DBS Vickers

[abbby]

Does anyone have an account with Vickers? Does it make more sense if you have an existing DBS banking account to sign up with them for buying and selling of shares?

Is it easy to use?

[MOCHS]

Fairly straightforward to use and there are lots of guides online:

https://blog.moneysmart.sg/invest/dbs-v ... ers-guide/

https://sonicericsg.blogspot.com/2018/1 ... g.html?m=1

It is convenient for DBS account holders, for sure. If you have a Multiplier account, then activity from Vickers would be included under the “Investment” section.

However, there are the commission fees to consider... There are other brokerages that charge cheaper fees. My friend said Vickers is good if you are buying at least SGD$10,000 worth of stock so the commission fees won’t bleed you as much.

It’s all up to you. I have a RSP (regular savings plan) and Vickers with DBS but I choose another brokerage platform for stocks.

[malcontent]

To be perfectly honest, Vickers is neither competitive nor good, they are at or near the bottom of the list.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has set up a local office in Singapore around the middle of last year and shocked the industry by introducing dirt cheap brokerage fees for SGX trades. Phillips was quick to take note and lowered their fees to match.

If you are trading in US markets, TD Ameritrade Singapore has already lowered their commissions to $0. However, unless you are a US person, you should generally keep the balance under $60,000 to avoid US estate tax.

If you are trading in the UK market (most non-US persons should be doing the bulk of their investing here). For the UK, IBKR has the lowest fees provided you have at least a $100k with them, if not, StanChart is slightly better.

Most people here should be (for the most part) dollar cost averaging into something like VWRA which is a low fee ETF issued by Vanguard and traded in London - it covers all stocks globally and reinvests dividends. A little over half of the fund is invested in US stocks, but because the fund is domiciled in Ireland, the US withholding tax is only 15% instead of the usual 30%.

[MOCHS]

IKBR has maintenance fees though. Some brokerages do, some don’t.

Many brokerages out there and there are numerous review articles listing their pros & cons.

Personally using Moomoo Futu at the moment to take advantage of the promotions. The free Apple stock they gave a month ago was a plus.

My friend prefers Vickers for convenience and she invests pretty huge amounts so that’s good for her. For people who want to invest in smaller amounts, other brokerages would be better.

DBS has a roboadvisor called Digiportfolio if you don’t know which stock to pick too and you don’t have to worry about the misc. fees that come with traditional brokerages.

[malcontent]

IBKR has maintenance fees, but these drop off once you have $100k with them (or if you trade often enough).

For less than $100k, Standard Chartered is known to be the cheapest for UK trading (provided you don’t trade much).

For local trading, most local brokers have similar (cartel-like) fees. In the past you couldn’t trade locally with IBKR, but now you can - and that is really shaking things up here.

Brokers like Phillips are striving to keep up and be competitive, but many others are not - I guess they hope to survive on existing customers who aren’t aware of recent developments and fail to realize how much they could save if they switched.

[Wd40]

To be perfectly honest, Vickers is neither competitive nor good, they are at or near the bottom of the list.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has set up a local office in Singapore around the middle of last year and shocked the industry by introducing dirt cheap brokerage fees for SGX trades. Phillips was quick to take note and lowered their fees to match.

If you are trading in US markets, TD Ameritrade Singapore has already lowered their commissions to $0. However, unless you are a US person, you should generally keep the balance under $60,000 to avoid US estate tax.

If you are trading in the UK market (most non-US persons should be doing the bulk of their investing here). For the UK, IBKR has the lowest fees provided you have at least a $100k with them, if not, StanChart is slightly better.

Most people here should be (for the most part) dollar cost averaging into something like VWRA which is a low fee ETF issued by Vanguard and traded in London - it covers all stocks globally and reinvests dividends. A little over half of the fund is invested in US stocks, but because the fund is domiciled in Ireland, the US withholding tax is only 15% instead of the usual 30%.

Indeed, this is the best advice. Unless for some reason you want to buy SGX stocks and you want them to go into CDP, you can totally ignore DBS Vickers. IBKR is much better for a global portfolio.

[malcontent]

I can only think of one scenario where you might want to buy SGX listed securities... if you have an SRS account - - since investment options are limited to what is available domestically. Any SGX listed ETF is going to look good compared to most unit trusts here (the fees are just shameful) but that lack of competition has helped spawn a lot of robos.

[MOCHS]

For people who are just starting out, I doubt they have enough to invest $100k straightaway... That’s why I was recommending other brokerages. All have their pros and cons, mate.

[Wd40]

For people who are just starting out, I doubt they have enough to invest $100k straightaway... That’s why I was recommending other brokerages. All have their pros and cons, mate.

You dont need 100k to invest straightaway. There is inactivity fee of $10 per month, but you more than make up for it, if you even invest something like 3k per month. You save a ton in currency conversion and in commission. Try any of the other alternatives, which cost 0.5% for currency conversion 3k conversion will cost you $15 already.

[Wd40]

Also please note apart from the higher commissions, DBS vickers also has custody fees:
https://www.dbs.com.sg/vickers/en/resou ... commission

Does DBS Vickers charge any custodian fees?
Yes. DBS Vickers will charge SGD 2 per stock per month and capped at SGD 150 per quarter. We will waive the custodian fee if there are at least 2 transactions per month or 6 transactions per quarter.

Please note that custodian fees will be chargeable every quarter on the 11th of January, April, July and October, or the next working day if falls on a non-working day. Customers under the GIRO payment arrangement will have the charges debited from their bank accounts if there are insufficient funds in their trading accounts.

[malcontent]

You dont need 100k to invest straightaway. There is inactivity fee of $10 per month, but you more than make up for it, if you even invest something like 3k per month. You save a ton in currency conversion and in commission. Try any of the other alternatives, which cost 0.5% for currency conversion 3k conversion will cost you $15 already.

That is a great point, only IBKR allows you to deposit SGD and trade it for USD in the live forex market where the spreads are paper thin... there is no cheaper method to exchange currency than this.

[MOCHS]

Hate to break it to you but not everyone are high income earners who can afford to invest $3k a month. I’m starting way smaller and it’s still better than nothing. Hence, my recommendation of other brokerages. I don’t use Vickers but opened one ‘cos why not, I have a DBS account anyway.

If Vickers was that horrible, people wouldn’t write review articles about it... unless it was a sponsored post. Then one should do their due diligence and research.

If Vickers was that horrible, people won’t be using it but there are still people who do. My friend invests heavily and frequently, she has done her research and decided to stick with Vickers. It’s her choice and anyone’s choice really. No need to poopoo anyone’s decision, it’s not your money that’s being spent at the end of the day.

[malcontent]

Like Jack Bogle said “Successful investing involves doing a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes.”

Your choice of broker is not going to be a serious mistake, and it’s not even one of those few things you must do right.

I will just say that I personally did not have a good experience with DBS Vickers when I had an account with them over 10 years ago. The fees, the trade execution, the customer service and clunky interface were my key gripes.

My SO has an account with them to this day, and still has the same complaints that I had back then - she has been planning to move for years, only stayed on due to procrastination.

If you have better luck with them, good on you!

[Lisafuller]

Fairly straightforward to use and there are lots of guides online:

https://blog.moneysmart.sg/invest/dbs-v ... ers-guide/

https://sonicericsg.blogspot.com/2018/1 ... g.html?m=1

It is convenient for DBS account holders, for sure. If you have a Multiplier account, then activity from Vickers would be included under the “Investment” section.

However, there are the commission fees to consider... There are other brokerages that charge cheaper fees. My friend said Vickers is good if you are buying at least SGD$10,000 worth of stock so the commission fees won’t bleed you as much.

It’s all up to you. I have a RSP (regular savings plan) and Vickers with DBS but I choose another brokerage platform for stocks.

Are you able to invest in American stocks using Vickers?

[Lisafuller]

To be perfectly honest, Vickers is neither competitive nor good, they are at or near the bottom of the list.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has set up a local office in Singapore around the middle of last year and shocked the industry by introducing dirt cheap brokerage fees for SGX trades. Phillips was quick to take note and lowered their fees to match.

If you are trading in US markets, TD Ameritrade Singapore has already lowered their commissions to $0. However, unless you are a US person, you should generally keep the balance under $60,000 to avoid US estate tax.

If you are trading in the UK market (most non-US persons should be doing the bulk of their investing here). For the UK, IBKR has the lowest fees provided you have at least a $100k with them, if not, StanChart is slightly better.

Most people here should be (for the most part) dollar cost averaging into something like VWRA which is a low fee ETF issued by Vanguard and traded in London - it covers all stocks globally and reinvests dividends. A little over half of the fund is invested in US stocks, but because the fund is domiciled in Ireland, the US withholding tax is only 15% instead of the usual 30%.

My father is American (PR here) and uses Fidelity. From what I understand, there are no transaction charges or hidden fees. Great option for anyone holding American citizenship.