Subject: Re: Broker recommendations?
Re IBKR something that might be interesting especially for non-US citizens:

Interest on cash: Cash in my Schwab account doesn't pay any interest, contrary to what I remember from long ago when all cash automatically went into a money market fund.

So I was surprised to receive from IBKR a message, telling me that up to now the cash in my new account earned $X.xx interest.

My vague theory: As several here said their Schwab account does pay interest I suspect that might apply only to foreigners like myself. That US money market funds are not accessible any more for non-US citizens --- and as my IBKR account is held in Ireland (which seems to be the case for most European IBKR accounts) the money probably goes into a European money market fund.

I am too lazy to find out, but whatever the reason is that cash in my Schwab account does not go into a money market fund any more, it does not apply to IBKR. Consequence: From now on greater cash amounts in my trading account at Schwab*** will be transferred to IBKR - and simply back to Schwab when needed there.

(***I love how simple options trading is with Schwab and hate IBKR's option chain screen; maybe that's because I currently do it on holiday with a little 10" laptop screen; remains to be seen how it is on a big monitor when back home.)


International wires: After being ripped of two times by banks (over 2% currency exchange losses) I intended to open a Wise (formerly: TransferWise) account to transfer money from my Schwab account to Germany or New Zealand. Not anymore. It's super-easy to transfer the money from the Schwab to the IBKR account, exchange it there for the real Forex rate (going around banks and their ripoff) into EUR or NZD, and transfer it to the German or NZ account.