Found this great deal at this reputed stock brokerage.
US$0 Commissions on US Stocks @ Charles Schwab Australia
US$0 Commission on US Stocks @ Charles Schwab International
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deanmoriarty on 03/10/2020 - 19:11 international.schwab.com (1206 clicks)
Last edited 17/07/2021 - 13:38 by 1 other user
Last edited 17/07/2021 - 13:38 by 1 other user
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hopefully interactive brokers follows soon … their $1 brokerage for US stocks really stings.
You joking?
the challenge with Interactive Brokers is the inactivity fees
Would be great if they ditched this! You can avoid it…if you have a certain (significant) balance
That's because you haven't changed from Fixed Pricing to Tiered Pricing.
Requires a minimum of US$25,000 to open.
A lot of users are reporting that this is never actually enforced
I called last year, the lady clearly wasn't interested unless I opened an account with $40000AUD. Also if your balance goes under $40000 you can no longer buy equities, only sell and withdraw. Furthermore, you'd think no brokerage fees would let you day trade, but they monitor trades and will close your account and disable equity buying if they deem this. I don't know why you claim itr isn't enforced, it says in the terms and conditions "Open an account with a minimum US$25,000 deposit and pay US$0 online equity commissions, regardless of your account balance, or the size of your trade."
You don't need to copy and paste your comments twice in the same post.
I called last year, the lady clearly wasn't interested unless I opened an account with $40000AUD
If you'd called on March 20 of this year they would have wanted AU$43547 AUD as that is what US$25,000 would convert to.
Also if your balance goes under $40000 you can no longer buy equities
Wrong. I opened an account originally with a very small amount and traded frequently - just not daytrading. See the definition of a daytrader below.
Furthermore, you'd think no brokerage fees would let you day trade
Nah, not really. From https://www.sec.gov/files/daytrading.pdf
The minimum equity requirement for a customer who is a pattern day trader is $25,000. This $25,000 requirement must be deposited into the designated customer’s account prior to any day trading activities and must be maintained at all times. A customer cannot fulfill this $25,000 requirement by cross-guaranteeing separate accounts. Each day trading account is required to meet the $25,000 requirement independently, using only the financial resources available in that account. If a customer’s account falls below the $25,000 requirement, the customer will not be permitted to day trade until the customer deposits cash or securities into the account to restore the account to the $25,000 minimum equity level.
What is a pattern daytrader?
The rules adopt the term "pattern day trader," which includes any margin customer that day trades (buys then sells or sells short then buys the same security on the same day) four or more times in five business days, provided the number of day trades are more than six percent of the customer's total trading activity for that same five-day period.
Don't blame Schwab for that.
I don't believe your Neg is a valid one as you obviously don't understand the daytrading rules at all (or even know that there are rules?)
Who are these "lot of users"? I see one person in this thread claiming it.
Wasn't enforced for me.
I opened an account with less and traded with it no problems. Then later transferred my shares from IB.
Whose subsidising these? Can't see the declarations of interest sometimes termed 'kickbacks'
Plenty of members with an idle 25,000 to invest in the new reich these days ..
Me.
In the US, there are several exchanges which means there is a significant competitive drive to reduce fees to attract order flow (in fact some exchanges pay the brokers for order flow). Added to the massive volume which means charging $0.01 means they get the same as an Australian exchange charging $10. Unfortunately the ASX is a monopoly, and in the grand scheme of things our liquidity is tiny compared to NYSE or NASDAQ.
Schwab has been doing $0 for 12 months now.
For those who don't have USD$25k, you can use Stake locally until you hit that kind of portfolio value then transfer it over.
How's the fx exchange rates like?
Just saw this on the CS website: Use international wire transfer or Schwab's Foreign Currency Wire Transfer Service, with competitive exchange rates, no transaction fees, and deposits in a variety of currencies.
*Disclaimer: A US$25 service fee will be charged for outgoing wire transfers.
So essentially, you can use the best exchange rate provider
Was about to post this one too, but got caught up trying to work out how to withdraw funds back to an AU bank account.
FX for deposits are really competitive, but did you find a way to competitively withdraw?
I'd love to know this as well before proceeding.
recommend that you open an US$ account locally and transfer it in US$. Then you can use anyone who provides the best rate to transfer from US$ to AU$.
Citibank, HSBC, CBA, etc… all have US$ account. When you do this, you should look at selling US shares when the exch rate is good and convert when it is bad ;)
Re HSBC, they will do it with an Everyday Global Account but Telegraphic Transfer from US Bank to HSBC Bank Australia in foreign currency (example USD to USD), but the the fees are $10 AUD per transaction.
…Transferwise….
Thanks - looking into this.
Though considering a deposit is as simple as transferring to a local AU bank account it would’ve been great if withdrawals were that simple.Citibank, HSBC, CBA, etc… all have US$ account
So how does that work, you simply ask them that you want to open a US $ dollar account, are there any fees?
yes, you can do it online.. eg: open a citiplus account, setup online login. then you can create a multI-currency account.
@BuyOrNot: their rate is not near the best rate at all.
not in my experience.This may not suit everyone - but for those with an IB and Schwab account - the best way to send US funds to Schwab is AUD->IB, convert at close to spot rate @ IB, then send for free (once per month, then $1.00) via ACH transfer from IB to Schwab.
tasty have withdrawal fee and fee if you deposit using currencyfair? how do people deposit with schwab and do they have a withdrawal fee?
Just saw this on the CS website: Use international wire transfer or Schwab's Foreign Currency Wire Transfer Service, with competitive exchange rates, no transaction fees, and deposits in a variety of currencies.
*Disclaimer: A US$25 service fee will be charged for outgoing wire transfers.
Great to see those , I feel Robin hood app is following suit next
Stake + Transferwise USD account is what i'm using at the moment, works great
Big fan of Stake. Been using it for a couple of years. I've haven't transferred money back to $AUD yet, but am planning to soon. Can you explain how and why you use a Transferwise USD account? Does that mean you pay less fees when transferring back to AUD? Cheers
Been this way for close to 10 months plus. It is their standard price and not really a deal!
How so you go about getting $ back out into an Aus bank account
I've been using Schwab for years and it's awesome. Not sure why more people aren't using it.
Cheap deposits, cheap brokerage, easy to use, full of info tools.
Only disadvantage is you can't see buy/sell depth very well. But I wonder if that's a US thing.
Only disadvantage is you can't see buy/sell depth very well.
Nah my big pain point is tax return……
get sharesight.com
tax is easy.
They won't give you market depth on a free account. The per user subscription fees from NYSE and NASDAQ are pretty expensive
it's only necessary to maintain the 25k if you are day trading (under US law day trading rules).
have anyone transferred shares from other US brokers to Schwab? what is the process?
Easy as (at least from IB).
Submit an online form at Schwab to move it across. Takes about a week.Thanks
Does anyone know how to buy US IPO from here?
C.S. Doesn’t allow it.
Just don’t wanna miss out another Snowflake ❄️ like IPOs.
Cheers!Non-US citizens can’t buy into IPO as far as I know.
I've bought in to IPOs using Schwab. I put in an order before the stock goes live for trading and it executes once that happens.
That's not buying into an IPO, that's placing a pre-order on the market. Buying into an IPO is getting a firm broker allocation
A bit of semantics of buying IPOs but sure, I bought it when it traded for 1 second instead of premarket.
@watwatwat: It's not semantics, it's a huge difference when it's a highly anticipated IPO, as the cross price on market open will almost certainly be higher - sometimes significantly - than the placement price. Calling it "semantics" is betraying a total lack of knowledge about the mechanics of an IPO.
IPOs are not "premarket".
@[Deactivated]: Ok I will rephrase. I've bought stock in US companies as soon their IPO is complete and live market trading commences.
If OP was asking about what you're referring to, then I retract all my comments in this thread.
I called last year, the lady clearly wasn't interested unless I opened an account with $40000AUD. Also if your balance goes under $40000 you can no longer buy equities, only sell and withdraw. Furthermore, you'd think no brokerage fees would let you day trade, but they monitor trades and will close your account and disable equity buying if they deem this. I don't know why you claim it isn't enforced, it says in the terms and conditions "Open an account with a minimum US$25,000 deposit and pay US$0 online equity commissions, regardless of your account balance, or the size of your trade."
What a snooty lady…humph!
I don't know why you claim it isn't enforced, it says in the terms and conditions
Of course if you go looking through the terms and conditions, it will state the official policy.
In my experience, it is not enforced so if you don't want to join, then don't.
Also if your balance goes under $40000 you can no longer buy equities
This doesn't make much sense as when you join, your balance is $0 and you can deposit whatever small amounts you want over time and buy whatever you want.
How is eToro in comparison? They offer free US stocks too, although not all stocks are available on eToro platform.
etoro from what I know are CFDs and as an experienced trader I wouldn’t touch CFDs with a 10 foot pole
Tl;dr of cfds is leverage is too high, and various fees such as holding positions overnighteToro has heaps of stocks and some ETFs now. Not all are available though, so I use CMC for the rest of them.
Do you mind sharing where I should trade US equities.
I am about to get redundancy package of about $25K and would definitely like to invest in US share for about 10+ years. I have already secured another job so I really want to invest this whole amount and forget. Maybe use it for kids education or so. Would really appreciate your help.Interactive brokers is my go to. Dirt cheap brokerage
https://www.etoro.com/trading/fees/#stocks
You can buy stocks/ETF's
When buying a stock or an ETF on eToro, you gain ownership, and the underlying asset is held in your name.
No Commission
No management fees
No rollover fees
No ticket fees
No additional broker feesCommission:
NO
Overnight Fees:
NO
Total Fees
0 USD
Page mentions you get debit card for all international accounts, do Aussies get one too?
International clients don't get all the same benefits. Schwab also offers 'stock slices' aka fractional shares - however this isn't available to international clients either.
They will however pay dividends in as fractional shares. I really like this as the dividends on some long-term set and forget type stocks keep being added without you having to do anything (like at Stake and IB).
CMC Markets also offer free US stocks (no conversion fees) - it's a no brainer for me.
eToro is fantastic, no commission and you can fund for free (no conversion fees) using Revolut/PayPal.
Stake has some fees for currency conversion (0.7c for every $100). FLAT $5 fee for deposits in USD using Revolut/TransferWise.
Tastyworks requires a $20 flat fee for deposits using CurrencyFair.
Genuine question, is it a deal if this is an everyday thing? (and common for pretty much any US brokerage firm) This is unlikely to ever go away due to the race to the bottom on trading fees in the US.
If it hasn't been posted before, and it could be of interest to OzBargain readers, I believe OzB go-to policy is to post it but have it flagged by the mods as a "long running deal".
Is this US only or a true substitute for interactive brokers with global market access?
It depends what type of trader you are. For Aus customers, we are required to pay a $10 monthly fee whereas schwab there aren't monthly fees. Being a passive investor with very little trades, reducing the monthly fees was necessary.
I've also found the schwab interface better to use than interactive brokers (IB) which is why I chose schwab.
If you're a frequent trader, I would recommend IB for the low margin loan fees.
US only. No futures either.
Can I withdraw funds from CS trading account to pay for my US CC?
so here is what I've gathered:
$0 trading usa stocks
im not surea bout this %100 but im assuming no FX fee coz you are directly trading with USD and if you can find the account in USD (easily) than there is no FX fees. you can use transferwise or local USD bank account multi currency.
i dont know how long it takes for them to activate the account, i hope not too long, its been over a day now and all ive gotten was a welcome email and it said a representative will contact me.BUT no access to IPO like usa residents, no access to fractional shares likes usa residents. no credit card like usa residents.
its probably the best option for usa stocks in australia, better than stake, etoro, cmc markets, IG, selfwealth and any other local ones.everyone says IB is very hard to use even for advanced users. so that puts me off, on top of that $10 monthly fee. charles schwab it is.
How was the overall application process if I may ask, particularly with respect to the US$25k min. open?
I noticed above that someone mentioned a US$25 fee to wire money out of the account, but in the product guide it also mentions the fee is US$15 if done online - are you able to shed any clarity at all if you have access?
mate im still waiting on activation, its been 7 days, selfwealth takes like 1 day. im gonna skip em, F*#k them if they wana take that long while the stocks that i wanted went up %10-20 percent.
Hmmmm, no good. Thanks for the feedback. Can only assume holiday season has interrupted things but even then, as you say, can't afford to sit by idly while an opportunity is available
@OneTonneRodeo: I mean I really wanna go with schwab, selfwealth is pretty garbage too, I've emailed multiple times asking simple questions no one replies, no live chat only a bot, ive tried different hours too. nothing. also you cant transfer usd only AUD. and you cant do market order, had to be limit order, which is kinda stupid, (its coming, when? they dont know) i dont know who is running shit at selfwealth but who the hell offers a limit order before market order option. how the hell am i gonna predict the stock price with a limit order in this market specially after hours price movement, so your orders will probably wont get filled if you place a bid too low.. thats why we need market order. so yeh as of right now i still havent trasnfered money to selfwealth im just praying schwab reply by tomorrow. they emailed me today saying they are going through the final check. they are taking their sweet ass time..
@striker5950: Yeah I've got USD already, which has been influencing my decision - not overly keen for IB given not active enough to warrant the US$120p.a., and not a massive fan of Stake given limited range and high forex on the way out. Might try my luck with Schwab - even though I suspect service levels will be quite poor. Heck, might be a silver lining to poor service, if they cbf administering their own account requirements (i.e. US$25k deposit).
@OneTonneRodeo: ikr I mean why put it there if its not enforced.. also I spoke to citibank online chat, they said if you are sending USD it will take 3-5 business days. because it uses the swift network, but if you send AUD it will take 1 day. because it does not use swift. so for me its %100 worth it to send over aud it will be converted via citi rx rate (directly to shwab usd account). which is worse rate than transferweise but, i was looking at transferring 45k aud to usd. with transferwise i get an extra 460usd. but it will take 3-5 days to reach my citi usd account once converted. (spoke to them)
than it will take 3-5 days from my citi account to the schwab account (uses the swift network) so you are looking at potentially up to 6-10 business days to save 450 usd, so you got to weight out the stock price increase (way bigger gains than $450) vs the extra 450-500 usd by using transferwise. for me its a no brainer to go with direct aud transfer.
@striker5950: good info to have, thanks for sharing, as won't have USD forever. i get the time advantage of Citi AU to Schwab AU, but looking past that for a sec where time isn't an issue, why wouldn't one theoretically do direct deposit from transferwise (or revolut below) to schwab to get it there in 3-5 days, versus the 6-10 days of going TW to Citi to Schwab? I guess what I'm asking related to that is why double handle it?
Something else, have you looked into using revolut? Albeit in smaller $ values, or at least after your initial deposit, as I think they have a $9k cap per month for fee-free. The forex swap on that happens at the market rate, so you wouldn't lose from aud to usd. then you can send USD-USD (I think), and pay no fee on the transfer. Obviously a delay still, but just the one instead of two by bringing it back to Citi. Downside though, from what I've picked up, is you don't have an account with specific bank details to deposit USD into, like when you want to withdraw from Schwab (hence good to have the others like TW or Citi still at hand)
@OneTonneRodeo: u cant do direct from transferwise to schwab, schwab does not accept, the bank account its coming from has to be under ur name. never heard of revolut and even if i start now i think the schwab account will be faster as im already in the last steps of account activation. and you can pay AUD or USD to schwab they provide both options, reason i want to transfer aud (converted to usd on the go) to their USD account is because i want to do the convertion on my banks side instead of schwabs side as i dont know what their rate is.
@striker5950: fair enough, whatever works to help get into the market and trading asap is sometimes best.
just for the record though, as far as direct transfers from TW to Schwab, there have been some successful efforts with this. This comment refers to it and addresses what is otherwise the major problem you outline
@OneTonneRodeo: on the schwab site it says the only way a transfer is accepted is if the account its coming from has the same exact name on your account, transferwise shows up as federal something community.., it does not show your name, but if people have had success with it that i guess it works, but i just didnt wana risk it since thats what it said on their site, but i guess its like their 25k limit lol
@striker5950: lol, yeah, who knows what the go is. I think I'll give it a crack and apply, minus the 25k…heard even if you ask them they suggest you have a bit of time to deposit anyways…then test out the TW transfer with a $1 deposit or something, haha
@OneTonneRodeo: my account got activated today. now comes the money transfer. i found out even citibank uses the swift and it will take 3-5 business days. this was new info as the other day they gave me wrong info. i also found this whirpool post, and im looking at this particular post:
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2794283
Quote:""I wanted to transfer some money which was in a TransferWise USD account to Schwab. Reading this thread, I didn't think it was possible.
Last week, I went to this URL (logged in): https://client.schwab.com/areas/service/formsandapplication/…
There's a new (for me anyway) heading: "Direct Deposit and sending money to a Schwab Account"It has a Routing Number and an Account number (a long code ahead of your 8 digit Schwab ID).
I made a transfer from TransferWise to "myself" (as it's my account number) yesterday (Monday AU/Sunday US) and the funds arrived today."" End Quoteso what he is saying is he used the info in Direct Deposit and sending money to a Schwab account (but it says this)
Use this for:
automatically depositing your paycheck or Social Security checks
setting up online transfers on an external bank site to send money into your Schwab accountstrange that no one metioned this before in the posts on ozbargain or whirpool but according to this guy on whirpool it works. AND IF IT DOES this is the best hidden option that no one is talking about.. this way you get the transferwise amazing rate, and you get the fast 2 days transfer time
@striker5950: I think that's basically referring to the post that I linked you to yesterday - the guy didn't explicitly state the quotes and all, but I think he took it from Whirlpool as well.
Anyways, read your final update in the separate post below, so good on you for biting the bullet. 1 day and you'll be in the markets, boom, lol. Let us know what you buy, haha.
For future reference where one is not in a rush, the other option that ties in with the direct deposit method into Schwab, is Revolut, which I mentioned yesterday. Basically gives you zero forex/transfer fee in entirety for smaller transactions though up to I think $9k or so per month (transferwise will be about 0.44% if you don't already have the USD and need to convert from AUD, which is still decent). I remember you said yesterday you haven't heard of Revolut, they are basically competitor/peer to TransferWise, just without the fees of any sort for those smaller transactions.
@OneTonneRodeo: wow interesting, i took it as just another competitor of them with similar fees, but as i just read you said 9k per month no fee, yeh that could not have worked for me. it woulda taken me 3 months lol. but good for others who are not on a time limit and want 0 fees and investing under 9k. mate im mostly going in on EV stocks, they are hot asf right now, you cant loose lol
Final update, i sent it as AUD as that is the fastest method 1 business day, so you send it to their Jpmorgan sydney branch, the info is available on the charles schwab site, this is the fastest method. and thats the method I chose.
the other method i posted above is a hit an miss as i spoke to transferwise again, its true you do get the best conversion rate with TW but the complication comes in the form of (transferwise account name is not under your name) and the support guy from TW said many payments bonuce back because of this reason, he said most brokers dont accept that. so he said it might bounce back and it might not. so its gamble, if you are not in a hurry, give it a go. worst thing is you wasted 3-4 days for money to come bounce back to TW than you send it to which ever bank you have in aus, and send it from there which is anoter 3-5 days.
still waiting on account to be funded, money still has not shown up after 7 days. this was the fastest method recommended by many. however if this is the fastest method im glad i didnt go with the slow method. if you are in a hurry avoid charles schwab at all costs..
So, following on from our earlier comments, I ended up joining…TransferWise (payment to "myself") to Schwab via Direct Deposit worked in 1-2 business days. Revolut likely to be even better, since no fees at all. So maybe give one of those a try next time. Not to be mistaken with Schwab instructions for domestic or international wire transfer, which I didn't try.
Best way out is to send as Domestic US wire through XE/Transferwise/Ofx. Can take some time , mostly due to inefficiencies in overseas transfer process. Overall, I’d rather be dealing with Charles Schwab. They’re wonderful to deal with.
For withdrawals from CS, is it only Wire with the mandatory US$15 fee?
Highly or lowly reputed? There’s a significant difference…