Hi everyone, I'm currently using Wise to fund my Interactive Brokers (IB) account with Malaysian Ringgit (MYR). For those who also use MYR with Wise to fund their IB accounts, do you convert the currency before transferring? If so, do you convert it to Singapore Dollars (SGD) or US Dollars (USD) first? Have you tried different combinations, and which option turned out to be the cheapest?

watermineral use Wise only as a last resort. refer to screenshot below where i compared sunwaymoney to send to SG banks. if u really need to use wise, cheapest is to convert to EUR, and reconvert to USD inside IBKR after u sent EUR to IBKR.

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Feb 24 2025, 09:25 AM

WISE SGD -> IBKR SGD does not incur transfer fee AFAIK

same goes for EUR. just that wise MYREUR costs you 0.52% in conversion fees while MYRSGD costs you 0.53%

how much u actually save using sunwaymoney, u can calculate yourself

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Feb 24 2025, 10:42 AM

thank for you info, i thought wise always cheaper.


is this the one?

I just did some quite a big top up to my IB yesterday

but in IB they charge me conversion fee from 2SGD per trade.

This post has been edited by watermineral: Feb 24 2025, 11:04 AM

watermineral if you are on Cash account, just buy stocks without manual conversion. auto conversion fees @ 0.03%

otherwise, use Recurring investment to convert for free (you don't get to choose entry price, but your purchase is guaranteed to be done on the next working day)

last time they charge me 2 dollar for each auto conversion. was not aware until I check the statement.

for reoccurring payment, what if i don have balance cash in my IB account? they directly transfer from bank or wise or this sunway money?

watermineral recurring investment if not enough cash, will try again at the next interval. you have to manually topup your cash balance if it's insufficient

if your recurring investment set to daily, it'll try the next day. if weekly, will try the next week

tip: IBKR recurring investment can set to occur once only

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Feb 24 2025, 11:34 AM

thank you for the input, would try out this sunway and reoccurring investment.

Just curious, IBKR app cannot send price alert to our phone? Must it send only to email? I try to find but couldn't find anywhere to do it

correction they doesn't charge me for the conversion. that one is MTM which i still not really understand even after i google it.

the cheapest way to top up i know now is SUNWAY MONEY > CIMB SG > IB.
for withdrawal IB > CIMB SG > CIMB MY?

watermineral what is your base currency? MTM (mark-to-market) just shows the forex gain/losses of your non-base currency against your base currency. the actual USD or SGD amount you have is unchanged

base currency in USD.
and not understand even i convert my all sgd to usd one day before the trade, i still can see the aFx which i think is auto forex conversion when i make the trade in my statement.

I read in earlier posts that many moved to IBKR UK from TSG after IBKR removed the inactivity fee. If I”m opening a new account do I have a choice of IBKR UK or US?

What’s the difference between UK and US?

1. will be usa

2. estate tax

Thanks..there is no way to opt to IBKR UK to avoid estate taxes?

uk has its own estate tax... but less than usa...

I think default is US.
And, I think, the estate tax only applies to the US situs stocks you hold in your portfolio. Estate tax does not apply to the entirety of your stock portfolio. The estate tax exemption for US situs stocks is usd$65,000, anything above that is subjected to a 40% tax.

yup... also cash is taxable