Investing online from Vietnam

I'm from the US and use Sharebuilder.com

What is the problem your having with your online broker? They won't let you log in from Vietnam or they won't let you transfer money to Vietnam?
I use a US based service along with my existing US bank account and never had an issue.

They won't let me trasnfer cash into the account to buy the shares. I can log on and move around existing investments but cannot add funds, even from my UK account.

May be an EU issue only. Wonder if Sharebuilder will let a Brit use them?

Strange they won't let you transfer money from your UK bank account, Maybe you can try using a UK based proxy server. I have a friend you does that to view BBC programming online that is usually not available outside of the UK.

You can look at share.com

I have told them I am living in Vietnam. It is my non-UK address that creates the block. I could be a Russian gangster transferring in the proceeds of arms sales and it would not be a problem so long as I had a UK address!

I had a look at Sharebuilder and it looks like I need to have a Capitol One account or be a US citizen. Looks like somewhere Caiman Islands based might be the way to go.

Share.com is identical to H-L - and for UK residents only.

Sorry, I thought you were a UK resident.

JulesVn wrote:

They won't let me trasnfer cash into the account to buy the shares. I can log on and move around existing investments but cannot add funds, even from my UK account.

May be an EU issue only. Wonder if Sharebuilder will let a Brit use them?

Its a typical extreme UK/US issue, with a lesser degree in rest of the western world. I have experienced similar. Th same you will experience with PayPal & Co., Moneyborookers (absolute extreme), hosting companies .......
Many times it will be slightly different named, but the result is the same

If you ever can free .. the above, you will be very quick set out to some strange fraud investigation.

You current address makes you atomatically to an enemy of the "free" world.
You only can with the Asean alternatives - From Vietnam you can try with ONEPAY, the international payment gateway of Vietcombank. There you can get moneys legally in and out.
Depending on approval, you will get either charged only setup and /or transfer % and/or fees. If accepted, they will send you a quoute - expect at least a setup fee of USD 350.00.
PayPal is in best case case only incoming moneys.

We are discussing the buying and selling of stocks not money transferring

I assumed the acceptance of funds for and from providers?

Interesting this has got me worried now as I was going to rely on stock trading as my main activity without having to work in Vietnam.

I do my stock trading and investments through TD Waterhouse which is a major bank in Canada and holds all my mortgages, chequings, visa account and home and auto insurance.

I wasn't planning to convert any Cdn funds into Dong though. But never thought of them blocking IP addresses from certain foreign countries.

I guess if there's any problems HSBC Investment would be the way to go with minimum $50k USD. I heard they have more exposure to Asian markets but I'd prefer to stick with my Canadian bank if at all possible.

Just to clarify:-

It is not my IP address that is being blocked. I can transfer my HSBC Vn dollars to my UK bank account without any problem.

I am a UK citizen but resident in Ho Chi Minh City. Hargreaves Lansdowne will let me manage my account from abroad, but will not let me add money from any account anywhere, because my postal address is outside the EU. As I only have 2p in it atm that kind of blocks me trading. It is something to do with preventing money laundering, seemingly based on the assumption that no money launderer would ever give their address as within the EU.

I have been looking at offshore brokers but the ones I have seen so far scare me

So....If you were to use a friend's or family members UK address for mailing it would be okay? wink wink nudge nudge

Can actually use the address of my own house which I am currently renting out. Would prefer a straight shooting solution if possible though.