Buying European and USD stocks without high FX charges from platforms

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3rd Jun '20 by Sonyawinnerinvest

19 comments 608 reads

I wondered if anyone has tips/experience buying European stocks without incurring high FX charges.

I am looking for a platform that doesnt charge a high fee on the FX charge or allows you to buy using your own USD/Euros

I am currently using AJ Bell and they charge 1% on the FX charge to buy Euros to purchase European stocks and then when you sell there is another 1% charge as they will only give you GBP back.

Are there any platforms out there that the community can recommend that allow you multiple currency accounts and/or allow you to send money to your personal Euro and USD accounts or just simply charge a more reasononable fee on the FX - ie less than 1%?

Thank you!

Sonya

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About the Author

Sonyawinnerinvest

Premium Member

19 comments

bbeatty

3rd Jun '20

Degiro but a little limited

Wilbraham

3rd Jun '20

Yes, been happy with DeGiro. Low charges though I read somewhere they don't get the best execution price. Account opening dead easy.

Also had an issue a couple of months ago when they decided to transfer back most of my cash holding, after giving notice. I think what was driving this is they'd undertaken to compensate clients if deposit rates on their money market funds went negative and needed to limit their exposure.

Metatron

4th Jun '20

Interactive Investor allow you to hold money in foreign currencies accounts :Euro:$ ,Canada,Australia,Hong Kongand Singapore and any dividends to be kept in the foreign currency account

simoan

4th Jun '20

I use IG for US dealing.

All the best, Si

Chrischip1981

4th Jun '20

Ive just moved a lot of my business to IG as I were using HL and paid well over 1k in fees last month.

Howard Marx

4th Jun '20

Sonya, since 2015 I have used Interactive Brokers for non-UK trades. Their range of tradeable Equities is enormous.

You simply deposit GBP's into your account & trade the relevant currency at spot prices before buying the Equity of your choice.

Commissions for US stocks are negligible & 0.1% outside of the US.

The company has a London office & is regulated by the FCA & hence cash balances of up to £85,000 are protected under the FSCS.

https://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/en/home.php

mmarkkj777

4th Jun '20

Hi Sonya, I use HL for all my trades, UK and US and EU at the moment. There is an FX charge in either direction (buy and sell): similar amount to AJB. My problem is the vast majority of my portfolio is in my Stocks and Shares ISA and my SIPP, which I think would mean I would be subject to higher taxes if I traded outside of these wrappers. When trading US Stocks there is no Stamp duty (unlike non-AIM UK shares) and also I have noticed that the spreads are smaller (much, much smaller in some cases), so this kind of offsets some/all of the FX charges. The benefits of the S and S isa should be considered.

Iron Osoa

4th Jun '20

Hi Sonya, been in same situation only paid like 1.5% each trade + expensive fees only because I wanted to be with a bank, which felt safer rather than any trading broker. Was then looking for alternative bank and found Fineco bank, great rates, whole different concept. Been with them for over one year, they give you different currency accounts (no currency conversion fees + Realtime exchange rate) excellent in all regard, even providing training if you wish … https://finecobank.com/home if you do decide to go with them they have a current promo. If you use the below code, this not only would give you big extra would also help me too :)

UK6646568

Airstream64

4th Jun '20

If you are willing to fill out the annual 'Foreign' section on your UK self-assessment, it's possible to open a Charles Schwab US$ trading account, move dollars into the account and trade directly. Buy ADRs for US, UK, Eur stocks at $5 per trade or free, but some limitations on ETFs for non-US citizens. The Streetsmart Edge platform coupled with fast internet is far better than the majority of 'free' UK platforms. I think you may need to hold over $25k account value for this service. The interface and research available are quite extensive.

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

thanks so much...will check theses out

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

Fineco bank sounds interesting but Having done some initial research see it has some poor reviews and doesn’t appear to give the FCA £85K protection and reviews say they dont support fast transactions... I’m not 100% confident to go ahead so far

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

Hi Mark thanks so much for this- I get what you say about keeping your investments within your SIPP and ISA wrapper - I’m looking at making investments outside these wrappers so find the 1% in and 1% out too high...

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

Thanks so much for this info Howard...will check them out...I also just read about Revolut also offering a share service which is interesting as their spot prices are good but their customer service can be challenging as no phone number to call only online chat which is of variable quality!

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

thanks so much for this - good to hear another recommendation for Interactive Investor will start looking into them in more detail - do you use them? If so how have you found their customer service and usability of their platform?

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

Hi Chris - thanks so much for this -will look into IG..how have you been finding their platform and customer service since moving over to them?

Sonyawinnerinvest

4th Jun '20

thanks so much - how long have you been using them? Are you happy with their platform?

Chrischip1981

5th Jun '20

Not had any problems so can't really comment on the customer service but their platform is pretty easy to navigate. I do have to work backwards to work out how many shares I am buy and the cost compared to HL and again have to manually work out my percentages but its no biggie when having the trades on a spreadsheet anyway with targets and stop losses.

Chrischip1981

5th Jun '20

Not to mention Ive already save a load in fees. Most my buys have a stop round about 7.5%, today got stopped out of a IG buy and the loss was 7.54%, hit a 7.5% loss on HL but by the time I had sold the loss worked out at 9.57%. Thats going to add up over time.

dustyie

6th Jun '20

On the IG platform you can set up multi wallets for the different currency and you can decide when to change you currency .... they will advise on how set you account for you preference.

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Buying European and USD stocks without high FX charges from platforms

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Sonyawinnerinvest

19 comments

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