Experience with Schwab brokerage account?

[Nayet]

Charles Schwab offers online brokerage accounts to international customers. I keep an account with Etrade, but wiring money to it has turned out more difficult than expected, so I am now considering opening a new account with Schwab and would like to hear how others feel about their services, executions, trading platform etc.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Nayet

[DogNo1]

Schwab refused to open an account for me because I have a foreign address. I had to go with Fidelity instead. Maybe you will have better luck. I'm fairly satisfied with Fidelity's reporting and service. Their 2015 tax statement was absorbed into Turbotax with no problems.

[Misty]

Not sure what happened to DogNo1. Schwab opens accounts for expats with legal addresses in Thailand, as well as many other non-US locations.

We have 1 Schwab Corporate account, 1 personal Schwab taxable account, 6 401(k) accounts and 2 Schwab IRAs, all with Thai addresses on the account. And we know many other expats with foreign addresses.

Fidelity, on the other hand, will no longer open accounts for people with foreign addresses, as per their policy announced last October.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Misty

[stoli]

Not sure what happened to DogNo1. Schwab opens accounts for expats with legal addresses in Thailand, as well as many other non-US locations.

We have 1 Schwab Corporate account, 1 personal Schwab taxable account, 6 401(k) accounts and 2 Schwab IRAs, all with Thai addresses on the account. And we know many other expats with foreign addresses.

Fidelity, on the other hand, will no longer open accounts for people with foreign addresses, as per their policy announced last October.

When I was back in the states this year I wanted to open an account with Schwab Bank, to take advantage of their no ATM fee policy. The bank told me that I first have to open a brokerage account with $10,000 in order to open a Bank Account with Schwab Bank. Schwab keeps these 2 business's well apart from each other. I am happy with my current brokerage, but I went to check on opening a Brokerage account with Schwab, and found their account Mgr. to be too wet behind the ears for my taste.

[Langsuan Man]

I keep an account with Etrade, but wiring money to it has turned out more difficult than expected

Keep the E*trade account and open a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand and then have the E*trade money transferred to your Bangkok Bank account via the New York branches' US routing number via EFTS. (electronic funds transfer system) Much cheaper than SWIFT wires and in many cases just a fast as International Wires

Here is all the information you need to know:

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUSA/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUSA.aspx

[augustwest]

Love my Schwab account! One of the best parts is that anyone who answers the phone is a full fledged certified broker.

[inzman]

Not sure what happened to DogNo1. Schwab opens accounts for expats with legal addresses in Thailand, as well as many other non-US locations.

We have 1 Schwab Corporate account, 1 personal Schwab taxable account, 6 401(k) accounts and 2 Schwab IRAs, all with Thai addresses on the account. And we know many other expats with foreign addresses.

Fidelity, on the other hand, will no longer open accounts for people with foreign addresses, as per their policy announced last October.

When I was back in the states this year I wanted to open an account with Schwab Bank, to take advantage of their no ATM fee policy. The bank told me that I first have to open a brokerage account with $10,000 in order to open a Bank Account with Schwab Bank. Schwab keeps these 2 business's well apart from each other. I am happy with my current brokerage, but I went to check on opening a Brokerage account with Schwab, and found their account Mgr. to be too wet behind the ears for my taste.

on my yearly visit to the states, I opened an account with schwab with $200. No hassle, no problem.

[Thailand J]

I only filled in one form to open both Schwab international brokerage account and the bank account which came with checks and an ATM card. This is an online account; I don’t need any help from an “account Mgr.” Everything worked fine for me.

You can’t open a US Fidelity account with Thai address, tho you are allowed to maintain an existing account with restrictions. You will have to close your US Fidelity account if you change your US address to a country on the list on this website : https://www.fidelityinternational.com/global/default.page. Luckily Thailand is not on the list.

[keeniau96]

I used to have a Schwab account for many years, never a problem. Should have kept it when leaving USA.

[Misty]

Not sure what happened to DogNo1. Schwab opens accounts for expats with legal addresses in Thailand, as well as many other non-US locations.

We have 1 Schwab Corporate account, 1 personal Schwab taxable account, 6 401(k) accounts and 2 Schwab IRAs, all with Thai addresses on the account. And we know many other expats with foreign addresses.

Fidelity, on the other hand, will no longer open accounts for people with foreign addresses, as per their policy announced last October.

When I was back in the states this year I wanted to open an account with Schwab Bank, to take advantage of their no ATM fee policy. The bank told me that I first have to open a brokerage account with $10,000 in order to open a Bank Account with Schwab Bank. Schwab keeps these 2 business's well apart from each other. I am happy with my current brokerage, but I went to check on opening a Brokerage account with Schwab, and found their account Mgr. to be too wet behind the ears for my taste.

Yes, Schwab's main business is brokerage. Schwab brokerage can open accounts for people with overseas addresses, in most cases. While Schwab does have a bank - it is regulated differently. As of the last time I checked, Schwab Bank could not open accounts for people with overseas addresses.

[Nayet]

I keep an account with Etrade, but wiring money to it has turned out more difficult than expected

Keep the E*trade account and open a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand and then have the E*trade money transferred to your Bangkok Bank account via the New York branches' US routing number via EFTS. (electronic funds transfer system) Much cheaper than SWIFT wires and in many cases just a fast as International Wires

Here is all the information you need to know:

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUSA/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUSA.aspx

Does it work as smoothly both ways? Right now my primary concern is to get money to my Etrade account.

[Nayet]

For those of you who have brokerage accounts with Schwab, have you ever wired money to it from Thailand (or any other country outside the US)?

[Jingthing]

Schwab refused to open an account for me because I have a foreign address. I had to go with Fidelity instead. Maybe you will have better luck. I'm fairly satisfied with Fidelity's reporting and service. Their 2015 tax statement was absorbed into Turbotax with no problems.

Fidelity isn't kicking you out? They're now freezing all IRA accounts of people they discover are expats even with a U.S. mailing address. Schwab will definitely open foreign address accounts in their international division, but not of course in their U.S. division.

[Langsuan Man]

I keep an account with Etrade, but wiring money to it has turned out more difficult than expected

Keep the E*trade account and open a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand and then have the E*trade money transferred to your Bangkok Bank account via the New York branches' US routing number via EFTS. (electronic funds transfer system) Much cheaper than SWIFT wires and in many cases just a fast as International Wires

Here is all the information you need to know:

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUSA/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUSA.aspx

Does it work as smoothly both ways? Right now my primary concern is to get money to my Etrade account.

Depends, if you are trying to get funds from a US based account into an E*trade account then it is easy

Unfortunately Bangkok Bank's system, using the US routing number, is only one way , from the US to Thailand via the New York branch

There are other ways of transferring funds out of Thailand but those usually require expensive SWIFT wire's. More information can be found on the BB website

[Jingthing]

I can confirm this now. A U.S. citizen with a Thai address can open a Schwab brokerage account and even an IRA from Thailand. Not a bank account but of course you can have a cash part of your brokerage and do wires for 25 bucks. They will send an ATM card to Thailand and refund local ATM charges! Great huh?

This will be only with Schwab global. If you repatriate you can change to Schwab U.S. instantly even an IRA.

You can't purchase U.S. mutual funds in the global account but ETFs yes.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Jingthing

[tutsiwarrior]

so...if we want to do business with Charles Schwab simply to have a facility for deposit of US SS pension funds what type of account do we want? they seem to be OK with a thai address...

I read about their brokerage account but the $10000 minimum deposit is a bit steep...and I called them and told them what I wanted to do and then they said: 'sorry, but we're not a bank and not available for those purposes...'

[ExpatJ]

I just checked and it's 20000 USD min for an international account. Looks good though.

[Misty]

For those of you who have brokerage accounts with Schwab, have you ever wired money to it from Thailand (or any other country outside the US)?

Yes, it is easy to do- usually takes about 24 hours to be credited. I probably wire funds 3-4 times a year from Thai bank to Schwab. Can wire funds out just as easily - even to a bank in a relatively remote place

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

One of the advantages of having and keeping a U.S. Schwab account -- which typically is their brokerage account combined with a separate Schwab Bank checking account -- is those accounts IME don't have any big opening deposit requirement.

It's only when you get into their International division, which is just brokerage, where the $10K or $20K opening deposit issues start cropping up.

Schwab also has an advantage over E*Trade in that using Schwab's bank debit card to withdrawal ATM funds or make purchases outside the U.S. has no foreign currency conversion fee, whereas E*Trade charges a 1% FCF.

Edited May 31, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[taxout]

Has anyone tried Drivewealth? Unlike most U.S. brokers, they seem to welcome customers living outside the U.S. and account opening is easy enough. But there aren't any reports of experience with them -- good or bad -- that I can find, so I can't say I feel real comfortable dealing with them.

They're odd in at least one respect, brokering only shares in fairly large, well-established companies, and not offering mutual funds, OTC, fixed-income, etc.

Edited June 16, 2016 by taxout