Swissquote Review

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  • Broad access to investment products
  • Provides ideas based on investment ideas
  • Helpful English/German/French customer service
  • Costly minimum fees
  • FX can be traded on a separate platform
  • Swiss focus (e.g. Swiss funds are suggested as a start)

Recommended for investors interested in a balanced portfolio from investment products.

Swissquote is the leading Swiss online broker with its own banking background. The company offers great customer service. It offers a wide range of investment products, (e.g. online trading opportunity of corporate bonds). Swissquote also provides investment ideas based on investment themes (similar to motifinvesting.com in the US). It’s customer service is helpful and available in English, German and French.

Swissquote is not the cheapest provider, and it can be especially costly if trading volume is low as it has relatively high minimum fees. It is also genuinely a Swiss service accessible for others as well. E.g. your end balance will be shown in CHF. Swissquote’s trading platform can be complicated in terms of usability and search functionality. FX is only available through a separate platform.

Pros
  • Straightforward English account opening process with helpful customer support
  • Simple account activation (SMS password verification)
  • Clear communication on terms and conditions (e.g. a relevant test is required before letting trade with options, good info on investor data protection, etc.)
Cons
  • No digital identification, you need to post notarized copies of ID and permanent address
  • Funding only through IBAN wire transfer
Pros
  • Ok designed web platform: not bad, not great either
  • Nice “theme investing” menu where trade ideas are collected under themes e.g. shale gas, biotech, etc.
  • Easily understandable product classification
  • Good collection on different ways of trading commodities in one place
Cons
  • Web platform needs practice (e.g. hard to find logout, account balance, etc.)
  • There is no downloadable platform (only for FX)
  • Swiss markets are the default (but can be navigated to other markets)
  • Mobile App is only for information, trading not possible
Pros
  • Call centre gives relevant, to the point answers
  • English, German, French and Italian
  • Call center speaks in kind, polite manner with relevant content answers
Cons
  • Zürich is the closest Swissquote office to visit in person
Pros
  • Transparent fee structure, no hidden fees
  • 0 monthly account fee
  • No inactivity fee. Only charged fees if account deemed to be dormant
  • Fund buy/sell prices are mid-range
Cons
  • High minimum fees, but prices are ok if trading value is high
  • Fees are fixed lump sums based on trade size buckets
  • Lot of markets can be accessed, but exotic market prices are high
  • Outgoing payments are charged
Good to know
  • According to the Swiss-EU treaty on taxation, certain savings income paid to citizens of an EU member state can be taxed. The two methods to choose from:
    • deduction at source (Swissquote makes a deduction for the income concerned)
    • voluntary declaration (Swissquote provides customer name, address and account number to the Swiss tax authorities, who will then forward it to the tax authorities of customer’s country)
Pros
  • Consensus analyst stock recommendations are clear and easy to understand
  • Investment themes section: analyst recommendations on themes (e.g. Shale gas rising)
  • Neat fund and ETF selector
Cons
  • News feed is a mix between English, German and French language news
  • No fundamental or technical analysis or alerts
  • No analysis on commodities and currencies
  • Major stock markets (USA, Germany, UK)
  • Japanese stocks
  • Hong Kong stocks
  • Funds
  • ETF
  • Forex
  • Bonds
  • Options
  • Futures

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