US expat friendly stock brokerages

[retiregem]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently with Interactive Brokers, but I am really tired of their awful support, site design, and the monthly maintenance fee.

Would anyone know any other places I could transfer my holdings to that accepts US expats?
Would it be better to maybe change registered country back to US, then try to transfer holdings to a US one?

Anyway, just seeing what others have been doing. Thanks and take care.

[captainspoke]

Occasional posts here and elsewhere (reddit) have mentioned TD Ameritrade. IIRC, you can't do it online, you have to download/print/mail the application.

[TokyoWart]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently with Interactive Brokers, but I am really tired of their awful support, site design, and the monthly maintenance fee.

Would anyone know any other places I could transfer my holdings to that accepts US expats?
Would it be better to maybe change registered country back to US, then try to transfer holdings to a US one?

Anyway, just seeing what others have been doing. Thanks and take care.

I had accounts with Fidelity and Schwab before moving to Japan and they had no problem changing them to their international versions and supporting my current address. I opened a TD Ameritrade account after coming to Japan and while I couldn't do the set up procedure online the process worked well. TD Ameritrade has been bought by Schwab and is likely to be subsumed under that company sometime soon. Vanguard also allows me to maintain my account while in Japan but I am not sure that they would allow me to open the account while abroad with their current policies.

[usian]

TD Ameritrade is an option. I opened an account with them as a US citizen in Japan with no US address. However, as mentioned, Schwab bought them so who knows what the future holds? Might want to move fast so you increaes your chances of being grandfathered in.

TD Ameritrade’s phone reps for initial sign up are not very good though. They are nice and patient, and are happy to try to help, but may not know information at first, or give you wrong information - maybe because 99.9% of their calls are from resident US citizens.

So don’t assume what they say is necessarily correct if it is not what you want to hear.

However, having an IB account is very nice for 800 yen transfers of money and very cheap currency exchange. I’m not sure if TDA has such a quick and easy way to get money from Japan to your account. You might consider having an account at both to get the best of both worlds.

[retiregem]

However, having an IB account is very nice for 800 yen transfers of money and very cheap currency exchange. I’m not sure if TDA has such a quick and easy way to get money from Japan to your account. You might consider having an account at both to get the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate your thoughts!

Quick question, could you elaborate more on this 800 yen transfer thing? I don't live in a city with a mega bank that could easily transfer to IB, so I end up having to use TransferWise from my Netbank to send to a US account then send to IB.

[mule96]

Quick question, could you elaborate more on this 800 yen transfer thing? I don't live in a city with a mega bank that could easily transfer to IB, so I end up having to use TransferWise from my Netbank to send to a US account then send to IB.

Remitting to foreign bank accounts is not a trivial thing in Japan from any bank. If you use foreign Brokers, you have to make a foreign transfer, which at bank costs a lot of money (2500 JPY+) and transferwise can be a cheaper alternative (for lower amounts of money). Only IB has a Japanese Bank Account, although held by a non-japanese entity (whichmakes it again more complicated). But this allows transfers for 800 JPY from certain banks to IB.

[usian]

However, having an IB account is very nice for 800 yen transfers of money and very cheap currency exchange. I’m not sure if TDA has such a quick and easy way to get money from Japan to your account. You might consider having an account at both to get the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate your thoughts!

Quick question, could you elaborate more on this 800 yen transfer thing? I don't live in a city with a mega bank that could easily transfer to IB, so I end up having to use TransferWise from my Netbank to send to a US account then send to IB.

Hi, I’m very sorry but I just noticed your question now. Two months later …

The 800 yen pays for a transfer in yen to IBLLC’s account at Citibank in Japan. As you no doubt know, notify IB that you will transfer money to your IB account. You get transfer info from them, then transfer to their Citibank account, and it goes almost immediately into your IB account in the US.

I have to go in person to my bank (Prestia) to do transfers. Unfortunately, I don’t know how/whether you can do them from other banks or what their fees would be.

IB customer service in English in Japan is fairly good in my experience, at least for the simple questions I’ve asked (like related to transferring money, etc.)

Here is the number I have for them:
03 4588 9710 (830-530 weekdays)