<i>Effective 10/01/2010, IRA customers will be responsible for the $7.50 quarterly fee charged by our trustee. This fee will be taken out at the end of each quarter. For new accounts, the fee will be applied beginning the first full quarter after the account has been funded.</i> from: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=otherFees (IRA tab) That said my only complaint is the inability to pay with funds outside the IRA. Considering I pay $200+ to trade in my IRA outside of IB (because of the desire to trade commodities IB does not offer) this is a great deal, I just wish IB would offer the ability to pay from another source.
Bob: I guess we could ask them to set up a process to do it. It would be simple for advisor accounts - the billing could be against the main account as are the data fees today. It would probably be harder for them if a customer only has an IRA-type account as all charges go against that account. Still, a "biil", (notification) sent yearly for $30 (or $7.50 quarterly I guess) via their standard account messaging system should not be too difficult to implement. Pay the bill within X days via whatever. Use the Deposit Notification System they have with an IRA Fee checkoff. If not paid by the due date they'd debit the IRA account directly. We've got the quarter to get it done. Jack
Time for a feature request? Another option (since I assume they don't want to use credit cards for payment) is that they could auto-pay it via ACH if you linked a bank account. Since they have your account there anyway if there was a problem with the bank ACH they could always hit your IRA account for the money.
Time to move my IB IRA to another broker. I trade fx & fx futures mostly, there is not much commission advantage with IB. I use IB mainly because I can use it with Ninja Trader. Time for change.
Come on guys ... if you open an IRA with almost any other broker you are forced to use a trust like Millenium or Equity Trust and pay $300 or more per year per account. $30 a year is nothing....
Anyway, I know this is just venting now, but I think this is a pretty crappy way for IB to treat its customers. I only happened to see this charge just by chance while going over my tax records. IB never notified me of this charge when it occurred. Going through my emails, the only reference I see to this charge is a monthly IB Communique that was sent out Sep 13th where it was buried in the middle of a list of customer improvments.
Sideshowbob, what the heck are you talking about? Who pays $300 to open up an IRA account? Optionsxpress, Schwab, any other brokerage, it is free. Have you opened an account since 1980?
Should have clarified that this is if you want to trade futures....stocks yes those are free. Is the $30 you'll pay in IRA fees more than the cost savings at IB over Schwab or ETrade commissions for a year?