Hey everyone!
I’ve been using IBKR for some time and I’m curious to see if there are any similar/better alternatives out there?
@sara1 it really depends on what nationality you are (which determines what you would qualify for) as well as what you consider important in a brokerage (e.g. what do you do with your account - do you trade a lot, or simply want to buy/hold ETFs, etc). DeGiro was one that looked interesting although they no longer accept those with US passports or most non-EU passports. If you do have a US passport, Charles Schwab is a good alternative.
Thank you for the feedback. I have a EU passport and mostly buy/hold ETFs which is what I would like to do under other alternatives.
Then you are very lucky. You have many many options as an EU citizen. A few to recommend: DeGiro (they’re either based in the NL or DE), Lightyear (based in the UK but do accept EU passport- good selection of both UK and EU ETFs although they focus more on UK), Dukascopy (in the CH), and you could even look into Trade Republics (based in the DE). Good luck!
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Great, thank you very much!
Another option in the EU is Trading 212. I particularly like their “Pies & AutoInvest” features. You can define a certain split between ETFs (or stocks), and it will automatically invest your deposits and dividends to rebalance to that split over time.
However, personally, I still prefer Interactive Brokers. I just trust them more than other low-cost brokers. And they recently fixed the one thing that always annoyed me about them, namely the lack of any sort of automatic investing. With the new “Recurring Investments” feature you can automate the purchase of certain popular ETFs. It won’t rebalance your portfolio for you though.
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IBKR is one of the best, although if you have the US version you can hold funds in USD and buy/sell the most liquid ETFs. I found some limitations with what I could buy with IBKR in the UK, at the moment I prefer IG. IG has stock, ISA accounts and spread betting/CDFs. Alpaca Markets has a fantastic API and free commissions, but for non-US customers, you need to have 30k USD funds.
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YMMV but my strategy is to keep using Schwab (who I’ve had for years in the US). My contact there basically said that although they don’t officially support expat use cases, they have a kind of “don’t ask don’t tell” situation with pre-existing clients who move abroad. There is an international specific account too but I’m not sure how that works, or how it differs from a US account, but at a glance it seems like you may have less options for advanced trading (options ladders, etc)
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