Interactive Brokers Review

I opened an IBKR account about a month ago and it really has been a nightmare of burocracy filling so much documentation. After I started trading many operatives have even been denied because they make it very cumbersome and difficult to know exactly what permissions are configured and which not. After you fill for permission to operate let us say futures or options it takes days to clear and in the meanwhile they never put you up to date.
The support section has a place where I have filled several tickets which have never get answered.
It has a chat section where they put you in hold for hours waiting for a support representative.
I had the patience to wait three days ago for help using the chat but the person who attended me told me to search in their web for answers. I really could not believe it.
I have worked with several brokers and this is by far the worst experience in customer care.

I started an application with Interactivebrokers.com, was told it was sent for review and waiting approval. Later I got a message saying I need to fund my account in order to be considered for approval. That sounded odd but I went ahead and linked my bank account. Even After linking My bank account never got access to my account. Just a page saying my account is waiting for review and approval and I should be patient since you are experiencing overload.

Yesterday $3000 was Transferred from my Bank account to interactive brokers. Sensed Reg Flags, since I did not transfer the money myself only linked my bank account.

I Tried logging into interactive brokers account that was waiting to be approved but now its says my application has been deleted. Tried logging from my desktop but my user account is not allowed for paper trading either. I don't even know what's worse looking all over to how I can contacting you or you stealing my money from my back account and blocking me from an account you haven't even approved.

In my opinion, it's okay if I am not approved but it is not okay for interactive brokers to take money from my account without my permission. Writing to request my money back before I report this as fraud.

You shouldn't take potential clients money if you have no intention of providing the service.

When I applied for an account I thought interactive brokers was a reputable company. Apparently, interactive brokers is a scam. I feel Scammed and taken advantage of. Seems like you tricking people to link their bank accounts, take their money without even them deciding if they really want to do business with you. You have the right to approve me and as a client I have the final right to decide if I want to do business with you by finally transferring my money into my account. I linked my bank and you went ahead and transferred $3000 of my money without my permission.

I never got even an email confirming my account had been approved yet you took my money from my account to which i cannot even access. That's wrong.

Need my money back or hear from someone about this issue. I wonder how many people I treated like this and people don't even know it. I have all the supporting documents and the bank account to prove what you are doing is wrong.

I have already been approved somewhere, they didn't take my money first. I applied, they approved me, I linked my account and transferred as much money as I wanted. What you, Interactive Brokers are doing is wrong.

I have been a commission-paying customer of this broker (as well as other brokers) for over 10 years. IBKR customer non-service is about the worst I have every experienced from any company. AT&T was worse, but not by much. IBKR is obstinate, combative, and lethargic. In any inter-broker transfer it is always "the other broker's fault" according to IBKR. In every single case it has actually been IBKR's screwed up systems that are at fault. They are awful.

On top of the bad CS, their systems break - web account mgmt interface is awful - parts of it don't work or hang up. Chat never works - nobody every shows up.

You would be reasonable to ask "Why then do you use them?" In the early days I found their trading platform to be superior to the competition - and so I put up with the other significant negatives. Now, they can't even get TWS right - they keep fooling with it, breaking formerly-working features. Even the trading platform is now a negative.

Don't go there.

Im been trying to get my money back and close my account with IB and has passed more than a month and still I cant get to withdraw my money, they keep putting my account under review, I have called many times, talking to random Indian people that hardly you can understand what they say and you will never get a helpful answer, they will never connect you with a supervisor or manager, an they say they will call you back, and they DONT. Only option I have now is to file a FINRA complaint to report them.
here is the link if someone need it.
https://firms.di.finra.org/cdip-dynoapp/anon/accessForm;jsessionid=FE33BC89DF13D6BF821D4115398388A3?requestInstanceId=4591699

I hope this is helpful to anyone with IB issues out there.
stay safe.

I suggest to consider someone else. I'm currently reporting them to Finra, SEC and I also have a mediation request for them to approve. Next will be arbitration to recover money lost due to the Trading workstation not sending out a sell order. Literally the sell button just flashes or just do nothing and order does not go. I have videos to prove it. News and charts lose connection and won't load.I have screen shots to prove it. I'm on a 2gb dedicated line on a brand new Dell xps desktop with 32gb ram. The TWS software is the worst of all of them. Loses connection at least 10 times a day during trading. Most of the time it cannot reconnect on his own so you have to restart the platform. Customer support does not answer for days. Some of my tickets are still unanswered since March. I have been waiting for a month for a reply regarding the money lost on that trade I described before. I was told 15/20 working days. Then they just disappeared. That is why the Finra arbitration is next. Don't consider this company. EVER!

They sold my shares with out my knowledge and closed my account. To me this is theft. If I was getting charged a fee you would at least think they would send you a statement. I received nothing from this company. I was not even notified that my account was closed.

Interactive brokers is awful. I missed out on so many great plays because their options strike prices always go blank. Not only do they go blank restricting you from making a great trade. If they go blank on you when you're in a position you are straight sexed. Sometimes they go blank for 5-10 mins. If you're in position it doesn't let you exit when it's blank. Think about how much damage could be caused to your account when you look for a heavy sized 45 second scalp, and you can't get out for 10 mins .... Ya. This happened to me several times. I have filed for a compensation but who knows if I'll get it. Either way, I'm done with interactive poopers. Just thinking about them makes my blood boil. They will steal your money without hesitation. Also, not sure where they get their customer service reps. Every time you go in a live chat the representative gets dumber and dumber every time. You may as well talk to the closest wall, at least the wall can't give you a stupid response in return. AWFUL DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THEM YOU WILL HAVE A HEART ATTACK

Website is next to useless. Can't access tax reports. Very unhelpful when ring them up. Tell you to ring a number that doesn't exist. Was locked out and they wont reset my password. Terrible to deal with.

WORST WORST WORST broker/system/platform. Do not use Interactive Brokers if you can avoid it/don't have to! Maybe its cool if you really need all their products or different if you have have boatloads of money and maybe they actually look after you - but if you're a smaller investor then essentially they tell you to SUCK IT and deal with their nonsense. (I had about AUD40k securities with them at one point plus a bunch of cash cos of their stupid rules and it was STILL AWFUL).
So you can just trust me or read my highlights [lowlights] of all the terrible parts that make up the whole of the mess that is IB.

NB: I only needed to trade Australian and US equities (wanted to do bonds but never got around to it), and manage my cash. I was required to use them because of compliance requirements at my previous firm, but I have finally been able to escape the hell-hole that is IB due to a change of firm.

1. Their systems (both on app and web platform) are horrendous - security is so tight (cool sure, to a certain degree, but it's really overdone!!!) you have to log in multiple times, use a phone token etc etc and half the time it just logs you out anyway or crashes. Functionality goes down often, its not intuitive, things are really hard to find, its slow.

2. Sure they have a low cost-per-trade and other low fees/costs and you can trade bonds or whatever, but you pay for it in other ways. If you have less than AUD20k just sitting in your cash acct and aren't trading actively (also your money is not earning interest because why would IB ever actually do anything to help you), they charge you a monthly fee - at my current savings acct interest rate which is one of the best, if not the best rate in the market, it would take me nearly 4 months just to earn back the monthly fee I pay. If you withdraw cash more than once a month, boom you get a charge. Even when I was finally able to escape from them, BOOM AUD55 charge just so my new broker could do all the work processing the transfer, and IB sit back and collect AUD55. Then they mysteriously take another AUD16 out my account for no reason, before I can shut down my account. Even depositing money in is a two-step, slow, archiac nightmare.
They even once liquidated a portion of one of my share positions because my cash funds were running low (I didn't realise at this time THEY CHARGED YOU JUST FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF KEEPING YOUR CASH WITH THEM), which then got me in trouble with compliance because I didn't have pre-approval to sell the share - IB just went ahead and made the decision for me anyway and I got a trade confo after the fact!

3. Getting any sort of help from them is incredibly frustrating. Calling in - you are on hold for ages and the people are pretty much all useless and never do what you ask anyway, or you get transferred to someone else and they still can't help. If you chat with them online you get generic 'computer says no' answers or you get told to raise a web ticket, where you get another 'computer says no' answer and nothing really ever gets resolved properly (maybe half the time, in a semi-efficient manner?). Then when you finally get a response on a web ticket, they don't email you, oh no, nothing every gets sent right to your email, you have to log back into their rubbish app or platform and go to the stupid message inbox, by which time (most of the time) the system either breaks or you have to do YET ANOTHER LOG IN ! Wow.

I could go on but I think you get the picture. AVOID AVOID AVOID IB! Try someone else first. Or try IB first, waste your time and money, and then move to another broker :)

It will save you your sanity!

I've been trying to get my money back been over 10 days decided to call and they told me I needed a photo ID. I believe they required this when I set my account up. Had I not called I would never had known. Plain and simple they suck stay away. If they had zero stars I would have given it to them