much more than most investment) but so far we could not follow the budget and have to figure out where we are over. So maybe I’ll start to fill up the 3a and open the trading account around mid-year, then it will be around 300-500CHF/month as we are getting close to the target, plus some punctual larger investment from 13th salary or other income.

#15

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am starting the same process.
Could you please tell me which cost did DEGIRO and IB charge you?

Thanks

#16

I’d love to know as well. Can you tell us what DEGIRO and IB charged you for the transfer?

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#17

At the time (2019), DEGIRO provided me with the following breakdown via email:

No charges from IB as they’re just happy to have a new customer.

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#18

Instead of transferring the positions to IB: sell the stuff on Degiro and buy it right away with your new IB account. It is simply not worth to transfer the positions since you will have the chance to buy your securities for couple of cents (with IB).

#19

thats what i did. Sold all securites at Degiro and bought them at IB again Well there was a little loss on the course risk bu now saving with every transaction…

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