Number One DIY Investing Cost: Currency Conversion?

After a quick look through old brokerage statements, it seems that my number one cost is not commissions or spreads but currency-conversion charges. These charges are mostly hidden, but they are very real. I’m a little under the weather and haven’t actually studied the numbers carefully, but I plan to.

Canadian Capitalist posted two ideas for avoiding currency conversion charges on U.S. dividends. These are good ideas, but the longer-term answer is to pressure discount brokerages to do two things:

1. Allow investors to hold U.S. dollars in RRSPs. A few do this already.

2. Start charging more reasonable currency conversion percentages. The high percentages used to make sense when banks actually had to handle cash, but for electronic transactions, banks could easily make a profit charging one-tenth of what they charge now.

Feel free to give your brokerage a hard time about this.

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Comments

  1. Jerry HungOctober 25, 2010 at 11:44 AM

    We just need to open up for more competitions!!
    You know the Big 5 will never do anything unless there's competition - typical Canadian market

    ReplyDelete
  2. Money Smarts BlogOctober 25, 2010 at 10:17 PM

    I remember finding out about this issue after I started DIY investing. As CC says - the currency charges make the trading commissions irrelevant.

    It's worth shopping around for better currency rates.

    ReplyDelete

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