This may be very silly question but has anyone noticed their cash balance in different currencies changing without clear/visible reason/fees. I just got some dividends and everything was showing correctly but 2 days later there was suddenly 25% less while no report shows there has been any fees or movement with this currency.

I would understand if would see the amounts in CHF so this could be explained with conversion rate changes but as the amounts show in original currency wonder what could cause this or am I just missing something.

Another cash balance thing that confuses me is that had very small amount of JPY (not worth more than 20chf) and suddenly it just disappeared from my cash balance list and again in reports there is no sign/explanation what happened to it.

Am sure there is some logical explanation or fee I just cannot see in my normal reports but would like to understand what and where to find it.

You should talk to customer service. For dividend could be some tax withheld? For small cash balances they may convert them to your base currency.

Usually I don't see any changes that I can't explain.

Edit: do you check your statements on a daily basis?

Is there an easy/cheap way to transfer holding from Swissquote to IB, Swissquote charge 50chf per transfer?

IB has an account in CH now, transfers there should be free.

Most brokers charge a fee when you transfer your holdings to another broker. Usually it is a fee per ticket, so it'd you have 10 stocks you would pay the fee X 10. You could ask the new broker whether they would be willing to pick up the cost.

Assuming you do your paperwork correctly (including w8 Ben) then IB takes care of all the dividend withholding taxes and pays you the rest.

Fyi, IB for trading are bad compared with ThinkorSwim (TD Ameritrade), if youre just buying stocks etc then i'd recommend www.europacbank.com they have access to almost all stock markets and are a 100% reserve bank. Check reviews etc first though, you wont be disappointed

Why? Provide a reason, don't just make throwaway statements.

Their CHF incoming wire account is in UK, despite CH IBAN prefix. Minor but a very important detail that if you overlook it could cost you a fortune under certain circumstances!


Interactive Brokers is a remarkable and well known firm with a long history and well deserved reputation going back to 70's. I trust my millions to them for safekeeping.


Why exactly would I want to entrust millions to some noname offshore bank that you mentioned? First time I'm even hearing about it. The website doesn't inspire my trust - they lost me already the moment I saw metatrader on their frontpage, a popular software that forex shitholes use to scam their so called "investors".


FWIW, I'm pretty happy with IB's fee structure. I'm trading vanilla stocks and funds in the US, no options, rather infreuently and can't really complain about the fees - hardly even notice them. I just hope they can still make a business out of these tiny tiny commisions they charge me, have their employers fed and not go out of business! Would be happy to even pay 10x more to prevent that.

i've been transferring CHF from UBS to them without any issues.

agree with you. i'm surprised that people will put their life savings into some scammy no-name start-ups just to save a few $.

i started with Schwab but moved to IB as they have much better execution.

It would be an issue for a UK non-dom resident trying to avoid paying extra taxes to her majesty. This is where it's very important that you don't accidentally transfer any money to the UK and that bank account *is* actually in UK despite CH IBAN.

Why would anybody with a sane mind pay EuroPacific to enable them to profit off your money?

Their fee structure is horrible. Just for the transfer you pay the Swiss bank outgoing and the same transfer incoming at EuroPacific, and again for sending it out. It's equally moronic as paying upfront fees when buying a fund.

I'm too incompetent to use IB properly so use Degiro as its a bit more noob friendly and still as cheap as chips.

Other than that, I can't see a reason not to use IB.

Its amazing that some people put their savings each year into cash isas or 3a insurances, but it happens!

There's an amazingly high proportion of intelligent, educated people who just will not act rationally when it comes to money, either through lack of basic research or through a weird attitude to risk.

Expensive.

I have a question regarding IB: is there a way to prevent that my order is split up into small chunks. I just had an order to top up my SSON holdings and yesterday I had a trade for "1" single unit (~15pounds) with a fee of about 6 pounds

there should be a fill or kill option.

Not in the mobile app. Could it be an option only in the webtrader?

try the trader workstation software.

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=586