Terrible customer service. I can't even get support to get help logging in to my account even when I have all of my information. Terrible app and website, super confusing and CANNOT get support even when you changed nothing with your account. HORRIBLE service. I can't even close my account because I can't get in touch with anyone!

Solid 4-star broker for serious long-term investing, with a few regulatory hurdles

Interactive Brokers remains one of the best platforms on the market in terms of global exchange access, rock-bottom commissions, and account safety. It’s a great fit for long-term passive investing—especially now that there are no monthly inactivity fees just for holding positions.

However, a few friction points keep it from being a 5-star experience:

Regional Funding Limitations: As an investor based in Ukraine, funding options can be tricky. Emerging features like direct stablecoin/crypto deposits (such as USDC) and seamless modern payment rails are often unavailable or restricted, leaving you reliant on standard international wire transfers or Wise.

Strict Trading Permissions: If you want access to more advanced instruments (derivatives, complex ETFs, margin), IBKR requires passing knowledge checks and meeting specific experience criteria. While intended for investor protection, it can feel overly restrictive when you just want to manage your own risk.

Market Data Subscriptions: Delayed data is free, but keeping live, real-time market quotes active requires paid subscriptions unless you meet monthly trading thresholds.

Overall, if your goal is buying and holding global stocks or ETFs reliably, it’s tough to beat IBKR’s core infrastructure.

Sending me spam mail to update my login details. I do not have an account with them. I have clicked unsubscribe but it takes to their website only with no unsubscribe option. I’ve also replied to their emails but it does not help. Receiving spam emails from them on a daily basis.

called to IBKR hongkong, singapore, australia on 2 and 3 nov 26, they put me on hold for more than 18 minutes and I finally give up and hang up. !

Horrible Support! They outsource it overseas and if you are lucky enough to get someone on the phone, after several attempts, good luck understanding them.

Super complicated login process, where you have to have their phone app synchronized with their website, or you won't get a code for two step authentication. If you lose your phone, you can't download their app again because Google Play wants to verify your age, then says that your age is verified but then trying to download the app wants to verify your age again.
Welcome to the never ending loop.

Also, they have their support phone line set up to only route calls to place/modify orders. Otherwise, they send you to a website URL to create a support ticket, where they most likely won't respond.

All I'm trying to do is login to my account with a new phone number and cannot.

It's ridiculous!

USE ANY BROKER WHO VALUES THEIR CUSTOMERS because IBKR obviously does not!!

Terrible slippage and data delay. Hard to use interface. Change brokers now.

Great
very satisfied!

Ive been on hold now for 45 minutes after they locked me out of my account for no reason...Transferring to Robinhood as soon as I can get someone to pick up the phone so they can send me my money....worst customer service ever!!!
NEVER AGAIN IAB!!!

Will keep asking you bs documentation and constantly freeze your account when they need something. but takes weeks to get a simple permission. will make you wait on the phone for an hour for inquiries. Just humiliating experience overall

I opened my account 2 months ago, used it almost daily without any problem, but the moment I tried to withdraw some of my money I was logged out and have been unable to log in afterwards, after inserting my username, password and security code I just get an odd message saying "your session has expired".

So I called them this Friday morning (+13125426901) and explained the problem, they asked me to try any technical workaround you can imagine, after half an hour of that it became obvious that the problem was on their side, and then they hung up the phone.

Then I called again, explained the problem again, tried all the possible workarounds again, and after half an hour they told me they were transferring my call to "technical support".

After 20 minutes waiting, a woman called Rutika answered the phone and asked me to explain my problem again from the begining, directed me to try all the previous workarounds once again, then she directed me to try to login in the IBKR HK site at least 10 times, always with the same result, and finally she asked me to email her a screenshot and a Firefox log, telling me that they would look into the problem.

She refused to give me a ticket number, I insisted and she refused again without giving any reason why; she said they would call me shortly, so I asked "when?" and she said she couldn't tell (10 hours later they haven't called).

So after almost 3 hours on the phone I got nothing, I just sold an ETF on Monday morning, on Wednesday they refused the withdrawal saying the money wasn't in my account yet, but it did appeared as available in my profile.

Tried again on Friday (today) and this "mysterious" technical issue just popped up from nowhere, I don't believe it's a coincidence.

It feels like trying to hide a liquidity problem with some cheap AI agents exhausting you on the phone.

Tried to register. Did not get a confirmation sms. I do not know in what epoch they live, but things were faster in the Stone Age

Rejected my account application (no reasons - maybe my passport is not European or American). Funds accepted before account rejection. Withdrawal feature was disabled due to account closure. Customer support first denied there was any deposit on the account, and were very rude when I suggested funds should not be even acceptable if an account is not opened. Refund is now promised without a timeline.

Idiotic popups when you attempt to buy or sell. Constantly not able to open trades as some stupid popup comes up after I click the buy / sell button on website trade interface, they always show this stupid shit last minute instead of having some warning alert in the trade quantity screen on the side. By the time the dialog is read and dismissed, price has already moved. AVOID THIS PLATFORM AT ALL COSTS IF YOU WANT SMOOTH TRADING EXPERIENCE.

I am new to investment and after much research joined IBKR. Things were ok for the first couple of months. One thing I noticed is that their interface is not very user-friendly and informative.
I had some cash balance in my account with them along with a handsome amount in different investments. I thought why do I keep some dead cash and withdraw them to my bank account. Next day they sold my gold investments under the name of liquidation trade without informing me or my permission with a loss of 250€. When I enquired what went wrong , they informed me that they were trying to charge me .01 € of their fee for that day and as my cash balance were 0, they sold my gold in loss to get cash to my account to deduct .01€.

Untrustworthy broker. Always have that British cunningness and cruelty in their business.

I won’t recommend them. Planning to close the positions with them.

It is literally not possible to make a worse broker. Currency conversion takes FOREVER. Even if you sell stocks and the trade is filled it takes like 15 minutes until you finally have the money and can buy new stocks. I tried many different brokers this is BY FAR the worst. BY FAR lol. Everything is so slow... a simple trade takes forever. Buying a selling and buying a stock feels is harder than doing a phd in nuclear physics no joke.

no android app,
even the website is so complicated to reach your destination
and to reach the market you need to fund money first, i said okay ... i couldn't (bugs in that connection)
idk why chatgpt recommended u?

When I say there is no android app, I mean it is a webview app and the website itself is not easy to use, now we supposed to use it with phones

Started an application for a joint account. Deposited funds. Application got rejected. Tried the “withdraw funds” feature and it says “your account is not elligible for this feature”. Customer service is not answering anywhere for weeks. What do I do?

They contacted me about my deceased mother's account, and after they had me complete numerous forms to transfer money from her estate to my account, absolutely nothing happened. For over two months, I've been reaching out to them for help with making the transfer happen, but I'm always told the same thing: the estate processing department doesn't take phone calls so I'll have to send them a message through the portal. Every time I do that, I receive absolutely no response. This is an incredibly huge waste of my time for a small sum of money, but this organization has some of the worst communication systems I've ever encountered.

My experience with Interactive Brokers has been extremely disappointing. I expected a professional, reliable brokerage service, but instead I encountered a frustrating user interface, unnecessarily complicated processes, and a lack of clear, transparent communication.

The platform is confusing and unnecessarily difficult to navigate. Essential account operations should be straightforward, yet the overall experience feels needlessly complicated.

What makes this particularly frustrating is the apparent lack of consideration for the customer experience. A financial institution should make it easy for clients to understand the status of their money, resolve issues efficiently, and obtain clear answers when something goes wrong. These should be basic expectations, not unreasonable demands.

I understand that brokerage firms must comply with financial regulations and security requirements. That does not excuse poor communication, confusing design, or an unnecessarily frustrating customer experience.

After this experience, my trust in Interactive Brokers has been seriously damaged. A company's reputation and low fees mean very little if dealing with its platform becomes an exercise in frustration.

I would strongly encourage anyone considering this broker to research customer complaints carefully and evaluate whether the platform and level of customer service meet their expectations.