I’ve recently moved to the UK and planning to move a significant portfolio to UK as well. The portfolio is currently in USD in Revolut account.
I’m not trying to invest in ISA, my ISA is elsewhere, so not a issue at the moment. The investment will be into stock that pays dividends and other stock. The dividends I would withdraw every month to my private account as they come in. The stocks I’m planning to invest are based in the USA.
Which currency would you set up the trading212 account in? Do I do:
a) Trading212 in USD and deposit in USD and withdraw in USD via revolut and then exchange to GBP in revolut and use the funds for everyday life (1 exchange USD - GBP but bank transfer fees)
b) Exchange everything I got in USD to GBP in my revolut account and open trading212 in GBP and exchange there again to USD to invest, and then back to GBP on trading212 then withdraw to Revolut in GBP and use the funds for everyday life (3 exchanges but NO bank transfer fees)
Am I really asking the following?
Having a USD account means you convert when you deposit and withdraw?
Having a GBP account means you convert when you buy and sell stock?
I would invest longterm, and only withdraw what comes thru dividends
I know this sounds ridiculous, I’m not trying to play the system or anything, I’m genuinely trying to see which is the best solution for me regarding monthly withdrawals and currency exchanges while my daily life is in GBP. Also I’ve tried opening a Barclays USD account and they said my current GBP account needs to be open for at least 6 months before I get the USD account.
Thanks Dougal! But it doesn’t really ask my question. I went thru the Q&A
I am asking how to get my USD cash to trading212 platform. Because even though both my revolut and trading212 accounts are UK based, Revolut somehow charges a fee to send money to trading. Do we have a better way around getting money to the platform?
Well, it’s both trading212 question and a SEPA fee question. That’s right, I’ve seen you’ve answered one post
“Ouch 1.6% of fees! I’ve been having difficulty minimising costs with SEPA transfers as well(even though it’s mostly meant to be free). Not sure I’ve seen a great solution to it yet”
Have you maybe found a way to minimise this? Thanks
Just a heads up about SEPA (bold text done by me):
The aim of SEPA is to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments and turn the previously fragmented national markets for euro payments into a single domestic one. SEPA enables customers to make cashless euro payments to any account located anywhere in the area, using a single bank account and a single set of payment instruments.
Bottom-line: Low-cost or free bank transfers using SEPA transfers are only for EUR.
USD bank transfers usually are more rigid and expensive, for example, through SWIFT transfers.
Also it’s more easy to open a EUR or GBP or USD bank account in an European country than opening a USD bank account in US.
I do have a USD account on Revolut, opened in the UK. Both Revolut and trading212 are in USD. However both install a fee when trying to send money from Revolut to Trading212 account. Would you have any suggestions? Thank you
I don’t know the exact fees from Revolut for USD transfers or from other financial intermediary. As I said before, USD bank transfers are usually more expensive and more rigid to do, due to US legislation on USD and SWIFT.
Probably the USD transfers are more expensive than the T212 forex fees (0.15%).
You have to see if there any intermediary that do the currency conversion to USD and their transfer less than sending GBP or EUR to T212 and then converting it to USD for 0.15%.
The financial intermediaries, generally offer “free” or low-cost in currency conversion but they charge for foreign currency transfer. There isn’t any free lunch.
I understand there is no free lunch. I just want to see my options on how to transfer and which currency to use on trading212.
If we go back to my initial topic, what would you recommend I do? We are talking about 100k USD $ and I would be investing on trading 212 again in american companies - again in USD.
And when you say “financial intermediaries” which ones are we talking about?
There are several banks and EMIs. The old and traditional banks usually have higher fees, the digital-only intermediaries generally have lower fees (due to have smaller costs).
UK and other European countries have several fintechs that support foreign currencies and its transfers. It’s a matter of search of the best solution for each case.
In the end, you must transfer out your money from Revolut (being in USD or GBP or other). And on the end transfer in to T212. The middle segment is the one that you must figure out.
Beware what new financial intermediary you choose, due to security (money can be blocked in the intermediary you choose, due to many things, e.g. KYC, prolonged onboarding, etc.), some intermediary could not be supported by T212, due to the intermediary nature (e.g. EMIs, omnibus accounts, etc.).
The money market fund (MMF) transfer fee could be higher than the money transfer fee. Usually the securities transfer have higher fees. And money transfer have lower fees.
I don’t know if Revolut have MMF, if even in ETF format. But if not, maybe buying other securities (stocks/ETFs).
A lot of information and I’m just a newbie. First of all, Id like to thank you sincerely for sharing this info. Cheers man, legend stuff.
The revolut fee is 25$ flat + percent of trade . I don’t know if the percantage has a cap at , let’s say 50$.
Either that, or the trading212 fee above 2000$ is 0.7% thru a debit card.
I’m starting to see that the option of closing my trading212 account in USD, and opening one in GBP then transfering currencies on Revolut and then depositing to trading212 in GBP is the better option - because I’d be pulling money off the account monthly and using them in GBP anyway.
With T212 interest income in USD account you could recover that easy (in few days/weeks), specially with ~100k.
Why close your T212 USD account?
As now we can have multi-currency accounts (Invest accounts) and transfer to and from it. Besides that, they also have interest income.
You can only top up , deposit and withdraw the account with main currency though.
That’s my whole question basically.
a) Leave Trading212 in USD and deposit in USD and withdraw in USD via revolut and then exchange to GBP in revolut and use the funds for everyday life (1 exchange USD - GBP at the end, but bank transfer fees for deposit to T212)
or
b) Exchange everything I got in USD to GBP in my revolut account and open trading212 in GBP and exchange there again to USD to invest, and then back to GBP on trading212 then withdraw to Revolut in GBP and use the funds for everyday life (3 exchanges but NO bank transfer fees)
Weird, I have several currency transfer options, my base currency is EUR, but besides the EUR account details to transfer in, I got other transfer details for different currencies, for example, my USD account details are different from my EUR account (image below is cut in top half):
The bottom half of the above image, have different transfer details (e.g. different IBAN and bank) from EUR account.
In T212 PC version you can choose the currency and then the transfer details.
Maybe @Team212 . @Bogi.H@Momchil.G , could clarify if we can or can not transfer directly to our different currency accounts.
I think at Revolut you can use “hack” sign up for Revolut Ultra or whatever it is called the most expensive sub, it should have no fee for foreign transfers. Aka USD. Send money via swift to T212, cancel revolut ultra in max 14 days, get refund. Profit.
