New EU IB entities, funding issues, no Sepa, no HKD

L

luisHK

Hi

My account was migrated recently to IB Ireland, got a surpise yesterday when wiring some funds out, only Bank Transfer available, no Sepa. Wired 15k eur and was hammered 60eur of commission by my receiving bank ( i guess 0.4% commish, quite a rip off, but I ve so far only used Sepa with this bank. Can t see yet where the funds come from. Sepa is free, and the Sepa option exists for funding the account, but not for withdrawal, which is strange for a EU based account.
Only a limited of currencies available so far, no HKD, which I use.
More than a bit surprised IB has issue setting up Sepa, I´ve sent an email to IB, but curious to know if anyone already talked to them about this, or can a rep answer here ?
In the funding part of the IB portal, it states they are still working to add currencies, but there's no mention of Sepa nor Ach
 
luisHK said:
Hi

My account was migrated recently to IB Ireland, got a surpise yesterday when wiring some funds out, only Bank Transfer available, no Sepa. Wired 15k eur and was hammered 60eur of commission by my receiving bank ( i guess 0.4% commish, quite a rip off, but I ve so far only used Sepa with this bank. Can t see yet where the funds come from. Sepa is free, and the Sepa option exists for funding the account, but not for withdrawal, which is strange for a EU based account.
Only a limited of currencies available so far, no HKD, which I use.
More than a bit surprised IB has issue setting up Sepa, I´ve sent an email to IB, but curious to know if anyone already talked to them about this, or can a rep answer here ?
In the funding part of the IB portal, it states they are still working to add currencies, but there's no mention of Sepa nor Ach
More...


Here are the rules for the banks in EU when it concerns SEPA payments:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-...nt-services/single-euro-payments-area-sepa_en

Normally these payments are for free, no cost. Imposed by EU legislation.
Brokers try to make money on your withdrawals, SEPA is for free, but they charge you a commission. I pay 40 EURO for a withdrawal that basically is for free. For funding using SEPA they charge nothing.
 
Thanks Virtusa, though I just had a cursive look at the link so far
Problem with IB Ireland seems to be they don t offer Sepa yet, just ibternational bank transfers, my bank doesn t charge for Sepa yet charged 0.4% on this, I think the standard charge for them on International bank transfers.
Had the same problem with Bank of China in the UK a few years back btw, from HSBC UK money transfers to EU coutries were Sepa and free, but with BOC they were international bank transfers and incurred charges, although I can t remember a bank charging 0 4% on receiving those.
 
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On the Withdrawal menu of IB online portal, the Sepa option is completely absent, my spanish bank account is still in the saved instructions but only for Sepa which don´t seem to exist atm. I had to reenter the spanish acct details to use it as bank transfer.
Again, the Sepa option does appear for deposits.
Anyone else used withdrawals with IB Ireland ?
I´ll post more details once IB replies btw.
 
virtusa said:
Watch this too:
https://transferwise.com/

Can be interesting for payments in different currencies.
More...


IB used to be great for currency conversions and transfers, let´s see when they get their Ireland unit up to date - again they mention being working on adding currencies, but nothing about adding Sepa. So far while nothing overly dramatic, the transfer to IB Ireland has been a let down (lost some days of Stock Yield Enhancement program, much downgraded funding options, less protection and it seems more restrictions on forex, although those haven´t affected me yet as I don´t trade forex, and usually just convert positive cash balances between currencies)
 
Below is the current client portal, with Sepa option on deposit but not on withdrawal
 

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Make the currency conversion in IB. Set up a Revolut account. Transfer to Revolut. Spend the money. Only transaction cost is the minor commission to IB on the conversion.
 
Considering IB new entities were formed for EU customers after Brexit, it seems IB should sort out this issue and set Sepa transfers, I doubt any/many EU new customers would join them otherwise, as free wire transfers are now the norm within EU.
Curious to see whether this problem is only with IB IE or also Lux and Hungary units.
No rush to do another wire out ( coukd have waited for that one actually) but might have a look at Revolut and other online EU banks, spanish banks have stupid commission as soon as the sums are higher than the low online limits or it is about non Sepa transfers, plus I could use a non spanish EU based account, but understood those are fine for smallish transactions only.
Also could become a costly problen if they don t set up HKD funding soon
Still waiting for IB reply btw, but it s clear IB IE is still not on par with longer established IB entities
 
I haven't dive much into this, but I noticed there is no distinction between SEPA and Wire anymore. Only Wire withdrawals at IBCE. It says "once per month is free, every next withdrawal is 8 eur". That's something new! I remember, at IBUK we had SEPA&Wire withdrawals and every next withdrawal over SEPA was 1 eur.
 
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