They sell stock without your permission after one email warning if your cash amount does not cover the $10.00 inactivity fee for that month. They don't care that you have a cash deposit amount approved, but waiting the 3 days IB is holding these funds to clear, they will sell your stock to cover their fee anyway, did you know that? They advertise $1.00 per trade which is true for many small trades, but if your trading 1000 shares the fee is $5.00, 2000 shares is $10.00 and so on, if you look you will find much cheaper broker, this broker will take you broke.
Yes, I read and signed the disclosure statements like everyone else. Don't pay your utility bill - Power turned off Don't pay your cable bill - TV turned off Don't pay your rent - Your trailer will get towed
Your whiny complaining doesn't make IB look bad it makes you look very bad. What kind of trader doesn't bother to read the broker's disclosure information before opening an account? What kind of trader doesn't pay more than $10 in commissions on a month? What kind of trader leaves no cash in their account for unexpected events? If a broker specifies that the commission is 0.5 cents a share, then DUH "trading 1000 shares the fee is $5.00, 2000 shares is $10.00 and so on". You are free to use any broker you want. How about you ask the cheap brokers how they make money with their cheap commission rates. Big hint, they aren't doing you any favors. IB has 239,000 customer accounts and adds about 2300 accounts a month. Customer equity is $45.7 billion and customer cash is $25.9 billion. The average account has over $100,000 in cash, so you fall off the bottom of the cash bell curve. Enjoy your new account with your new cheap broker.
Keep a monumental sum of $30 set aside in cash at all times and "boom!", no more problem. If that's a substantial portion of your account and can't be spared, then Lord help you...