Increase in UBS account fees

I am a non resident account owner with UBS for more than 19 years.

Last week I received a letter from the bank informing me about a dramatic change in basic account fees from around 350 CHF a year to 330 CHF per month. Yes month, that is allmost 4000 USD a year for all accounts with less than 500K CHF!

More information can be found in this link:

https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/assets/rc/wealth-management/202006-pl-excerpt-wmsc-e.pdf

Have you heard about this change in fees? What shall I do now? I will try to change to another swiss bank because paying so much just for the having a deposit in the bank will make me feel very stupid!

Good day

Yes, the significant fee increase for UBS clients domiciled abroad was also an issue in the Swiss press.

The solution, as you say, is to change banks.

Unfortunately, most Swiss banks charge additional fees for private clients residing abroad. But not necessarily as high as at UBS. You can find more information here: Swiss Bank Fees For Non-Resident Customers

Furthermore: If you use asset management and/or trading, the surcharges for a residence outside of Switzerland are often less high. 

If you are still interested in Swiss asset management or trading, we recommend that you carry out the comparisons on moneyland.ch and then check again with the desired banks regarding possible surcharges for your place of residence.

To the comparisons:
Asset management
Trading ("do it yourself")

If you need a Swiss bank account, then these would be my suggestions:

1. Postfinance. If you only do relatively few withdrawals/transfers each year I recommend the free savings account. You don't pay non-resident fees for this account. You earn interest and can do the same transfers, standing orders, etc. as with a checking account, but you're limited to 10 outgoing transfers or withdrawals per year. If you earn an income in Switzerland (rent off a property, salaries, pension) you should be able to open an account with them.

2. Swissquote. This is a licensed Swiss bank, but you get a brokerage account and not a checking account, so no good for transfers, standing orders, etc. You can open a brokerage account with them as a non-resident (except US persons AFAIK) and they don't charge non-resident fees. You can even get a Swiss credit card from them which is secured by your cash and custody account balance. That pretty much eliminates the need for a debit card. If you only need an account to hold CHF in and a credit card, this is an option.

3. Bancastato. Last I checked, the cantonal bank of Ticino doesn't charge non-resident fees. But their normal account fees are pretty high $$.

4. Asset management. As Moneyguru mentioned, asset management may be an option. Most banks will accept non-residents who sign up for asset management, and some waive non-resident fees for asset management customers.

gamzo1234 wrote on October 6, 2020

UBS  bank informed about a dramatic change in non resident count fees from around 350 CHF a year to 330 CHF per month. Yes month.

More information can be found in this link:

https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/assets/rc/wealth-management/202006-pl-excerpt-wmsc-e.pdf

I will try to change to another swiss bank because paying so much  will make me feel stupid!

 

Thanks for your kind advices.

This outstanding fee increase and other exceptionally expensive fees makes me wonder what is the advantage of having a swiss bank account , besides the famous political stability. For example i see here a section about SWISS ACCOUNTS FOR AMERICANS, or i hear about americans who complain that swiss banks do not accept them anymore. Why are they trying so hard to open a swiss bank account, when they have in the U.S. all the banks in the world with very low fees or no fees at all !! (AMERITRADE for examply  charge no commisions on trades....on any amount...no inactivity fees and of course no custody fees...)

Since Swiss bank customer privacy is no longer a thing, I would say the only strong arguments for holding a Swiss bank account are:

1. Economic stability. Switzerland is pretty strong economically, which means they can afford to bail out banks like they did in the 2008 crisis.
2. Policial stability. As you mentioned, Switzerland has historically been much less politically volatile than other European countries.
3. The strenth of the franc. Switzerland trades with the US, Asia, Africa, and other European countries. So the Swiss franc functions kind of like a multi-currency fund and is more diversified than many other currencies. But you can hold Swiss-franc accounts at non-Swiss banks as well.
4. Depositor protection. If you live in a country where bank depositor protection is poor or non-existent, then keeping your money in a country where depositor protection is required is an advantage.
5. Asset management. Swiss banks offer services which banks in many other countries don't (yet) offer. For example, there are Swiss banks which specialized in cryptocurrency custody and services.

But that said, the US and some other countries (the UK maybe) offer some of the same benefits, in some cases for much lower fees. It all depends what you are looking for.

Thanks for your kind replies.

I checked Swissqoute and did not like it. Their demo account had many bugs and when I asked about it they said: WELL IT MIGHT BE BUGS... So how can one trust the real account? And the fees for trades are so high. I wonder why Swiss people are ready to pay such high fees, when they can get much lower fees in most European banks, not to mention U.S. brokers who offer free trades, or 1$ fee for shares trading  / investing, and no custodian fees. Realy interesting.

As I mentioned in the topic, UBS bank is now charging over the roof fees, a 12 folds increase in account maintenance overnight. So i am still looking for another Swiss bank, to transfer my account from UBS. I do not mind paying few hundread francs a year as a non resident fees, but not few thousands.

Maybe someone can still recomend another Swiss bank that will allow this account transfer, without much hustle? How about Neon bank?

You can open a bank account at Neon only if you reside in Switzerland...