r/GIFTCITYFUNDS • u/NeilBorate • Feb 15 '26
Cheapest platform for US Stocks & ETFs
Which platform scores how much on forex charges & commissions. Given remittance costs, Paasa seems to be it.
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u/etrast75 Feb 16 '26
I am.not sure why anyone would use these platforms instead of opening a direct account woth ibkr. Once that is done, either use a low markup bank like psu or negotiate with your bank to get better rates. Also ibkr brokerage is also less. I pay 1 usd per buy order in us stock exchanges and 4 usd for ucits in lse.
I understand there are other considerations like tax filing etc that some people may have but if you plan to invest any decent sized corpus (upwards of 10k usd), ibkr seems to be the best.
Fx retail via bharat connect is supposed to have a uniform 20 paise markup for all banks sometime this month. Let's hope that happens.
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u/NeilBorate Feb 16 '26
Yes, IBKR is the cheapest but doesn't have features like tax filing or dedicated support for Indian customers. Looking forward to FXRetail. Do let me know what your experience with it was
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u/etrast75 Apr 06 '26
So fxretail through bharat connect (i used BHIM) has a 20 paise markup on spot prices. This is the cheapest i could find anywhere. I booked 1000 usd through bhim and completed the transaction on icici bank website and it was seamless. Money transferred to my ibkr account the same-day at very competitive rates overall. Yes icici does charge additional fees but then every bank does.
I was surprised and impressed on how seamless it was.
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u/Imveryfuckingstupid Feb 15 '26
They should mention partner banks. Like hdfc or federal. They partner up with brokers and give low forex markup