Transfer securities to another broker

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
I would like to close my current trading portfolio at a (very expensive) Swiss institution and transfer my positions to another trading platform. Fees to transfer positions out of my Swiss portfolio are reasonable, hence why I would rather transfer rather than sell and buy again.

At first I wanted to transfer my positions to Interactive Brokers, but they proved very slow in accepting my transfer request and I would like to find an alternative. The features should be:

1. No fees on incoming securities (for example, DEGIRO has them).

2. Reasonable overall fees.

3. A responsive customer service to avoid the bad experience with Interactive Brokers.

With a focus on item 3., I would like to ask for your personal experience!

2
Swissquote does not charge you to bring in your securities and currently even has a promo that they will reimburse the cost of transfer of your incoming institution.

Customer service wise, they are ok for standard stuff, if complicated stuff arises they balk and claim "cannot do due to policy".

K

3
Excellent advice, @kri! For everybody's information, here is the promo:

https://en.swissquote.com/promotion/custody-fees

4
I’m with the SQ because despite their high trading and platform charges, current returns are significantly higher then the fees.

5
Swissquote commissions and fees are crazy

55USD to trade between 10k and 15k USD transaction size...

6
Yup, anyone who uses a Swiss broker and doing even semi-regular trades is just crazy and throwing money down the toilet for no good reason.

7
Trading 212?

8
That's like saying everytime I get a monthly paycheck I withdraw a 100 CHF note and flush it down the toilet because its significantly lower than my salary.

9
I'm glad someone else responded to that "wtf" post. I couldn't think of an analogy that was as polite.

10
Isn’t it that “fun money” mainly though?

11
What are the alternatives for those residents not wanting to hold accounts outside CH?

12
Do I really have to add a: ' *unless you for any reason absolutely want/have to keep your trading account in CH ' disclaimer to my post, or is that not just a bit obvious?

It's also not the reason jacek gave.

When you start trading it's common to start an account in CH because it's convenient. However once you progress and learn a bit more you realise how much extra you pay from doing so. It's money down the drain.

13
Honestly, I agree: this is why I would rather transfer my positions to Interactive Brokers, if only they answered me!

Do you have a suggestion for a non-Swiss broker with a responsive customer service and without fees on incoming transfers?

14
Why do you care if they took a bit long to answer you? It's one of the biggest brokers in the world and this is the height of a pandemic... customer service levels are not at their prime and they are probably getting a crapton of applications.

Once the account is set up you can do everything by yourself and you don't need them. Don't be petty and cut off your nose to spite your face... IB are a really, really good platform to use.

15
i transferred positions into IB using their web interface. i didn't need to speak to anybody.

for small amounts, you could just sell everything and re-purchase.

16
I do not want to use another broker for this reason. It is just that, given the poor performance of their customer service, I got a bit skeptical about their trustworthiness!

17
Well it's up to you of course, but I would say that you are overreacting.

18
I also triggered the order through their web interface, sent a letter to my Swiss broker, and forgot about it. But today the Swiss broker called me all worried that they cannot get a hold of IB, so I also got worried!

19
You are probably right.

20
when i sent a message to the team on via the web interface, they replied quite quickly. so maybe they are overloaded.