I am looking for some advice on what I appreciate can be a broad, and at the same time specific topic.
I am from the UK and am used to saving products available there, e.g. ISAs, internet saver accounts etc. Whilst I appreciate the overall saving rates for most products is at an all-time low, I am wondering what Switzerland has to offer for saving/investing.
I have maxed out my 3rd Pillar allocation and my bank gives a pitiful 0.45% on my "savings" account so I am now wondering what the suitable places to save/invest my other money are.
I have tentatively looked into the wealth management products offered by banks like UBS that obviously come with fees, but I wonder if anyone has any practical information on other suitable investing/saving options offered here. Without disclosing the specifics, the amount of money I have to invest/save is enough to qualify for retail banks (ubs etc) wealth management minimums but not enough for the exclusive private banks (e.g. vontobel etc)
Any tips/thoughts appreciated!
Can try here:
https://de.oikocredit.ch/genossenschaftanteile Basically one invests in participation notes and gets on average 1% in SFr and 2% in EUR.
Otherwise you can try your luck in funds, stocks and or bonds.
Switzerland is basically a paradise for banks where customers have lots of money and they can charge nice fees and give low or negative returns.
A lot of folks here use InteractiveBrokers for investing. I recently opened an account there and I'm very impressed so far, if investing in equities/bonds/etc is the way you wanna go.
This x10!!
Do yourself a favour and spend a cpl of hours reading about investing in some basic investment products like index ETFs, which you can dollar (or chf) cost average into. Over time your returns will (almost certainly) far beat inflation (which they're not doing now) and you won't be stuck paying high fees for low/no service from swiss banks.
Then don't buy ETFs from swiss banks so you can avoid their extortionate fees. Real example, give or take:
10kCHF ETF purchase at UBS = c100chf
10kCHF ETF purchase at interactive brokers = <5chf
Written from a UK perspective you might want to read TIM Hale's 'Smarter Investing". Also, check. monevator.co.uk. Both deal with passive investment and make a lot of sense.
Are you still happy with IB after these 2 years?
What was your savings horizon? I will be saving for only 2-3 years so i wonder if its worth it.
I use it for 5 years and it is very good. You need to be comfortable with computers/ software and online chats for customer support etc.
It doesn't have the nicest of GUIs, but it is more or less intuitive if you have at least minimal literacy about how to convert currencies and what various stock buy/sell commands mean, like LIMIT, MARKET etc. Otherwise you might do smth stupid with your money.
It actually reminds me of the good-old winamp - lots of tiny buttons with a zillion features.
You must be referring to the interfaces which you don't have to use at all - the dark "scary" screens of WebTrader or even the desktop Trader WorkStation.
There are absolutely user friendly mobile app and the Client Portal, and I haven't set my finger on the above since I started using IB.
i use Trader WorkStation for 5 years now. At first I was shocked from its dark theme and floating windows but when you customise it it is a powerful trading software. I really like it now but it took me 3 months to become familiar with it. I have never traded on mobile IBKR app as I need to see the complete picture and need screen real estate.
You generally don't use things like that for just 2-3yrs and then take your money out.......better to just use a bank account for that
Depends, there are funds that are very conservative and will give you far better returns greater than those of Swiss banks. Such a short timeframe probably want to avoid the more volatile and risky (short term, anyway) investments.