Currency Conversion - Automatic or Manual

[CJ_Hughes]

Has anyone here analyzed the cost impact of Automatic versus Manual conversion selection when buying shares dominated in a foreign currency?

 

Would appreciate it if someone with some knowledge on the subject could shed light on whether it is more beneficial to the trader to chose one option above the other.

 

Thanks in advance 

[AndaIG]

Hi @CJ_Hughes

Thanks for reaching out, we did answer this in a different platform. However copying in the response for the benefit of other community members: 

The benefits of manual conversion (Multi-currency account) is that you can fund and keep multiple currencies in your account. This means that you will not incur a conversion fee with each trade. However with this option you lose the benefit of free commission when trading international shares.

With automatic conversion we charge 0.7% spread on the spot rate at the time of execution on each trade. However you do get the benefit of free commission when trading international shares.

As for which is cheaper, that would be dependent on your trading activity. You need to consider two factors; your trading size and your trading frequency on international shares. e.g 0.7% on a large trade size may outweigh the commission charged per trade, in which case automatic conversion would be cheaper whereas this may not be the case on a smaller trade size.

You can find details on our charges for share trading from the following link:
https://www.ig.com/au/share-trading/charges

All the best, 

Anda