Base currency of ISA account

[matohak]

I have a UK stocks and shares ISA account and I mainly use it to buy US stocks. I wonder if it is possible to change the base currency to USD?

[Fletch]

Apparently the HMRC requires any cash held in an ISA be in GBP:

SIPP/ISA currency rules

It wouldn't necessarily save you money anyway. I seem to vaguely remember there is another form of commission charge that IG adds to the trade if you try to avoid their FEX charge by doing the conversion yourself. Maybe somebody can confirm this, as I can't find the details on it at the moment (I'm sure I saw something about it when I was looking into buying US shares).

 

[Fletch]

On the commissions/charges page:

https://www.ig.com/uk/investments/share-dealing/costs-fees

2 cents per share charge with a minimum of $15 if you do the conversion manually.

[matohak]

17 hours ago, Fletch said:

Apparently the HMRC requires any cash held in an ISA be in GBP:

SIPP/ISA currency rules

It wouldn't necessarily save you money anyway. I seem to vaguely remember there is another form of commission charge that IG adds to the trade if you try to avoid their FEX charge by doing the conversion yourself. Maybe somebody can confirm this, as I can't find the details on it at the moment (I'm sure I saw something about it when I was looking into buying US shares).

 

Thanks... maybe better off using a share dealing account then.