Local or overseas brokerages?

Hi,

The cheapest NZ local broker I found for buying US stock is Halifaxonline @ $25 per trade order.
Halifax also apply their own margin to forex transfers from NZD to USD (as you fund your account in NZD first).

In the US, brokerage companies charge as little as $4.95 per trade.
Is anyone using an overseas trade account, to reduce these costs?

Would using something like Transferwise to transfer NZD to a US trading account give me a better exchange rate, combined with the much lower trade fees - thus allowing me to invest a little bit more each time?

Thank you,
NZT

Check out some of the posts in this link , this has been covered numerous times on here , maybe use search function as well.

https://www.sharetrader.co.nz/forumd...to-ShareTrader