So no customer has a similar experience, I wanted to provide general information customers will find useful when funding Interactive Brokers accounts.
1. There is a 7 day hold on check deposits. Interactive Brokers constantly monitors check deposits and bounced checks to ensure our hold time accurately protects IB, and other customers, from losing money from a case where a customer deposits a check, accumulates negative P&L trading, and then the check bounces. Allowing that type of activity would cost IB money and in turn would affect our ability to offer the most aggressive interest rates and commissions levels possible.
2. Customers must enter a deposit notification via account management by going to 'Funds Management > Deposits' and entering the details on how IB will receive the deposit. IB does not post funds to an account until we have a matching notification from the customer. This protects customers funds from being deposited into the wrong account due to a key punch error by a bank employee or a mistake writing your account number on a check.
3. Our Indian help desk has every tool available to them in order to research and resolve customers issues that their US counter parts have. Our representative was incorrect in his assumption he needed assistance from the US office. Measures have been taken to educate our representatives and ensure that type of comment/service is never provided again.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention
Interactive Brokers
Hi Mr IB
I have a few questions
1.How good is your terminal compared to Tradetiger or Diet, your main competitors?
2. How is the banking done for INR deposits, do I send the $2000 to the US? What banks do you use? Is the funds transfer seamless and online? How quick is it?
3. Is brokerage negotiable? You mention some volume levels in your website but they are about double what an Indian broker charges for similar volumes. What if the volume goes well beyond the slab - any rebates offered?
4. I used to trade with MF Global in the US and at that time I was warned by them about 'bucketshops'. You are basically a foreign company in India. How will you prove that you are not running a 'bucketshop' in India? Where are your trades executed? Is it realtime and at par with market? How is the slippage compared to other brokers?
If you can really bring the US trading technology in a convincing way to India with competitive local brokerage, nobody else stands a chance. So please convince me and I will open an account.
Thanks
