Interactive Brokers Direct Market Access Customer Reviews & Expert Rating

Great worldwide broker

A chose interactive brokers after a long and intensive search for a comprehensive online platform that offers all services I needed. Interactive Brokers ticks all the boxes that are relevant for me.

I have Stock & Share ISAs with several well known platforms. I also have non-ISA trading accounts. Here I want to specifically commend Interactive Brokers for breaking the 'cartel' pricing of FX within ISAs.

ISAs can only hold GBP, so anyone investing in foreign listed assets has to pay FX commission on every purchase, sale and dividend. The FX commission elsewhere is usually between 1% and 1.5% for trades below GBP5k, the % gradually reducing in a tiered manner as the trade value increases until settling at 0.25% for trades over GBP25k; with IB it is 0.015% irrespective of trade value. Example: buying GPB5k of a NASDAQ stock with most ISA platforms costs at least £50 in FX commission; with Interactive Brokers it costs £0.75. It's the same again when you sell, so £100 FX for the round-trip elsewhere vs £1.50 with IB. Plus, IB offers the full range of order types for ISA trades; none of the "At Best" only nonsense of other ISA platforms.

IB's Trader Workstation trading platform is excellent and can be used for both ISA and non-ISA trading.

I have been using Interactive Brokers and Trader workstation for over 10 years now. It is my much preferred trading platform and has an amazingly wide array of trading vehicles. It can seem over facing in the beginning but once you know your way around it is the best.

Excellent trading account.
Very good mobile apps.

Excellent value for money in terms of the cost of services (including trade commissions and currency exchange) quality of trade execution, algos you can use to trade, research material available, and even the functionality of the website, mobile app and trader workstation (but it takes some getting used to). The cost of competitors seems a little deceptive to me because some competitors offer zero commission but it seems to me their execution is not as good, and so if I save £20 or $20 but pay $500 more for the cost of the shares that's not a good deal for me. However, IBKR customer service is appalling, really bad. They just flat don't answer messages, and if you call they can rarely resolve anything except the simplest issue, and it takes having to escalate to get any kind of response. it is truly astonishing how a company with such good products and pricing have such a bad customer service culture, and the US customer service are the worst because they are often aggressive, dismissive and sometimes b ordering on rude.

I have a small trading account with IB which I use to access the US market and have found their systems and processes relatively easy to use and the filling of my buy/sell orders to be seamless.

I would recommend them to small investors looking to dip their toes in other markets.

The TWS platform is superb with streaming prices and trades. The news service is excellent with access to Dow Jones’s and Refinitiv news wires amongst many others. Live option prices and plenty of customisation opportunities puts it in a different league from the pitiful options available from the UK platforms. Just a shame that they don’t offer full service SIPPs

The customer service is excellent anytime I’ve called for any queries. The mobile app is very user friendly and easy to use.

I have yet to find a comparable trading account to interactive brokers. No one comes close in terms of the breadth of securities or transparency of pricing.

The platform offers a wide range of products with a wide geographical coverage, probably the best for individual investors. The trading costs are also very competitive.

I have a margin account allowing me to day trade as well as my main trading type of swing trading. The platform is great to use, trades are executed extremely quickly with low commissions.

Getting in touch with an IB representative is almost impossible . The service is just awful , phones not answered . Over the years I have been with them nothing in this area has improved .
Yes , their fees are excellent and the platform works but if you have a problem then prepare for a frustrating experience.

I have a Options and Shares account and use Trader Work Station. Really enjoy the risk and reward profile.
Some chart symbols are hard to find especially the 10 year yield and two year yield.

I have used the IBKR platform for about 3 years having tried out a few others. The interface makes it quite intuitive and user-friendly for a non-professional trader. It also has a huge range of products.

I have two individual accounts for stock trading and options trading. I have traded options for about five years on IBKR. Once you get used to it, the platform is not difficult to use and the helpline is really good. I have about 300k in my trading account, having transferred it from Interactive Investor which I found a real pain, AND they charged me £9.99 a month for holding my account, on a website that was dire! Also the commission charges are extremely reasonable. I am very happy with IBKR.

Trading account. Excellent execution and reasonable commission/fees schedule

Great access to derivative products, fair margining.

I am a long time customer of Interactive Brokers and a very satisfied one. Great technology, competitive pricing and professional customer service.

I've been using Interactive Brokers for my trading activities, and overall, I find their services excellent. The range of investment options and competitive fees are standout features that make it a top choice for serious investors. However, I do have one significant concern regarding the Trader WorkStation (TWS) platform related to window management.
While the TWS interface itself is well-designed, the way it handles other applications is problematic. When I open TWS, the interface is great. However, if I then open another application, such as an Excel file, it invariably opens behind TWS. This forces me to minimize or move TWS every time I need to access another program, which disrupts my workflow and reduces productivity.
Improving TWS so that other applications open on top of it would significantly enhance the user experience. Despite this drawback, I still highly recommend Interactive Brokers for its other excellent services.