Trade Republic does not allow you to move countries at this time, for example. They also don’t operate in Canada, so you will need to switch your stocks, ETFs, etc. over. If you don’t do this then they will basically boot you out of the app leaving you with not a lot of options, so you should transfer before you leave.
I chose and recommend to transfer with Interactive Brokers, as they have international accounts (check if your country has it).
It was a bit of a process, but I saved hundreds of dollars from doing a regular international transfer.
If you have stock outside of Canada and need to move it to Canada
You can’t transfer to Wealthsimple but you can with Interactive Brokers LLC.
Interactive Brokers Home | Interactive Brokers LLC
The process for moving:
- Create a IBKR account
- Transfer money from Trade Republic
- Create a Canadian IBKR account
- Transfer to the Canadian IBKR account
I created an account and filled out everything and sent a message to ask how to transfer securities (stock) from Trade Republic. This is what they responded, this should apply to transferring from other brokerages also. I followed these instructions, and there were a lot of buttons to press but it ended up pretty smooth:
Thank you for contacting IBKR clients service.
You account entity is IBKR Europe (IB-IE) as your legal residence is in Germany.
In order to request a transfer, you must select 'All Other regions' you don't need to transfer your account to any other entity as the latter is defined according to your legal residence.
Please follow the steps below in order to transfer positions from Trade Republic to IBKR:
1. Log in to Client Portal
2. Select the Transfer & Pay menu followed by Transfer Positions
3. Select Incoming
4. Select the Region ('All Other Regions') of the delivering firm
5. Select Free of Payment Transfer of Global Securities (Basic FOP) and provide your sending Bank or Broker Information
6. Click ADD ASSET, follow the prompts on the screen, and then click CONTINUE
7. On the page that appears, click BACK if you need to modify the transfer request. If all is fine, type your signature in the Signature field and then click CONTINUE
8. On the Confirmation screen, click VIEW FORM to access and print the Customer Account Transfer - Letter of Authorization and click FINISH
9. Sign the Letter of Authorization and send it to your third-party (carrying) broker
10. Instruct your third-party (carrying) broker using the procedure that they have defined. IBKR will not be able to expedite transfers that are not properly instructed at your third-party broker.
You can track the progress of your transfer request via Client Portal under the Transfer & Pay menu followed by Transaction Status & History.
Please Note
Please remember to instruct the delivering institution to transfer your assets. They may have their own procedures and forms to complete your transfer.
Once the delivering institution has been authorized and is ready to deliver, they must contact us via email at fop-transfer-in@interactivebrokers.com, please note this email is exclusively for correspondence between financial institutions/counter parties.
No transfer will take place until the delivering institution has contacted us.
Note that we do not allow changes in beneficial ownership. IBKR will only accept delivery from an account that is entitled in the same name as your account.
Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you need any additional information.
Kind regards,
Rita E
IBKR Client Services
Trade Republic doesn’t allow you to switch countries. So before you open an account, I would say just don’t, just in case you move.
On Reddit, I found a couple different solutions
Reddit post 1
Hi, I'm now in Germany and I wanted to move my TradeRepublic account from Italy. Support told me, though, that:
I can't move my account
I can't open a new account after I delete my current one.
What can I do then? It's crazy that they aren't allowing a user to stay with them and they didn't think that people can relocate in this area.. I was using it mostly for the 4% on the deposit. Is there any other platform that offers something comparable with the same fees? (Yes I know about ScalableCapital)
Can I claim GDPR?
The top response was
You could file a data protection complaint. You have a right to correct your data. It is incorrect if you move and cannot update it. They might argue that this is because of some regulatory reasons but if other brokers can do this why shouldn't they be able to?
I did this and the tl;dr is that you can’t. So don’t go this route.
May 17th
I followed the steps above and moved it to my European Interactive Brokers account.
In hindsight, I think Trade Republic would’ve transferred to my Canadian Interactive Brokers account, instead of adding the extra European account in between.
May 24
I emailed them asking how to transfer from my Germany IKBR account to my separate Canadian IKBR account. The UI is difficult, this is how they said to do it:
To continue with your transfer request, we ask that you kindly place a request to execute this Transfer online. Please log in to Client Portal > Settings > Account Settings > Account Transfer. Here, you will submit your request for your full account transfer. If the account that you are transferring to does not immediately appear as a destination, please use the blue hyper link (Click 'HERE') provided on that page to add the account.
As part of the process, a new inquiry ticket will be created which will be used for all communications related to your transfer request. Also provide us with the destination account number if you face any error while placing an internal transfer request.
Next steps
All about stock trading in Canada:
Stock trading in Canada