CIMB is fine, I just mentioned Maybank as I have FCA there and don't have an account with CIMB.

If transferring from RM account money will be converted at the day's TT rate - looking at CIMB website that's 4.0810 today. I hold USD accounts at Maybank so no conversion takes place.

Wire charges are kind of high aren't they?

This post has been edited by wodenus: Aug 12 2015, 05:33 PM

Full trip including sending and receiving is around $40-50

If you're transferring $1k that's a lot, on $10K+ not such a big deal.

Actually there's ways to deposit avoiding any charges depending where you hold bank accounts :

1. IB SGD account in Singapore, from Singapore account - 0 charge
2. IB GBP account in UK, from UK GBP account - 0 charge

It's kinda troublesome to purposely went down to Singapore to open an account just for this purpose isn't it? Might as well spend that $40 - 50

Yeah - I mean if you have an account there anyway it's an option

Hi guys,

I am planning to open up a foreign share trading account (e.g, CIMB Itrade), purchase some ETFs in HK (e.g, S&P500 ETF Vanguard). What fees will I be looking at per transaction?

How much are you looking to be trading with ? International brokers like Interactive Brokers have far more attractive fees compared to local share trading accounts.

😌 around 5,000 USD. I checked that interactive brokers requires a 10k USD starting deposit.

My follow-up question will be: what international broker would you recommend? And what are the basic steps to follow? (Really newbie here)

yup, me also waiting for sifus to tell more.

u all can try this https://www.optionshouse.com/why-optionshouse/

7.75% charges ???

That's the interest on margin trading (ie borrowing from the broker)

IBs margin rates are far lower by the way.

hi guys,

i am a malaysia working in Singapore.

my purpose is to invest in some stock which i would like to keep long term, i read quite abit on IB on past pages.

So minimum is 10k USD to open an account, in which i could pay via my SG bank account.

i just need to understand more on the cost of maintaining the account, as the sole reason for me is to invest for the future.

Say if i already used up 10k upon my account been activated, cheapest way to maintain is to buy one share every month? So i just have to a share at $200; so i just have to pay $1 fee to avoid the inactivity fee which is $10?

Any other cost i should be aware of?

This post has been edited by bearbear: Apr 3 2016, 03:43 AM

The inactivity fee gets charged as log as commissions are under $10 for the month - say you only do one transaction with $1 in fees - you'll be charged the $9 difference. I believe over $100k the fee gets waived but can't find anything related to that on their site right now.

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=4969

If you need live market data there's fees for those too (waived if you hit sufficient commissions for the month)

Do you think they'll accept money transfer from my online USD account, or must it come from Malaysian bank account?

Which broker? What kind of online USD account?

IB have accepted all my deposits : GBP from Uk account, SGD from SG account, USD from Maybank and also offshore accounts (Jersey / Ilse of man)

TD Ameritrade doesn't accept transfers from Isle of Man, from Maybank no problem.

TD Ameritrade

My online USD account is from Wirex (see my sig), whose partner bank is in Gibraltar.

As long as funds are sent from a normal USD account through SWIFT I don't see a problem - you can message TD Ameritrade first to confirm.

I don't know anything about Wirex or how they operate so can't say for sure

Good point, Wirex processes transactions through blockchain, so no SWIFT there. I'll ask Ameritrade. Thanks for your answers!

Oh in that case it definitely won't work

Although block chain is for Bitcoin so USD must involved a bank at some point.

Just had a quick look at Wirex - don't think you can class it as a bank account - more like a prepaid debit card which you can fund with Bitcoin. You definitely won't be able to use this to fund a broker account.

You need to transfer from a bank account in your own name, and also withdraw to a bank account in your name.

This post has been edited by rjb123: May 20 2016, 01:45 PM