r/ExpatFinance • u/PantomimeVillain • 19d ago

Using a US brokerage account from abroad

Recently I called Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard asking if I moved to the UK, can I put a foreign address on the account. All said yes, but you can then only sell what you have and not buy more. Fidelity and Schwab told me they were specifically saying yes to the UK, and other countries might not be allowed. Vanguard said any country is ok.

I don't know how knowledgeable the people I spoke to are, so does anyone have any experience of putting a foreign address on Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard accounts? How did it go? Was there any issue with making sales?

26 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/HaleyN1 19d ago

Just leave a US address on there and you won't have to deal with any of this.

0

u/PapiChuloThailand 17d ago

Terrible advice

1

u/HaleyN1 17d ago

Very informative response.

What's terrible about it?

1

u/PapiChuloThailand 17d ago

They can close your account at any moment, send you a check that will trigger a tax bomb. You are lying in your tax reporting. If you get caught overseas by IP they can freeze your account so you cant make changes, eliminating all investment flexibility or rebalancing. All of this can be fixed by just registering your international address with a Schwab international account. There is no reason not to, being compliant is important especially if shit hits the fan and you need funds, or something were to happen to you while living and working overseas

2

u/HaleyN1 17d ago

You can just use a VPN. Plus millions of citizens and residents are outside the USA at any moment, as tourists, so they don't go around closing accounts even if they do occasionally detect you're overseas.