How to withdraw money from Interactive Brokers: methods and costs

One of the most common fears about trading online is, can I get my money back? And even if that's a given, will I face any extra costs, delays or difficulties as I try to withdraw my uninvested funds?

Interactive Brokers is a trustworthy broker that honors all withdrawal requests, but the process is not the most convenient. Read on to learn about potential costs, waiting time or restrictions.

Withdrawal at Interactive Brokers is fast but options are limited

Withdrawal at [Broker name] is fast but options are limited

Adam Nasli

Trading • Safety • Market Analysis

I bring extensive financial expertise as one of BrokerChooser's earliest team members. Personally, I tested nearly all 100+ brokers on our site, opening real-money accounts, executing trades, assessing customer services, and providing firsthand assessment. My professional background includes roles in the banking sector and a degree from Central European University, where I teach finance. My passions lies in in-depth research of the financial industry, building trading algorithms, and managing long-term investments.

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Adam Nasli

Trading • Safety • Market Analysis

Interactive Brokers is one of many brokers I have tested throughout the years. I used my own money for trading - and then tried to get it back. Here's how it went:

• No worries - Interactive Brokers is a reliable broker that lets you access your funds any time.
• You can use only bank transfers to withdraw funds.
• In most cases, you can get your money back within 2 days.
• Interactive Brokers charges $0 for basic withdrawals, but some methods may cost more.
• Read our full review of Interactive Brokers for detailed funding and trading conditions.

First, let's see if Interactive Brokers is available in your country?

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Let me start with the good news: Interactive Brokers is considered a legit and trustworthy broker, where your money is in good hands, and you can withdraw it whenever you want to.

How to tell if a broker is trustworthy? In our view, a broker is considered legit if its operations are overseen by at least one top-tier regulator. At BrokerChooser, we only recommend such regulated brokers.

Unfortunately, the online trading industry is plagued by a large number of unregulated or scam brokers. Many of these simply refuse to return your money, or require outrageous percentage commissions before doing so. If you've heard about any broker that you're unsure about, check it against our scam broker list or discuss it in our Forum.

So how to actually withdraw funds from Interactive Brokers? At Interactive Brokers, you can only withdraw your money using a bank transfer. This puts Interactive Brokers at a slight disadvantage over brokers that also offer withdrawal to credit/debit cards or electronic wallets such as PayPal.

Remember, you can only withdraw funds to bank accounts that are in your name.

Depending on your account settings, Interactive Brokers may impose a maximum daily withdrawal amount of $50,000.

There is also a $100,000 weekly cap on withdrawals.

Withdrawing money from Interactive Brokers - a step-by-step guide

How do you withdraw money from Interactive Brokers?

• First, log into the Client Portal then click on 'Transfer & Pay' and 'Transfer funds.'
• Select the account you want to use for the transaction.
• At the top of the page, click on the 'Withdraw Funds' tab.
• Select the currency of your withdrawal, then the withdrawal method.
• Enter the required information.
• Submit your withdrawal request.
• You can see the status of your request under 'View Transaction History.'

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Whatever method you use, withdrawals from a brokerage account are rarely instant. When I tried withdrawing funds from Interactive Brokers, I had to wait two business days for the money to arrive. Not the fastest for sure, but actually this is considered fairly normal in the online brokerage world.

Strict withdrawal times are not the only factor to keep in mind when you need to retrieve money from your broker account. The most important thing is that you can only withdraw uninvested cash from your brokerage account. If all of your funds are invested, you need to close some or all of your positions first to make the necessary amount of cash available in your broker account.

Converting your assets to cash often takes additional time. For example, if you sell a stock, it will take another day (or most likely two) for the transaction to settle and for the cash proceeds to appear in your brokerage account.

So what I would normally do is think ahead depending on how urgently I needed the money. For example, if I needed $1,000 cash on Monday and it was still all tied down in stocks or some other assets at Interactive Brokers, I would probably

• log in to my Interactive Brokers account as much as a week earlier, to sell stocks or other assets worth $1,000 (or maybe a bit more to cover any withdrawal fees; see next chapter).
• Then I would check back a day or two later (around the middle of the week) to see if the asset sale has been completed and if the cash has appeared in my broker account.
• If yes, I would then initiate the withdrawal, so that the money arrives in my personal bank account or on my card (whichever applicable) by next Monday at the latest.

While depositing money to a brokerage account is free in most cases, this is not necessarily always true for withdrawals. But I have good news: basic withdrawal at Interactive Brokers is free of charge. See the table below for details and possible exceptions, and also how Interactive Brokers's fees compare to some of its immediate competitors.

The fee for subsequent withdrawals after the first free one depends on the currency and the method used for withdrawal, as laid out in the table below.

*Check payments are also available in USD and they carry a $4 fee.

Conversion fees

In addition to any withdrawal fees, you should also be aware of potential conversion fees. These usually apply if your bank account or card is denominated in a different currency than the funds you are withdrawing from your broker.

At Interactive Brokers, the following account currencies are available: AED, AUD, BGN, CAD, CHF, CNH, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, IDR, ILS, JPY, MXN, MYR, NOK, NZD, PLN, RON, SAR, SEK, SGD, USD, TRY, ZAR.

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