It seems that the ones I have checked out either you have to pay a $ 30 fee to Wire funds or just mail them a check to open up an account. This is pretty ridicolous !!And totally archaic. But I surmise this is done so the Future Brokers feel like their customers have to be committed to a certain amount of trading. And to gain from the commissions. People dont want the trouble of getting a check for the balance of the their brokerage account mailed to them and definitely dont want to spend another $30 to get a wire transfer. So they decide they might as well give it a chance before they withdrawal their money from the Future Brokerage. Which makes the Brokers happy. If they had automated electronic transfer , like at my Td Ameritrade, people would be shuffling money back and forth between their bank accounts and the Broker. If they started losing money in Futures ,which happens very often ,people would feel more apt to just take out the money that same day with electronic transfer. And put it back in their regular bank accounts. This would be much to the frustration of the Future Brokers who want people to trade (profit from commissions) and keep their money there. Still learning about this industry but is this pretty much true ??
IB offers 1 free wire or ACH a month, after which ACH's are $1, wires $10. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/otherFees.php?ib_entity=llc#withdrawal
Why ??? How come different than TD Ameritrade and Etrade and all the other regular brokerages and their free unlimited electronic transfer??
Brokers that charge you $10 or more per trade can afford to have no fees for EFT, paper confirmations, cancels, etc. The extreme low-cost brokers charge for things that cost them money. IB doesn't charge you for wiring or ACHing money *into* your account. And, depending on the size you trade, you'll save up to $9 or $10 on commissions per trade at IB compared to Ameritrade. That'll pay for 10 ACH withdrawals per month.