Dear All,
I’ve just got a notification from Transferwise about their new product:
borderless account (not affiliated link).
The account opening is free and you can transfer CHF to there without extra cost via local bank transfer, then convert to EUR/etc for a reasonable price.
I think it will be a pretty good man-in-the-middle tool to do my monthly transfers to my Interactive Brokers account.
What do you think about their price structure?
Exactly how is transerwise’s 0.5% commission (hidden jn the rate) better than a flat 0-2 CHF fee per transfer possible with some of the better banks? Only for very small amounts might it be better.
Hm. Good to know. List them pls 
We had a thread about them. I pay 0 CHF with BCGE currently, and before that 2 CHF per transfer with swissquote. More recently some people here were saying Raiffeisen also charged nothing if you select a BEN transfer
Currency conversion is better done at IB. You get fair intrabank rates for a couple of bucks in commissions rather than ripped off with rates that are marked up by 0.5%
Exactly what hedgehog said… I won’t bother retyping.
@hedgehog , how much do you pay for an account at BCGE? Does it make sense to keep it just for the transfers to IB? I recently moved from UBS to PostFinance, because it’s way cheaper - 0 CHF for account + 50 CHF per annum for credit card. But now I started thinking about closing PostFinance and instead open one at BCGE. The only problem is that I’m located in Zug, so I hope it’s possible online or by mail.
I pay nothing to BCGE, everything free. My employer has negotiated some kind of partner deal with them: I get one free private CHF account at BCGE and a free gold credit card, in exchange for agreeing to receive my salary there. It’s the weirdest banking thing I’ve ever seen, I’m in ZH and they’re in GE, and I can withdraw all my money as soon as it’s paid, so I don’t see what’s in it for BCGE… Customer base of overpaid engineers? For me it makes total sense to keep it this way of course.
But regular account price is 3 CHF/month with them as far as I can find online. Possibly free for under 25yo. So maybe a free postfinance account and tunneling the money through a free swissquote account would be cheaper
Regarding postfinance credit card - I’d recommend cancelling it and getting the free cumulus or coop card. They’re free, and also offer a small cashback in points.
Thank you very much for help. I guess that’s best way to go - I’ll keep PostFinance for paycheck, and I’ll open IB for investing and Swissquote for tunneling the money to IB account.
Regarding the cards - can I normally use these free coop/cumulus credit cards for buying airline tickets and do online shopping? That’s actually the only two things that I need credit cards for.
Raiffeisen seems like less trouble tbh, if what people write is true - free account and no charge on transfers to IB
Absolutely, they’re perfectly normal Visa and Mastercard. Beware of the extra fees for buying from abroad and in different currencies, but most swss cards seem to have these fees by now anyway.
Disclaimer :
I have the same kind of arrangement with Raiffeisen that @Hedgehog seems to have with BCGE due to my employer:
-Free account management (as long as there is a balance of 5kCHF on the account)
-Free Credit Card
Regarding cash transfers, i guess that it is a regular feature for regular clients :
-CHF transfers are free if you choose BEN mode
-Never ever ever try to transfer directly EUR with a SEPA transfer, they will murder you with the conversion rate.
I do the same (PostFinance → Swissquote → IB). Works really well and costs only 2 CHF. 
By the way, how can I open a free Swissquote bank account? Is it the “ePrivate Banking” on their website?