Interactive Brokers Customer Reviews and Complaints

by Jeremy, 7/16/2021

Pros: None

Cons: Alot

Horrible interface. Crappy front-end code. Slow to funds transfer, slow to settle cash, barely connects at certain times

by Brad, 7/8/2021

Pros: There are genuinely no pros whatsoever with this terrible company and platform

Cons: Horrendous technology and you will get stuck with loads of fees

Complete piece of garbage platform. First off, the technology is absolutely awful -- the user interface is terrible (super hard to really do anything), the tech is old (looks like something from 90s), and their basic capabilities are severely limited (can't even look at your account activity without clicking 17 buttons or even use a somewhat workable app).

Second, the platform just isn't very smart. They freak out about market orders for ultra liquid securities like SPY or QQQ and send a million warnings to you. That is laughable.

Lastly, the whole "no fees" thing is a joke. There are loads of hidden fees they try to hit you with (I got hit with a minimum balance fee when I put my first deposit in!).

In an age of super user friendly platforms that are modern and intelligent (Ameritrade, Fidelity, Schwab, Robinhood), there is absolutely no need to use this crappy brokerage.

by Quemano Lakebear, 5/23/2021

Pros: Used to be good company and platform. Not any more. See below.

Cons: Horrible help line for customer service. Dumbed down platform with lots of glitches. Hard to withdraw funds.r

They have greatly degenerated over the last few years. Totally dumbed down their platform so it does have the portfolio analysis tools that it used to have. Customer service helpline used to be good. Now is pathetic. Hard or impossible to withdraw funds from your account. Something has changed there. They are not the company that they used to be.

by Eman, 4/23/2021

Pros: Absolutely None!

Cons: Everything

Got accounts transferred when Foliofn closed to retail.
Customer service is non-existent. Sit on hold for an hour and then no help. All service is foreigners, not even US service. Will charge you $100 per account when you transfer out!! What the hell?? NEVER been forced to pay fees to close out accounts!! Avoid if at all possible. ANY other brokerage will be a better alternative.

by generalTalker, 3/12/2021

Pros: they may be cheaper

Cons: Worst customer care support

DO NOT EVEN GO TO THEM, EVEN IF THEY ARE CHEAPEST IN THE MARKET

I am customer and hold couple of accounts with IBKR recently moved from folio investing.
Definitely there UI is pretty complex and getting my existing advisor to do the trade was cumbersome and it took almost 3 months to get him on trading on my behalf.
Though I have questions which I asked waiting for an hour on call, their customer care was pushing me out without giving satisfactory answers saying there are others in line and he is not there to do general discussions.
Ridiculous customer care (no matter what you never say such thing to customer).

I decided to write them message on other issues and everyday asking for acknowledgment and there is no response (it has been 3 days so far).

I would decide to go out of this along with my my other 5 friends once my advisor fails completely as we move out together.
Surprisingly if we opt to move out there is $100 charges as we are coming from Folio Investing. I am sure if they don't care about their own's customer message they are not even reading this to see what open web is thinking about them. They must be such big.

by Greg, 2/16/2021

Pros:

Cons:

Waited on the phone for hours just to get customer service.

by udy, 2/9/2021

Pros: wide coverage

Cons: terrible inefficient support, slow or no response

There are powerful tools and wide access though the system is complicated and there is no support whatsoever. Hard or impossible to contact and lately even impossible to create a ticket due to their not so intelligent AI bots.

by adrian, 2/5/2021

Pros: TWS, it takes a while to get going, but it is good

Cons: Absolutely everything else.

Absolutely everything else. The Account Homepage is a mess to navigate if you have sub accounts. Between my English and USA account the site structures are different (that makes 2 messes). CS is a non-responsive disaster, and if you get an answer, most of the time it is a counterquestion by someone who did not understand the problem anyway. Now waiting for already 30 minutes for someone to pick up the phone. There must be a lot corruption here as CNBC is repeatedly promoting Uncle Tom in interviews. So it is only a 1, even if the car is nice, a useless mechanic will be frequent trouble. The waste of time does not compensate for the low prices.

by Pat, 12/29/2020

Pros: cheap, lot of international market, great choice of orders

Cons: Customer service terrible

Every time I had to interact with their online ticket customer service, their response was deplorable. Long delay or no answer. And when they answer they ask more irrelevant questions to delay their action.

If not for access to great exchange rate, international trading, cheap option, cheap trading, cheap margin, lot of orders choice, I would have changed broker a long time ago. But I am still a customer until such time that their customer service antics push me over the edge of my patience.

by Annie, 10/20/2020

Pros: CHEAP TRADES GOOD RATE...... but SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WANT TO GET CASH OUT

Cons: THIEVES REFUSING TO LET ME WITHDRAW ANY OF MY MONEY!!!!!!!!. AVOID THEM IF YOU WANT YOUR MONEY BACK OUT

I opened an account 15 years ago.
I was living in Singapore at the time and deposited from Citibank in Singapore. Now 15 years LATER THEY ARE ASKING ME TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF WHERE MY FUNDS CAME FROM WHEN I DEPOSITED 15 YEARS AGO!!!
THEY NOW TOTALLY refuse TO LET ME HAVE MY OWN MONEY AND I AM NOT ALLOWED TO WITHDRAW any funds!!!!
THEY SAY I CAN ONLY WITHDRAW TO ORIGINAL BANK THAT I DEPOSITED THE FUNDS FROM!
I HAVE NOT HAD THAT BANK ACCOUNT FOR 12 YEARS . i AM TRYING TO DEPOSIT TO MY CURRENT AUSTRALIAN BANK. I AM Australian woman.
THIS SITUATION IS KILLING ME WITH STRESS . I AM OVER 60 AND THEY WONT LET ME TAKE MY OWN MONEY OUT.
PLEASE NOT deposit ANY money with this evil evil company.

by CY, 8/26/2020

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Bad Customer Services and Buggy Platform

I use different IB platforms every day, e.g. Mobile, Desktop, Client Portal and WebTrader. Client Portal and WebTrader are the platform of website. Last year, I was charged the SnapShot fee but was sure that I didn't click any button or icon of SnapShot. I made an inquire to IB and they insist that I would be charged only if I used the SnapShot. Since the problem occured after I started to use Client Portal, I tried to stop using Client Portal. As a result, I haven't been charged the SnapShot fee until now. Recently, IB has sent a message to inform me that the WebTrader will be replaced by Client Portal in the future. Therefore, I have sent a message to IB and request them to fix the bug OR provide an option for us to 'Opt-out' the SnapShot. Then IB replied as follows:
"I do not see a 'bug' here. I do not believe you can 'opt-out' of the Snapshot.
If you do not use it, you are not charged for it."
What are the poor customer services! The respondent is so inpolite

by Tony, 8/18/2020

Pros: Good product range and cheap

Cons: Terrible reporting, bad CS and poor software

Except for the product range and multi-currency the rest is pretty terrible.
Software is often buggy and over complicated. As for reporting there is tons of it and 90% of it is garbage, extremely difficult to see where you made a profit and when you didn't. There is no simple ledger where you see money going out to buy something and money coming in when you sell something except on the TWS trades tabs and that only goes back a few days so unless you write it down each day it scrolls off TWS trade tab after a day or two.
You can't figure out when dividends get paid to your account there are reports but they show the dividend coming and going the explanation is some cock and ball story about the report showing the declared dividend and then when its actually paid its removed from expected and credited. In other words you can't figure out WTF is happening to it and in general to your money.
The whole things is a mess. They cover it all up by saying its for professional traders. Well that's bollocks!

IB is basically suitable for buy and hold strategies, limit orders and not much more. Its usable because its cheap, it has lots of products and in all that cloud of mess they run you can just about figure out how to buy something and sell it and if you keep a spreadsheet you can figure out what your balance should be!

by C T, 7/13/2020

Pros: multi ccy, multi exchange

Cons: apart from the access to multiple markets the rest of the service is pretty terrible

1) absolutely horrible client service. had multiple run-ins with them. Tried to withdraw money. I got one of the digits wrong. The money was sent to the bank which could not credit my account. On IBchat with CS for ages and I asked them to amend the SWIFT message which they refused. Told them to recall the funds on IBchat which didn't register with them. Waited for a few days and no one called until I had to contact them again and found out they did not take any further action. I am still waiting for my money. Literally their CS people have no accountability.
2) margin - their margin requirements fluctuates massively. one night I could have enough margin and overnight I could literally lose 50% of the margin. Their internal calculation is way off. I also have a Schwab account and their margin calculation is quite orderly.

If there is another platform with multi ccy and multi markets, I would switch away from IB.

by Starx, 6/24/2020

Pros: Works

Cons:

Not the best platform out there but for international users is probably the best option. Their margin account is decent, 3x leverage with around 2.5-3% interest. If you’re in the US and trade only US equities you probably better off with TD or eTrade, otherwise it gets the job done.

by Techexpert007, 6/24/2020

Pros: Powerful for seasoned investors

Cons:

If you’re an experienced investor then IBKR is a fantastic platform. Not the easiest to get started with, as evident from some reviews, but very powerful once you become familiar. The mobile apps for iPhone and iPad reflect that as well. Eg Complex multi-legged option strategies can be executed with it. Desktop TWS has more features still of course, but this is quite impressive for a mobile app. But probably not a good fit if you just want a simple UI with limited functionality.

by Wayne, 5/15/2020

Pros: Cheapest Fee

Cons: Rude & Arrogant Service; Charge monthly fee for Data Feed and News while other brokers such as ThinkorSwim provide free Live Real Time Data Feed.

BEWARE of Interactive Brokers. Had a very nasty experience today with iB. I profitted from the Oil Futures and wanted to withdraw my profit and funds, but iB lockup the funds under "Excess Liquidity" under US Commodities (Futures) account which I do not have any open position. When contacting the Support (Peter C), they try to be fishy and did not resolve the issue but gave excuses. Peter C was Rude and UNPROFESSIONAL. I suspect iB face shortage of funds for withdrawal and using all these techniques to prevent funds from being withdrawn. Now they disable all Chat features so that users could not contact them. What can I do to get back my funds? Losing trust in iB.

by Bob, 5/13/2020

Pros: cons outweigh any pros

Cons: trading platforms and mobile app

Their trading platforms and mobile app are the worst I have ever seen. They need to look at just about any other trading app to see how to make something that is actually usable. I trade on several different platforms and IB's is the worst. I regret the day I ever opened an account with IB. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere.

by Michael Rubin, 3/24/2020

Pros: none

Cons: terrible customer service

I tried for 6 weeks to link my two accounts so I could see them with one log in. they were incapable of making that happen despite saying they could so I decided to transfer my accounts to a different brokerage. Now they are seemingly doing everything possible to stop that process and will not answer the phones. After a 2hour and 28 minute wait they picked up and transferred me twice with me hanging up an hour later. My next step will be to report them to FINRA to see if they can exert pressure to release me from their incompetent house.

by John Parker, 2/13/2020

Pros: Mr. Petterfly should be released to the sand desert to die. Worst ever online brokerage service!

Cons: Not enough staff ever!

Average of 40 minute wait time just to reach a live person and most likely India. Most of the work staff is based outside of USA.

by Chris, 7/15/2019

Pros: NONE

Cons: Horrible Service all around

They are the worst on-line broker I've ever dealt with.

by mark, 7/5/2019

Pros:

Cons: crooks

Suppose to get 2% interest on my idle cash. two years later my account is worth 2% less.
I tried to get my money out and they could not succeed in helping me. All I want is my money.

by Nathan, 6/21/2019

Pros: Cheap for low volume trading

Cons: Expensive for high volume trading, customer service

If you only trade a few hundred shares then the commission will be very cheap. On the other hand if you trade thousands of shares of lower priced stocks, you will always hit the 1% max of trade value. So 1% of 10k is $100 each way when it would otherwise be $14 round trip on ETrade or TD Ameritrade. And as everyone knows their customer service is horrible. They just hung up on me when I was trying to understand their short margin requirements.

by Jason Black, 6/11/2019

Pros: At one time their fees were reasonable

Cons: Their inactivity fees are criminal. I am a disabled Veteran. I did not know Interactive Broker was TAKING $20 per month from my account for a total of $1400.00 over the last few yrs. When I finally realized it there was less than $600 left.. Interactive Broker never sent me anything to let me know. They just kept stealing money. Thanks for depleting what was left of the retirement account

My money is apparently gone. Illinois Attorney General should investigate IB fees

I hope someone reads this and realizes that Interactive Broker is a horrible broker. They lack ethics and morals. They steal from disable veterans. They are anti-American!

Be careful folks - find a better broker like Fidelity or Ameritrade. They care about the little guy.

Interactive Broker has terrible software, horrendous customer service, and greedy management.

by bio, 6/4/2019

Pros: None.

Cons: Website will log on with trading capabilities about 50% of the time, and when it succeeds, there is a delay. The representative said it was a server problem, but it happens regularly and makes trading a nightmare.

Website will log on with trading capabilities about 50% of the time, and when it succeeds, there is a delay. The representative said it was a server problem, but it happens regularly and makes trading a nightmare.

by Frank, 4/10/2019

Pros: CHEAP, many exchanges, many trading options

Cons: LOUSY customer service at times, buggy website.

Very cheap unless you tarde penny stocks. Many exchanges.
Problem: cheap prices = cheap service. Well, lousy, frankly.
Phoning support - forget it - cracking lines, foreign weird accents, re-routing of calls to exotic places, and too much incompetence at times. You call them to ask lot sizes in a given exchange for a given stock - they do not even know that.
Chat support = spinning buttons for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Finally someone answers who pretends to chat to you and 5 others a the same time - and you need 2-factor login to get support! Bad. Finally you get timed out or session terminated before the chat jerk even answers.
Ticket support = I cannot open any NEW support TICKETS. Maybe their website has another bug or they banned me from asking questons. Tried in 3 browsers and their Ticket Submit button has stopped reacting, it simply won't submit my legitimate question (regarding their lot sizes on Hong Kong exchange)
So basically - you are left with NO tickets, NO Chat and some guy in an exotic place with no desire to help.
CHEAP - yes their SUPPORT is as CHEAP as their PRICES, so if you need STRESS and HEADACHE you've found the right broker.

by Brian, 8/26/2018

Pros: Fees, global access, API, and universal account

Cons: None

This broker is a must for professionals. I think they should raise the minimums to keep the LOW IQ types out.

by David, 8/17/2018

Pros: Nice selection of products

Cons: Basically, everything else

I've been with IB for over 6 years. They were my prime broker for my hedge fund and I had my personal account there. I've had problems in the past, complained bitterly to them, fought them, took them to arbitration, etc. I don't know why I stayed with them, familiarity breeds contempt I guess. But this latest incident, although somewhat trivial, could under different circumstances blow up into a genuine problem. I had a GTC order to close an option position when the price got to 5 cents,, and the order had been sitting there for about 2 months. It finally filled, however, it executed twice. Once to buy to close the option position, then it bought the same thing again, thus opening a new option position. OK, it was only 50 contracts at 5 cents each, plus about $20 commission. However, it could have been much much worse than that. I complained to "Customer Service", and got some smarta$$ reply about managing risk the way I saw fit (WTF? nothing to do with the issue I brought up!). The rep goes on to inform me that the execution would stand. The entire tone of the reply, the unwillingness to even attempt to dig into the problem confirmed to me that if you're a customer, everything is cool until you have a problem. I'm moving my assets to TDAmeritrade. If you go with IB or are with IB, good luck, and pray you don't run into any problems, especially using their clunky, outdated, slow platform.

by A Trucker, 8/1/2018

Pros: low margin interest rates, low commission per trade.

Cons: poor mobile device usability, software is from 1995, mediocre customer service, slow fund xfer

WHY IBKR: So I switched to IBKR from Scottrade a year or two ago because, at the time I was paying 7% or more for margin. As someone who leverages out to like 60% or more that was killing me. IBKR offered 2.19% and so I switched. Now it's up to 5% but again, the Federal Reserve has been raising the benchmark interest rates so waddaya expect? Rates are going up *everywhere*. Also, scottrade wanted 7 bucks per transaction, ibkr wanted only like a dollar or something.

PRO: Interactive Brokers is CHEAP. Let's not get that wrong. Cheaper than the competitors.

CON: Their software is antiquated. Think a black background, neon green text... reminds me of the 1990s when I was a little boy learning to use my granddad's windows 3.0 computer. Yeah... it's old.

CON: Forget about customer service. They have an attitude, but will still answer my dumb rookie questions. Besides, I'm used to dealing with sour employees at warehouses and shippers and the like, so this is nothing new. And since I spend 10 hours a day driving, I could care less if I'm on hold for 30 minutes before getting to speak to a human being, I just let my hands-free headset play the muzak while I drive past cornfields...

CON: ACH funding takes a while... and don't use a wire transfer you dolt, it costs 25 dollars when ACH is free!

WHY IBKR: I am not a professional, I am not even a "prosumer", I am literally a millenial trucker (i.e. consumer) who is investing and managing under 100k for the long term (i.e. retirement). I just need a cheap brokerage that gives me a place to stash and manage my securities, mostly big-cap stocks. I just need a brokerage that's been around for a few decades that is unlikely to go belly up. IBKR fits that bill.

THE SHORT: I can't speak for professionals, although I hear IBKR's shtick is making money on "volume". But if you're a consumer needing a place that has lower margin rates and that you can just shovel your securities into and forget about them for months at a time, IBKR fits the bill. For a truck driver like me, it works.

by Tim B., 3/8/2018

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Terrible Customer Service, Buggy Unreliable Technology

"You Get What You Pay For with Interactive Brokers"

You pay very little, and get very little. The website and technology is very buggy. The customer service is the worse I have ever experienced with any broker. Fidelity is the best. E*Trade is OK. TD is not very good. IBRK is terrible. Perhaps the worst is that with Fidelity, E*Trade and TD, when you do a US ACH funds transfer, the entire transaction is completed in three business days. However, with IBRK they "hold" your funds for another 4 days, which is unheard of in the industry. It takes twice as long to ACH funds and get them credited to your account to use than with top tier brokers like Fidelity. I tried IBRK and immediate moved the money back to Fidelity never to trade with IBRK again. If you want terrible customer service and buggy technology with useless error messages at a cheap price, then Interactive Brokers is the place for you!

by Jerry Saia, 1/13/2018

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Arrogant, indifference to complaints - it is as if they cannot read English. Obvious airheads.

If you ever will need your account fixed, or corrections made, you can kiss reason goodbye. This outfit apparently has robots handle all their trouble tickets. There is no intelligence here. Stay away.

by Experiencedtrader, 9/6/2017

Pros: Low cost if you trade 100-200 shares

Cons: Incompetent rude customer service

Customer service at interactive brokers is incompetent and rude except maybe technical people. I am completely astonished, they are allowed to talk to you like they are rebellious teenagers, but atthe same time really don't know what they are talking about which makes them sound stupid, no offense. Management needs to do a clean sweep there otherwise they will not have any customers left.

by IB Screwed Me, 3/23/2017

Pros: None

Cons: Arrogant

They restricted my account to closing trades only because they took exception to my social media post of a policy of their I disagreed with. 100% fact and opinion.

by Michael, 3/6/2017

Pros:

Cons: Bad fill

One time i put in Or Better order. Stock opened substatially below the OrBetter price. They filled my order at OB price and not where market was trading. They would not adjust the price. Pocketing the differance.

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