Better continue in SG Bank account thread... I linked above...



Long story short, "local" as in "OWN ACCOUNT TRANSFER" meaning no fees charged. But doesn't mean that the exchange rate is not crazy. Hence, transferwise (or any other alternatives) are still important.
When you perform TT, you get charged twice - once for "Fees" and another for "Exchange Rate".

Remember, fees are not the only thing that eat up your TT transfer, exchange rate does too.

CIMB MY funding to CIMB SG must only be done AFTER ACCOUNT LINKAGE (takes 1~3 days). You cannot do "OWN ACCOUNT" transfer before linkage is done - the only option is TT, which doesn't help with your E-KYC verification. E-KYC funding can be $1 for all it matters.

1. For transferring back
2. For lazy folks like me not having to deal with regulators or IBKR to dig / show my money trails, because everything already captured by Common Reporting Standards (CRS). all transfers are always self to self, except when departing at HK / SG into IBKR local account. To be accurate I use HK route more often than SGD because of HKEX stocks

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 5 2020, 12:43 PM

See above post. It's easy to apply as long as you already have CIMB MY, otherwise its one extra step but worth the efforts.

Having said that, you don't need it if you don't plan to withdraw and is OK with the idea of funding IBKR via transferwise / etc. (just have to provide proof of money trail from your bank statements in case if they hold your transfer)

Now I am curious Are "borderless account" referring to TransferWise account with Bank Details under our name? Was poking around and still saw the "... Balances with bank details" in some currency but never tried before.

Mine took slightly more than a week. I funded my account while pending for approval so that might've sped things up a bit.

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 5 2020, 08:58 PM

Woah that's a new discovery for me. Never knew I had access to these currencies' local bank accounts under my name (USD, AUD, NZD, SGD, EUR, GBP)

Just randomly tested the SGD ones and I was able to transfer from my CIMB SG to TransferWise SG account without fees (local transfer); both under my own names. Theoretically it'll work as you said for IBKR withdrawal. Maybe someday I'll try out the GBP/USD withdrawal (my stocks are mostly GBP / USD / HKD) and see how it goes.

Thanks for sharing!!!

Edit : not sure why I had borderless account, but I applied mine way long ago and left it idle

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 5 2020, 11:43 PM

after pooing around, it's only good for receiving money (no fees) but sending it out from the balance will incur fees just like typical transferwise transactions (including same currency local SGD - SGD transfer). So best use case would only be receive money in X currency then send it back to MYR

For receiving, I guess you can say so. I only tested SGD though since I have local account there. Haven't tested USD / AUD / NZD / GBP / EUR yet. Its good for RECEIVING monies "locally". Note that HKD is not supported due to regulations so there's no bank account associated with the balance.

But sending money wise, local bank is better (usually zero fees for local transfers, in both HK and SG). Transferwise will charge you fees to send out monies to both GLOBAL recipient (standard tw rate applies) or LOCAL recipient. See below screenshots.







All these was a simulated transfer to my local bank accounts in respective country / currency. Somehow transferring to MYR is cheaper than local SGD transfer

I recommend that you play around with TransferWise Pricing Calculator to get a feel. I haven't tried withdrawal (and have no plans to) yet so don't really have experience on that.

But gutfeel tells me that lumpsum will be always be cheaper as they go by fixed cost + variable cost based on amount. So if you do 5x transactions, you'll get hit by 5x fixed costs on top of your variable cost based on amount.

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 6 2020, 01:24 PM

Short answer, yes, CIMB clicks for own account transfer (any amount); Transferwise for the $1k funding

. Long answer scroll to previous pages or see below.

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 6 2020, 07:17 PM

New account typically take at least 2 days to fully activate after you can login and fully funded.

You can check and compare In "OWN Account Transfer" within CIMB Clicks, and compare with transferwise / other fintech.

Saw someone in SG bank account thread did similar transfer recently and price difference is less than 1% for Rm1000. But my personal experience speaks otherwise (usually above 1.8% differences)




If I recall in this thread someone had similar experience and the answer is no, have to open new account. I could be wrong, feel free to search this thread.

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 8 2020, 08:25 PM

Yea currency does fluctuate alot with banks.. That's why didn't like to transfer with them

No. Not necessarily to transfer 1k from cimb my to cimb sg. Many here have tested to transfer only 1sgd for ekyc purposes and fund the 1k using whatever means.


1k sgd funding can come from anywhere. I had partial via cimb TT (mistake!!!) and partial via transferwise.

What's important is the own account transfer upon cimb my and SG linkage (minimum 1 sgd).

So what you did was OK already.

Cost basis includes commission, in a way it reflects your TRUE average cost. I started with Web trading then I fell in love with their TWS - it was daunting at first but it's really flexible and powerful

Example:
Purchased 100 units x 3.96, with 1.50 commission
Total price = USD396 + USD1.50 = USD397.50
True Cost Per Unit = USD397.50 / 100 = USD3.975





Good thing about TWS is - you can even modify your average cost if you want.

Like I just did "indirect transfer" of my 4000 units of HKG:3988 (Bank of China) from Fundsupermart to IBKR via sell-and-buy (with minor profits inbetween to cover the fees).
I bought in at IBKR @ 2.78/ea with 33.36 commissions. Obviously IBKR didn't know how much was my true average cost since from IBKR perspective, this is a "fresh stock" hence they applied the above formula for my average cost @ 2.78833905
But I wanted it to show the "true average cost" (which I kept track in my excel), "inheriting" from previous broker, plus all the fees / profits incurred from this "transfer" / unrealised "paper loss" / whatever, and TWS allows me to do EXACTLY that under TWS > Account > Portfolio tab.







----------------
Not sure if it was there when I applied few weeks ago - just give it a try. Last I saw (in the past 7 days) there's at least 3-4 people getting approved. If you need the step by step

It could also be the recent announcement of Singapore tightening their rules as Asian Hub

------------
Not sure about how much minimum to keep. I had same issue when I first had $0 USD (my base currency) and tried to do conversion into OTHER currency than USD. IBKR had no place to deduct the fees hence it always failed.
Problem solved when I convert into USD (and they can take commissions from there) then I can exchange my SGD/HKD into any other currencies I need, just have to make sure to leave some USD balance for my future trade commissions.

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 12 2020, 01:40 AM

Only one way to explain it - they rounded up. Look at trade reports or TWS for decimal numbers



Exact same stock I showed yesterday in TWS appears different (summarized) in Web. interesting, didn't realise this too

You can't transfer USD directly into IBKR via 3rd party funds I believe. Some forummers tried it in the past (can search).

If go that route, just do direct EUR / HKD / SGD / GBP fund into your IBKR account via transferwise. Do keep bank statements in the event they ask you to prove money trail.

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 12 2020, 07:04 PM

Every stock exchange has its typical minimum lot size.

Malaysia's typically at 100 units
US at 1 unit (or even lesser with Fractional Shares)
Hong Kong typically is 1000 units for most shares, some are 100, some are 50. Depends on stock. Go figure.

Good to know this, at least it's working now - recalled seeing some getting checked and rejected/refunded quite a few pages back. But 1.5 weeks is quite long honestly

I still am not fancy of the random checks via other-account transfers so gotta stick with my own-named transfer approach via transit offshore accounts (usually cleared within same day as long as I transfer during bank's working hour).
The exchange rate is really negligible tho I have to pay $2 commissions for currency exchanges so I just have to make sure the amount transferred is at least 5k worth.

Generally for funding into, its OK to transfer directly via transferwise as its the easiest way to do so.

To cash out from IBKR, most of us here utilise transit account of some sort from reputable country - Singapore, Hong Kong,.... Strongly suggest to open one SG account if you haven't already.

Indeed TW have a soft daily cap, typically I won't look at forex rate or fees on instarem or transferwise or banks - I will only look at the end result (e.g with 10000 MYR, how much HKD / SGD / XXX will it give me?). Mainly because different fintech charges differently. Some have lower fees but unfavourable rates, and vice versa. Banks have it worst (bad fees and bad rates).


As for IBKR PRO / LITE: Lite is only available for US citizen at this stage (sos) so if you apply directly with ibkr, or via tradestation global, it will be their PRO equivalent.

Very easy, most others I've seen got it within 5-7 working days and it's all online (except if you don't have CIMB Malaysia or if your CIMB Malaysia was dormant like me...)
I was one of the few unlucky batch whom applied during CIMB MY/SG new hiring and they screwed up with my application procedure (rejecting my linkage )

For opening sg account you can read more in this thread or this step by step guide I compiled

Target Currency. Quote Currency

Example to buy USD with SGD = USD.SGD

to buy USD with HKD = USD.HKD

Or just use their currency converter market order with no frillz

Yeah this is a good point. Always forgot about this

But really find it weird that IBKR chooses TT as their transfer method since they already have virtual Singapore account

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 16 2020, 12:50 AM

Those examples are the ticker. Sometimes it may not appear when attempting to search (in TWS at least), one consistent workaround I always do is, go to your watchlist and type there directly "USD.HKD" / "USD.SGD"

Ah yes, this too!!

Have to use the "sell" to do transaction the other way around. Encountered the same confusion when I was toying around demo account.