Hi, I am considering buying a small amount of shares in a US cruise company to get onboard credit on a cruise.
The minimum amount to get the credit works out to be about US$2500.
I would appreciate any thoughts on the easiest / cheapest (and obviously safest) way to do this to see if it is worthwhile.
I have some Australian shares from a long time ago, but never purchased anything recently (and never from the US stockmarket).
Are there any ramifications to buying US shares? Can they pay dividends, etc to an Australian shareholder?
Cheers!
Cheapest / Easiest Way to Buy Small Amount of US Shares
Gaz1 on 18/01/2025 - 18:56
Comments
Interactive Brokers is aimed more at the active trader. For a novice doing a once-off purchase the brokerage fees doesn't really matter. And if you're only exchanging a small amount to USD the FX fees savings with IB probably aren't even worth the hassle.
Just use an Australian company with a simple and basic interface like Stake.
Moomoo way better than IBKR.
Thanks for all the thoughts so far.
As its a one-off trade & I'm unlikely to do any more simplicity of doing it, how much private data I have to provide (and the security of the data) is probably the most important.
Would an Australian company be better to deal with from this point of view?Of course fees add up (is there any way to get around the exchange rate fee - eg using a credit card with no conversion fee?) so the total cost still has some relevance.
Maybe sign-up bonuses and/or referral deals are worth considering? I notice that Moomoo has some sort of new client rewards promo at the moment, for example.NAB seems to have high fees, but maybe that would be simpler as I already have a NAB credit card?
Hi, I am narrowing down the best options for buying these US shares & moomoo seems to have a really good new user promotion:
https://www.moomoo.com/au/events/welcome_rewards… which seems to indicate free brokerage & up to 10 free stocks.
Anyone know the catch with this? I only intend to buy the one lot of US shares so not sure if this will be a big benefit, but there comparison to other brokers seems very good (of course they wouldn't list ones that are better!).
I also notice there is an OzB referral link for $10 + $30.
This seems to be Moomoo Australia, so would be better than dealing with a US company?
Alternately would dealing with a bank that I have an account with mean less paperwork/verification (or are the broker part of the banks run seperately?)
Thanks for all the thoughts!
Probably the cheapest way to buy US shares is through Interactive Brokers. They have historically had some of the lowest commissions and best exchange rates. It's used by both individuals and institutions, so the pricing tends to be better than brokers who only market towards retail investors. The interface can be a little bit much for some people, though.
The US shares will pay dividends, which you can look up for the stock of interest. That is added to your taxable income. One thing to consider is that you need to buy the US shares with US dollars. Your US dollars will of course change value with the AUDUSD exchange rate. This is all good if AUDUSD falls, but if it rises in value, then the Australian dollar value of your US dollar investment will go down, regardless of this share price movement.
That being said, I would wonder if it's even worth considering doing this for the onboard cruise credit. I just looked it up, and it looks like you only get like $100 for a 7-13 day cruise. This is almost nothing compared to the price fluctuations of the stock. For example, just yesterday the price of Carnival stock increased by 3.19%. A US$2500 investment would therefore increase by around $80. But of course, the volatility works both ways, and on any given day you could be losing that amount.
Buying cruise line stock may not be a bad investment, but I personally don't reckon you should be factoring the onboard credit in the equation (unless you are cruising A LOT and would be spending the money on board anyway).