Transfer USD from US Bank to IBKR

Investing / Brokers
1

Does anyone know if there is a way to transfer USD from a US Bank account to IBKR (not the US version, but UK version people use in Switzerland)? I am living at the moment in the US, but plan to move back and the idea is to then open IBKR in UK for my future trading and also to move all my assets to IBKR where I can exchange USD to CHF as needed at low cost and invest part of the USD into US ETF. While Wise is great and I am using it today, using IBKR will be better as

  1. I can invest part of my assets already in USD directly into US ETF
  2. I can cheaply exchange into CHF as I need

Thanks

p.s. at MP I really loved reading a lot of your posts. Especially the part about taxation. Great work you have done here!

2

If you have an IBKR US account, why don’t you ask their support?

3

I don’t have a IBKR US account and not sure if I want to open one. Don’t know if I can convert a US one to a UK one later. Something I need to figure out. The question is really if the UK version allows me to transfer from a US bank account via ACH or wire transfer. Something people might be able to see in their IBKR UK account.

4

When you select that you wish to deposit USD, IBKR will give you all the information to do a domestic wire transfer from your US bank. I did that many times, no issues.

2 Likes
5

@klik that is great. Just to be sure, you are talking about the UK IBKR account. Thanks

6

ACH and domestic transfers work fine.

1 Like
7

I also do that regularly from etrade to IB and it works great, it takes less than an hour for the transfer to go through, much better than Swiss banks.

8

Yes most definitely you can but it must be from your own account. I have done this from Canada a few times and most recently had my lawyer deposit into my account from his account and it took 3 weeks to clear. IBKR told me not to have other parties deposit to my account in future.

9

Are you able to do ACH from Fidelity / E*trade etc to IBKR directly ?

I have always been routing the money via Swiss banks as I always assumed Fidelity etc will need account under my name on IBKR which isn’t the case.

10

I used to do ACH from Schwab regularly (iirc there’s a process to link the accounts where they process a few cts). Stopped doing it because wires were faster and it avoided the withdrawal hold.

11

Any idea how can I do domestic wire transfer from Fidelity to IBKR when IBKR accounts are not under my name?

12

Not sure about fidelity, on Schwab you have the extra fields for “further credits” or something similar.

Is the issue on IB side because the originating account is not in your name? (Not an issue on Schwab, you have a real account)

13

Actually Fidelity asks to add wire instructions and it asks “Which name appears on your receiving account?”…So I think the answer here would be “interactive Brokers”, and then it doesnt let me add the account

Fidelity wire instructions seems to push that Name on receiving account is my name. But the wire instructions on IBKR shows Interactive brokers as recipient.

14

Yeah maybe that’s the difference, Schwab feels more like a “real” bank account.

15

yes, takes 1-2 hours .
I get my RSUs in eTrade. It is much easier and safer than my experience with Charles Schwab , where I used to get my RSUs, because it can save the wire info and uses MFA

16

Are you referring to Transfer of Cash from E*trade to IBKR OR transfer of securities (after vesting) itself ?

I believe E*trade allows both. But not sure how this actually works.