Swissquote Review 2026 – A great Swiss Broker
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(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Are you wondering if Swissquote is any good?
Swissquote is one of the most well-known Swiss brokers, and many investors use it. It has many features that make it attractive for people looking to invest in the stock market.
But is Swissquote any good? Many people are asking this question, and we have the answer. We compare Swissquote to some of its competitors to see how it stacks up.
This in-depth review answers precisely that question. We see what Swissquote is, what you can do with it, how much it costs, and much more!
By the end of this review, you will know whether Swissquote is a good broker for you!
| Custody Fees | 80-200 CHF per year |
|---|---|
| Inactivity Fees | 0 CHF |
| Buy Swiss ETF | 3-190 CHF |
| Buy American Stock | 3-190 USD |
| Currency Exchange Fee | 0.95% |
| Languages | English, French, German, and Italian |
| Mobile Application | Yes |
| Web Application | Yes |
| Custodian Bank | Swissquote |
| Established | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Gland, Switzerland |
Swissquote
Everything you need to start investing in the stock market! Open an account with Swissquote and get 100 CHF in trading credits with my code MKT_THEPOORSWISS.
- Swiss broker
- Easy to use
The Swissquote broker is part of the Swissquote Group Holding SA company. It is a Swiss banking group operating in many countries. The Swissquote broker was founded in 1996, making it a well-established company. They have 722 employees at the time of this writing.
While the group offers services in many countries, this review will focus on its services in Switzerland. This service is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Swissquote has a banking license and is listed on the stock market. Being listed requires Swissquote to disclose detailed financial reports, enhancing its transparency.
As of October 2025, Swissquote has more than 700,000 users. It offers access to stocks, bonds, funds, Contracts For Difference (CFDs), and more. They have access to 60 stock exchanges over the world. If you are a passive investor like me, they have more features than you would ever need.
They also offer some services outside the stock market, like the Swissquote bank account and cryptocurrencies. But I do not cover this part in this review. Instead, I want to focus on their trading features. They have separated the two features on their tools too.
So, we will delve deeper into what Swissquote offers as a broker.
Swissquote Account Types
We will delve deeper into what Swissquote offers as a broker. First, let’s explore the different account types available.
Swissquote has four different account types:
- Trading. This account is the one that interests us for this review since it offers access to trading in the stock market.
- Forex. An account for foreign exchange traders.
- Robo-Advisory. You can also use Swissquote as a robo-advisor.
- Crypto-Assets. A special account where you can trade many cryptocurrencies.
This review focuses solely on the Trading account type. As a passive investor in the stock market, this is the only account you need.
If you hold some cash in your broker account, you will not get any interest rates (as of June 2025). If you want to get some interest rate, you will need to block your money into a savings account.
Swissquote Fees
In the long term, you need to reduce your fees. Investing fees are extremely important. Therefore, we must look at the fees of the trading account at Swissquote.
Custody fees
We should start with the custody fees. These fees are significant, because you will pay them every year regardless of your performance.
Custody fees are a fixed fee per quarter based on your assets (minus cash):
- Below 50,000 CHF, you will pay 20 CHF per quarter (80 CHF per year)
- From 50,000 to 100,000 CHF, you will pay 25 CHF per quarter (100 CHF per year)
- From 100,000 to 150,000 CHF, you will pay 37.50 CHF per quarter (150 CHF per year)
- Above 150,000 CHF, you will pay 50 CHF per quarter (200 CHF per year)
On assets above a million CHF, you will pay an extra 0.03% management fee per year. This extra fee is not negligible if you plan to retire on your investments, but it is still significantly lower than that of big Swiss brokers.
As far as Swiss brokers go, this is a reasonable fee, but it is still not negligible. This custody fee is the only fee you will pay outside of trading fees. There are no extra account management fees or inactivity fees. I am talking here about stock accounts. Some other accounts (like Forex and CFDs) have different fees.
Transaction fees
The next fee you will pay is transaction fees. You will pay these fees on each transaction on the stock market.
We start with Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) since they are the best instrument for passive investors in Switzerland. With most brokers, ETFs have the same trading fees as stocks since they are traded similarly.
However, with Swissquote, there is a slight difference. For some ETFs, called ETF Leaders, you will pay a lower fee:
- Below 500 CHF: 3 CHF in transaction fee
- From 500 to 1,000: 5 CHF in transaction fee
- Above 1,000: 9 CHF in transaction fee
In the ETF leaders, you find many good ETFs by Vanguard, iShares, UBS, etc.
For stocks and ETFs that are not on the list, you will pay a fee based on the stock exchange. The fees are the same for buy and sell operations. For instance, here are the fees for the Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX):
- Below 500: 3 CHF
- 500.01 – 1,000: 5 CHF
- 1,000 – 2,000: 10 CHF
- 2,000 – 10,000: 29 CHF
- 10,000 – 15,000: 49 CHF
- 15,000 – 25,000: 79 CHF
- 25,000 – 50,000: 129 CHF
- Above 50,000: 190 CHF
And here are the fees for American stock exchanges (NYSE or Nasdaq):
- Below 500: 3 USD
- 500 – 1,000: 5 USD
- 1,000 – 2,000: 10 USD
- 2,000 – 10,000: 29 USD
- 10,000 – 15,000: 49 USD
- 15,000 – 25,000: 79 USD
- 25,000 – 50,000: 129 USD
- Above 50,000: 190 USD
These fees are not cheap, especially for small transactions. For instance, if you buy 1001 CHF shares, you will pay a 1% fee! 1% is a huge fee, and you must be careful about it. But if you buy for 10,000 CHF, you will pay 0.3% in fees. 0.3% is still a considerable fee, but it is acceptable. You also have to be careful that since it is tiered, adding a few francs to your order can move you to the next tier, and you may be much higher fees for just a few francs difference.
If you are an active trader, you may also consider their trade packages. With these packages, you buy a set of trades at a fixed price per trade and can use them for up to 12 months. If you are doing massive operations regularly or many small operations, these packages may save you money.
And when we compare Swissquote with other Swiss brokers, these fees are decent.
Other fees
We also have to consider the currency conversion fee. At Swissquote, you will pay 0.95% of the exchange value if you convert CHF to another common currency like EUR or USD. The fees may change if you use other, more exotic currencies.
Once again, this is a significant fee. You need to be careful about this fee. You pay this fee whenever you buy or sell an ETF in EUR or USD. Over time, this can quickly accumulate to a significant amount of money lost to fees.
Finally, the last fee we will examine is the Swiss Stamp Tax Duty fee. Since Swissquote is a Swiss broker, you must pay this fee for each stock market operation. The fee is 0.075% for Swiss shares and 0.15% for foreign shares, and it is the same for each Swiss broker.
Swissquote will provide tax statements. However, you must pay 85 CHF for a digital version and 100 CHF for a paper version. With these, you will get an e-tax statement as well. You can file your taxes without them, but then you will have to enter all operations in the tax return instead of only scanning a barcode. So, you will have to decide between time and money on this one. I wish Swissquote would offer that for free, since it does not cost them much.
It is also worth mentioning that you can buy packs of trades for a flat fee. If you buy 20 trades, you can pay 39 CHF per trade. You can also buy larger packs for less money per trade. These trades are worth only one year. For most passive investors, these packs will not be interesting. However, they can be cheaper for active traders. And in some cases, if you invest a lot per month in the same ETF, they can also be valuable, but these are rare cases.
Overall, Swissquote is not cheap. Several of its fees are relatively high, mainly currency exchange and trading fees for small transactions. However, compared with other Swiss brokers, these fees are affordable. Indeed, most Swiss brokers are even more expensive than Swissquote.
In fact, for transactions on the Swiss Stock Exchange, Swissquote is among the cheapest Swiss brokers. The only place where it does not shine is for foreign currency exchange.
Opening an account at Swissquote
We will see what it takes to open an account at Swissquote.
Opening an account at Swissquote can be done entirely online. However, depending on when you call, you may have to wait until you get someone on call for the video identification, which can take a while (more than 10 minutes).
Other than that, the account opening process is very straightforward. You must give your personal information and answer questions about your financial knowledge. These are the same questions every broker will ask you—nothing surprising.
There is no minimum for opening an account. So, you can start trading with very little money. It is good, but be careful about the 80 CHF per year minimum custody fee. If you invest with very little money, this could be expensive.
If you open an account, don’t forget to use my code MKT_THEPOORSWISS to get 100 CHF in trading credits (only for Swiss residents).
So, overall, opening an account at Swissquote should be pretty straightforward.
Trading with Swissquote
Swissquote offers several options to trade stocks:
- The web interface can be directly used and has all the necessary functions.
- A mobile application on iOS and Android.
- A desktop application primarily aimed at Forex trading.
Overall, there are enough options for everybody. The web interface should work for most people. Many people will also appreciate mobile applications that let you do everything you need.
The only downside is that the web interface is a little complicated because of all the crammed features. But once you find the features you need, you should be fine with using them. If you want to invest passively, you will only need a small fraction of the features available.
Is it important to know we can trade US ETFs with Swissquote. This is essential because US ETFs are the most efficient for Swiss investors. Not all Swiss brokers provide access to these ETFs.
Since October 2024, Swissquote has supported fractional trading in stocks and ETFs. If you want to trade in fractions, you need to enable the option in your settings. Once you reach a full share, your fractional shares will be converted to a real share. This is a good feature, but you must be aware of limitations with fractional shares.
One feature that many people like is that you can register shares in your own with Swissquote. If you do that, you will be invited to the shareholder meetings, and in some cases, you will receive some gifts from the company. This is something that few brokers are doing.
If you want all the details, I have a guide on how to buy an ETF on Swissquote.
Other services
While not directly related to their brokerage accounts, it is worth mentioning other services from Swissquote.
Swissquote has its robo-advisor: Swissquote Invest Easy. It allows you to invest automatically in a portfolio chosen for you.
Swissquote also has its Swissquote Debit Mastercard. This card gets you cashback in the form of fee credits. It is quite interesting if you are a heavy user of Swissquote.
Swissquote also has other services, such as a 3a, but I have not yet reviewed them.
Is Swissquote safe?
If you invest a significant amount of money with a broker, you must ensure it is safe.
Swissquote is regulated in Switzerland by FINMA. Its other entities are also regulated in other countries.
Swissquote has been well-established since 1996 and profitable for several years, so its risks of going bankrupt are slim. But it is still important to know what would happen if your broker went bankrupt.
Since Swissquote has a banking license, your cash will be protected by Esisuisse for up to 100,000 CHF. Your securities should be fully guaranteed since they are supposed to be held in the custodian bank account in your name. It is a good level of protection.
As for technical security, you can opt for a second-factor authentication (2FA) for your account. I strongly recommend everybody to do that to improve the security of their account. I have not heard of any security issues within Swissquote, which is a good sign.
So, overall, investing with Swissquote is safe. As for investing in general, remember that investing involves risks of loss regardless of the platform.
Swissquote Reputation
Looking at a broker’s reputation before investing in the stock market is essential.
As a source of reviews, I tend to use TrustPilot. So, we look at the reviews of SQ on TrustPilot. On average, users are rating SQ at 3.2 stars, which is not a great result. So, here is what people are saying about this broker.
First, we should take a look at people complaining about the broker. We can group the complaints into several categories:
- Very long account opening. Several people had to wait several days to get their accounts opened.
- There are very high fees. This is somewhat true, but people should consider this before opening their accounts. The fees are reasonable compared with other Swiss brokers.
- Poor customer service. Many people had issues fixing their issues with customer service.
- Poor investing platform. Some investors are not satisfied with the features offered by the platform, especially on the cryptocurrency side.
Overall, I am a little worried about the reviews on the customer service and account opening. The other complaints do not worry me since they come from people who have not researched properly before opening an account at Swissquote. And we must remember that most internet comments come from unsatisfied people. So, negative comments have to be taken with a pinch of salt even though they still come from some truth.
The good point is that most reviews (36%) are rated five-star. Overall, positive reviews are saying:
- Simple to trade with the platform
- A very stable platform and company
Interestingly, positive reviews strongly focus on the platform itself and its usability. It is good that many people report that the platform is easy to use.
Overall, I would say that the user reviews of Swissquote are good but not great.
Alternatives to Swissquote
It is essential to compare a broker to its alternatives. Many brokers are available to Swiss investors. I think it is important to mention Interactive Brokers as the best alternative to Swissquote.
Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers
For transparency, it is important to mention that I do not use Swissquote.
I believe Swissquote is the best Swiss broker available. If you are looking for a Swiss broker, I would recommend them.
However, I use Interactive Brokers, a broker from the United States. So, we can compare both platforms.
Both brokers are very well established and regulated. The protection is good on both sides, with a slight advantage for Interactive Brokers, protected by U.S. SIPC.
Where everything starts to differ strongly is in the fees.
We can start with the custody fees. Swissquote has a 200 CHF yearly custody fee for an extensive portfolio. At IB, you will pay 0 CHF in custody fees! You can save 200 CHF per year with IB. And Swissquote has an extra custody fee on assets above 1,000,000 CHF, which IB does not have.
For trading on the Swiss stock exchanges, Interactive Brokers is slightly cheaper than Swissquote, but not by a large margin. Where IB shines is in American stock exchanges. For instance, if I buy 10,000 USD of Microsoft shares, I will pay about 0.40 USD on IB (yes, 40 cents!). On Swissquote, this would cost 29 USD. In this example, IB is 75 times cheaper than Swissquote!
In addition, since IB is a foreign broker, you will not pay the Swiss stamp tax. With IB, you save 0.075% on each Swiss operation and 0.15% on each foreign operation.
Finally, currency exchange at IB costs about 2 USD, while it costs 0.95% at Swissquote. And if you convert small amounts at IB, you can use an even cheaper automatic conversion. IB will always be cheaper than Swissquote for currency conversions.
So, if you are ready to use a broker that is not Swiss, you should consider Interactive Brokers. You can read my review of IB to know more. But as far as Swiss brokers go, Swissquote is excellent.
For more details, read my full comparison of Swissquote vs Interactive Brokers.
Swissquote FAQ
Is Swissquote safe?
Swissquote is a well-established broker, regulated by the FINMA. In case of bankruptcy, your assets are segregated and will be available to you.
Can you convert currency with Swissquote?
Yes, you can convert between many different currency pairs.
Who is Swissquote good for?
Swissquote is good for people that want a well-established Swiss broker with good fees and many features.
Who is Swissquote not good for?
Swissquote is not great for people that often trade in foreign currencies, because of its high currency conversion fees.
Is there a mobile app for Swissquote?
Yes, Swissquote has a mobile app available for both iOS and Android, providing access to trading and account management on the go.
Does Swissquote offer customer support?
Yes, Swissquote provides customer support via phone, email, and live chat during business hours.
Can you register Swiss shares with Swissquote?
Yes, Swissquote lets you register Swiss shares in your name.
Swissquote Summary
Swissquote is a great Swiss broker. It has excellent fees and a good reputation. It provides you with all the features you need to start investing.
Product Brand: Swissquote
4.5
Swissquote Pros
Let's summarize the main advantages of Swissquote:
- Cheap compared to other Swiss brokers
- Relatively fast account opening
- A very vast range of investments
- Long experience
- Well-established company
- Good security
- Easy to use
- Support for fractional trading
- Can register Swiss shares
Swissquote Cons
Let's summarize the main disadvantages of Swissquote:
- Expensive currency exchange fees
- Expensive when compared to foreign brokers
- Video identification can take a while to complete
Conclusion
Everything you need to start investing in the stock market! Open an account with Swissquote and get 100 CHF in trading credits with my code MKT_THEPOORSWISS.
- Swiss broker
- Easy to use
Overall, Swissquote is a good, well-established, and affordable Swiss broker. They offer access to many stock exchanges and many investing instruments. And they compare well with other Swiss brokers.
Swissquote is the best Swiss broker. If you want to invest with a Swiss broker, I recommend going with Swissquote. Swissquote will be a great platform for growing your money with the stock market.
If you use my code MKT_THEPOORSWISS when you open an account, you will get 100 CHF in trading credits. So you are saving 100 CHF in fees! However, this code is only valid for Swiss residents.
If you are interested in Swiss brokers, in particular, I compared the best brokers. This article should help you choose, but you need to know the cost differences between Swiss and foreign brokers.
If you are also considering foreign brokers, I recommend Interactive Brokers as the best broker for Swiss investors. This is my primary broker (my secondary broker is Saxo). I currently use Swissquote as the broker for my LLC.
What about you? What do you think of Swissquote?
More reading
E-tax statements now available for Interactive Brokers
Thanks to Datalevel AG, e-tax statements are now available for Interactive Brokers, removing one of its few disadvantages against Swiss brokers.
Step-by-Step Guide: How to buy an ETF with Swissquote in 2026
All you need to know about buying ETFs and converting currencies on Swissquote. This guide will make your experience straightforward.
Trading 212 Review 2026 – Pros & Cons
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Get Your FREE Swiss Money-Saving Guide
Hi,
Nice overview, but to me it seems you are too biased with only one investment instrument (ETF funds) which by itself it nothing bad particularly if you want as simple as possible investing.
However, there are two huge advantages of SQ compared to IB. Forex trading, and crypto trading where SQ really shines and IB is average at best (CDFs trading with too large spreads) or doesn’t offer it at all (FX and crypto).
SQ has a really good FX platform and reasonable spreads. Offer of instruments is great. In addition to almost all possible currency pairs there are major stock indices (CFDs), most precious metals, a lot of commodities and even some bonds and equity CFDs. Fees for crypo transfers are quite small and offer of coins is very good.
For FX trading in addition to endless possibilities to hedge currencies in your portfolio index CDFs are something that is far superior to any ETF trading. Buying and selling is instant (plus you can do it outside of trading hours), cost is negligible compared to buying actual ETFs (only spread), and if you are in a long position overnight fees are usually positive so you even earn money. Most importantly, you can trade with leverage and invest (and gain) much more than if you were actually buying ETF funds (ofc with increased risk).
Cheers
Hi,
I would strongly encourage you to read about IB and FOREX. FOREX at IB is significantly better than at SQ.
On the other hand, I completely agree that crypto is better at SQ.
I am strongly against CFDs, I think they should be illegal in Europe just like they are in the US.
It’s normal that I am biased on ETFs since I believe this is simply the best and safest way to invest in the long-term for 99% of investors. But if you are a CFD investor, then obviously you should not use IB. But in that case, my blog is not really for you :)
Hi ThePoorSwiss, I’m still hesitating between SQ and IB, and I wish you had covered the Robot-Advisory tool that SQ offers. On paper I find this option quite interesting, at least for part of my portfolio. Any thoughts you can share on this ? Do you see it as less performing/interesting ? for a “passive investor”, it still looks interesting, doesn’t it ?
Thank you !
Hi Christophe,
For me, it’s simply too expensive. They start at 1.25% fee per year. This is just bad. I would not recommend even trying them out with such a fee. Using True Wealth instead (or Selma or even Inyova) would be significantly cheaper.
For me, they have to lower their fees to be interesting.
But I could still do a in-depth review if many people are interested.
Hey guys do you know if i can receive dividends when investing on etfs on swissquote? Or can it be automatically reinvested in the stock?
Thanks
D
Hi Derek,
Of course, you can receive dividends if you invest in ETFs that distribute them.
To the best of my knowledge, I do not think that Swissquote has any automatic dividend reinvesting plan. But you could choose an accumulating ETF instead.
Hi Mr. Swiss
Hope all is well on your side!
I’m probably getting the math wrong here, but would investing CHF 10k via SwissQuote in VT means (roughly) paying CHF 140 in fees?
Exchange value (0.95%) = 95 CHF
Transaction fees = 30 CHF
Swiss stamp tax duty free (0.15%) = 15 CHF
Total = CHF 140
And I would get another 0.15% Swiss stamp tax duty free when selling.
Is this correct?
Many thanks for your time and all your advice!
Cheers
Florent
Hi Florent,
Your math is almost correct :)
You would actually pay 55 USD in transaction fees since 10’000 CHF is more than 10’001 USD and you would end up in the next fee level.
But other than that, you are spot on.
And you would also probably pay 0.95% if you want to get back the money in CHF.
The currency fee point is not fully valid for me. I don’t think anyone should you an internal broker currency exchange if there are high fees – just use services like TransferWise. In example for USD ETFs, you should exchange currency from CHF into USD through TransferWise and let it transfer it onto your USD account in swissquote (or any other broker). That way the fees are marginal.
Hi Kuba,
Can you transfer USD to Swissquote? I am really not sure about that.
If you can, then it would divide your fees by about two (depending on the amount) by using Wise to do the conversion.
But then, why not use IB directly?
You can transfer and store CHF/EUR/USD separately in Swissqoute. The same is for postfinance. I am using postfinance and the moment and have never used their currency converter – just went through TransferWise. I think it is worth mentioning this tip in the reviews of Postfinance/Swissqoute.
Btw. what is the gotcha with IB currency conversion? If they charge only 2CHF, i could use their platform just for currency exchange similiar as TransferWise. Transfer CHF, exchange in USD for 2CHF fee and then withdraw USD. So i assume the above scenario ia not possible, but how does it work then? What are the rules/limits?
Or maybe IB exchange rates are just not that good? So there is 2CHF fee but the exchange rate would be worse than what i.e. TransferWise making it in the end a worse deal? Otherwise people could just abuse IB for currency exchanges (without actually inevsting anything) instead of using portals like TransferWise. So i.e. i make now a 100k CHF change to USD in TransferWise i would get 108270.26 USD after the fees (rate 1.08737). How much would be that through IB?
Hi Kuba,
Thanks for sharing, I did not know you could hold USD in your account at Swissquote, this is interesting.
Regarding IB, exchange rates are great. And yes, you could totally use it for that. Send CHF to it, convert to USD (or EUR) and send that foreign currency to an account. However, the account needs to be in your name.
I am sure many people use IB for that. Especially since they have no more custody fees.
Out of curiosity, could you check what IB propose you now if you tried exchanging 100 000 CHF into USD? What rate do they give?
It tells me 108’740 USD
So i checked this morning and TransferWise gives 108,594.86. IB is clear on top but the difference is not that much, in area of 0.11%. Could be a good tip for those who are using swiss brokers.
it’s indeed a small difference. To be entirely fair, we should compare them at the same tie because the Forex market can vary very quickly.
Hi… Since the fees are a topic… The SQ fee is only one side, what about the fund fee, which seems to be high? When do they appear, and how/when they get charged?
Hi Raphael,
The fund fees have nothing to do with Swissquote. These fees of the funds are the same regardless of which broker you are using. If you invest in fund X or ETF X on IB or on Swissquote, the fees will be exactly the same.
The fund fees never appear in your account, they are charged inside the fund. So the fund just loses some value when fees are exercised.
Swissquote can execute virtually any stock trade on any exchange. They will accept even the most unusual order by phone and route it through third-party brokers. This is an incredible service that is not easily available from any other Swiss bank I know. IB and Degiro are more limited. IB cannot access Czech Republic or Greece or Norwegian small-caps, Degiro cannot access South Africa. If you maintain accounts with several brokers even with higher fee expense, you are always ready to trade any stock at the lowest-possible fee. It also reduces your operational dependence on a single provider. Banks and brokers can also freeze your accounts or kick you out for no reason. You need to be prepared for this and not just focus on lowest-possible fees.
The view that Swiss banks or brokers are somehow better or more reliable than foreign brokers is stupid. Typical Swiss ignorance and hybris. I am Swiss myself and can observe this from afar. It is a really bad case of home bias. Irrational. My experience is that IB and DG are superior to that of any Swiss bank or broker, with the notable exception of Swissquote’s market access.
hi, would’nt it be better to buy etf’s and securitys on an other broker like degiro or ib and then if you’re going to retire and don’t buy any more transfer everything to swissquote? i mean for people who say they want to be sure that their money is in switzerland and so on.
thanks.
Hi Mikey,
That’s indeed a possibility. But people that are afraid of foreign brokers would still be afraid of losing money during the accumulation phase, hence delaying their retirement.
And there is a non-negligible cost to transferring a portfolio.
What do you mean by “your securities are secured up to 20000 CHF”? I thought that securities are ring-fenced so if the bank goes down, all your securities belong to you and are kept separate from the bank’s assets.
Hi M,
Securities are indeed segregated. So, if SQ goes down and if they did their job properly (no fraud), your securities should be entirely safe indeed.
Regarding this protection, I do not find the source anymore. So I have removed this part for now, I will keep looking.
But some brokers, like Interactive Brokers (or EU brokers) have extra protection for securities. This would cover events where asset segregation did not work.
I just finished comparing IB with Swissquote and ended up with Swissquote. Indeed there are many ETFs and Funds (index funds included) that have a flat fee of 9.-. If you go with Funds domiciled in CH you won’t pay the stamp duty. So it is really a good deal especially for larger amounts. I’m also happy with the maximum 50.- custody fee.
Interestingly, there are some very good indexed funds in Switzerland if I compare the performance of those available on Interactive Brokers. As for Swissquote customer service, I haven’t talked to them that much, they seem efficient but probably a bit impatient and not that willing to go the extra mile.
Hi Nick,
interesting comment and I also invest on Swissquote since a bit more than 3 years now. Fees for stocks in USD are very expensive and the currency exchange fees, well, lets not talk about it.
Which funds on Swissquote do you like? I am looking for a reasonable ETF in CHF on Swissquote but it is a huge territory.
You can try the ETF or Fund Finder as a source. For Funds, some of them are indexed, meaning they are like ETFs but you would invest through subscription instead of buying on the Swiss Market. Look for the prime partners where you get a flat 9.- fee.
You are right on the FX rate, it’s not as high as the 2 big banks but still high. Depending on the amount, you can always call them and negotiate a better FX rate.
As for the funds, at the moment I use:
CSIF (CH) WORLD EX CH INDEX FA CHF (34802664) which is an index fund, and 2 for Switzerland:
CSIF (CH) SPI MULTI PREMIA INDEX BLUE FA (33403120) Index fund.
PS CH-SWISS HIGH DIVIDEND-P DY CHF (not an index fund but has a quite good performance. They got the same with dividends reinvested.
What I did is that I compared their performance with iShares and other ETFs available on Interactive brokers over 5 years. The TER is a bit higher but the performance (calculated after TER) is better.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for sharing!
Could you expand on why you chose SQ over IB?
Regarding the stamp duty, I think you are wrong. All their conditions mention that prices do not include the federal stamp duty. I believe it is not included in the 9 CHF flat fee for ETF.
Hi Mister The Poor Swiss,
I chose SQ for several reasons:
1. I admit I feel safer having all my money in Gland rather than somewhere in UK or US. It’s purely psychological of course as we know that the money is with the ETFs or Funds when invested.
2. I compared VTI and the iShares Core SPI with the funds I mentioned in another post on this page. The performance since 2017 was better (after TER) and I made sure I selected those called ETF leaders or Funds Prime partners. Their normal brokerage is too expensive. Important to note that these Swiss Based funds have a withholding tax incorporated, so you need to declare them to recover it once a year.
As for the stamp duty, I have used these funds for years, subscriptions do not have any stamp duty (ISIN starting with CH and not IE or LU). I must stress that I’m talking about index funds, not ETFs.
Thanks for everything you share on this website it’s quite helpful. I just started with ValuePension :)
Hi nick,
It’s a good point that Swiss funds have no Swiss stamp tax, contrary to Swiss ETFs.
Thanks for sharing your points. It’s good to know that there are some interesting funds available. Just be careful that comparison only since 2017 is basically pointless since returns are averaged over decades.
You should also be careful that many CS funds have load fees that will not be seen in the performance.
Yeah I know I looked at various times periods. I’m actually financial advisor 😅
What do you mean by load fees ?
By load fees, I mean subscription fees. These are the fees that you pay to buy into a fund. If you invest 100 CHF into a fund with a load fee of 1%, only 99 CHF will go into the fund.
ha no worries there. it’s a 9.- flat fee. Thanks again. Cheers.
The load fee would be exercised by Credit Suisse, not by Swissquote.
one more reason I use SQ is that sometimes I invest in standard mutual funds. In my experience in the banking industry, we generally acknowledge that Bond Funds can generate some alpha with good managers, which is more difficult with Stocks. I have a high yield fund (USD) and a corp bond fund hedged in CHF.
Those don’t give a huge return at the moment but better than cash and help reduce the standard deviation of my portfolio.