IBKR. Beware Re: Currency Conversions :(

L

LoveTrees

Registered User
Messages
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I have been a long term customer of ibkr but this never happened to me!

Today I exchanged Eur to Usd to buy Us shares.

Then I bought them only to realise that ibkr converted back to eur and bought the US shares with their new automatic currency conversion option (please note "option"!) that they emailed all customers about a few weeks ago.

So I paid triple fees of currency conversion.:mad:

I just opened a complaint on the misleading way they communicated about the auto-currency conversion rate when buying non-Eur stocks.

Fingers crossed...

I always liked their site but this time I am so disappointed by such incorrectly worded communication.:mad:
 
How can you do it in ibkr? I know about dg but I cannot see that neither in the app nor website. Also the email from ibkr was so misleading on this...
 
Had you converted enough EUR into USD to cover the cost including fees? Had the EUR-USD order settled in your account? Their email says IBKR will only convert EUR if the balance is not sufficient in the foreign currency.
 
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@Corola both answers are yes, thank you. Let's see how my complaint goes. Whatever the outcome I won't repeat this kind of error ever again with ibkr
 
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I got a blablabla email in reply to my complaint. Anyway at least I raised to flag in a forum I care about a lot.
 
Have you tried calling them (they have an Irish number, see here) or using their chat system? It might be possible to get a less "blablabla" response in an interactive conversation.

Their website says "Clients preferring to avoid the new functionality should maintain a sufficient balance settled in their account of the trading currency of the stock they are purchasing", so it seems like there is a mistake somewhere.
 
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By blablabla I meant vague excuses... But it's ok... Next time know how to avoid the same error...
 
Is it something that others should be made aware of so that they do not make the same mistake, or was it something too specific to be of likely benefit to others?
 
LoveTrees said:
By blablabla I meant vague excuses... But it's ok... Next time know how to avoid the same error...
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You're being kind of vague about this as well. What should people be aware of and what should they avoid doing?
 
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Corola said:
You're being kind of vague about this as well. What should people be aware of and what should they avoid doing?
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So:
- before the autocurrency conversion I used to send Eur to my account then convert to Usd in the same day I could see the Eur credited then buy the US Stocks with no issue (and I have the emails proving that)
- now I will send Eur and buy US stocks with Eur the same day I see the Eur value credited into my account (without converting Eur to USD first or they reconvert back to Eur then buy US stocks with Eur)
Three days ago I bought some US stocks and got bombarded with emails on triple conversions for each stock. Now I know how to avoid that...
 
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But their website clearly says that if you have manually converted enough to USD and it has settled, then it will use the USD already in your account rather than doing an automatic conversion. The question was what caused this to not happen in your case?
 
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I don't want to know anymore. Life is too short. At least I raised the flag so my conscience is clear. I really don't have the energies and will at this stage to fight the burocratic reply I got from ibkr... But again my advice to everyone is: never all eggs (=shares) in one basket (=broker). Best advice I can give to anyone ever
 
Just to be clear on what happened & future approach (as I’m opening IBKR account, funding with Eur & my first purchase will be in USD on NYSE). What should I do to set up this purchase, based on your experience?
 
If you want to keep things simple and aren't going to be making lots of trades, then just leave your funds in euros, purchase what you want, and the necessary amount will be automatically converted from euros to dollars.

If you really care about minimising costs then it is possible that manually converting enough euros to dollars to fund multiple purchases might save you a little bit in certain circumstances. If you do that, then make absolutely sure that you have converted enough, and wait until you are sure that the conversion has settled, so then when you purchase it should use your already converted dollars.
 
banchang said:
Just to be clear on what happened & future approach (as I’m opening IBKR account, funding with Eur & my first purchase will be in USD on NYSE). What should I do to set up this purchase, based on your experience?
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Apologies for the delay in replying. I agree 100% with @basilbrush .

Once you top up your account in Eur just buy the stock and the currency conversion will be applied. Don't convert to local currency because it takes more time now to clear and this would result in unneeded extra fees!
 
LoveTrees said:
Don't convert to local currency because it takes more time now to clear and this would result in unneeded extra fees!
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Out of interest as I am not familiar with IBKR (Just signed up yesterday and trying to familiarise/understand how their system work).

After you have bought US Stock, does IBKR allow you to sell the US stock in USD without converting back? (Like in T212, you have different currency in your account)
 
Great question! I have not tried yet... Because I don't need to sell at present... But I hope there will be the option to sell in local currency without automatic conversion to Eur after selling!
 
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