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The FIRE Exit
The broker guide
The broker guide

Interactive Brokers.

What Interactive Brokers really costs a monthly index buyer, what protects your money, who does your tax paperwork, and what leaving costs. From its own price sheet, dated, with no affiliate link anywhere on the page.

Every figure verified against the brokers’ own price sheets: July 2026. Fee schedules reprice mid-year. If that date looks old, check the price sheet before acting.

What Interactive Brokers costs, on the example

The bill this year
€0
Twenty years of it
≈ €0

The example pattern: €300 a month, no pot, a euro-listed fund. Your pattern is different: run yours through The Broker Bill

where that sits among the nine

The facts

  • Available in31 countries, on its published list; the UK too, via its UK entity
  • The monthly buy€0 · savings plan
  • Recurring€0/yr
  • Conversion0.002% · min €2
  • Savings planautomatic · fractions
  • ProtectionIrish Investor Compensation Scheme: 90% up to €20,000
  • The cashNot a bank: uninvested cash sits in segregated client accounts at third-party banks. The protection is segregation, not a per-client deposit guarantee. Some securities are custodied at its US affiliate, where US SIPC cover applies.
  • Does your taxes in—
  • The exitIn-kind transfers supported; no fee is published for European outbound transfers (US ACATS transfers are free).

The honest note

The forums' default answer to "which is safest?", and the plumbing some of the other apps quietly build on: an Irish-regulated arm of a listed US giant that acts as custodian for a few of its own competitors. Multi-currency accounts, every exchange that matters, and a recurring-investments programme that buys a wide set of UCITS ETFs without commission — funded, as IBKR itself discloses, by a small payment from the fund makers. That's the honest kind of free: printed where you can read it. The catch is fit, not fees: it's an institution-grade cockpit, and the cash interest is engineered to reward big balances. For the six-figure pot, the multi-currency life, and anyone who wants the door that's never the wrong door.

Interactive Brokers: the fine print
Who you deal with

Interactive Brokers Ireland Ltd: Central Bank of Ireland (C423427)

The route

Recurring Investments: commission-free UCITS ETF buys from €10, funded by 10 basis points the fund maker pays IBKR (its own disclosure). Manual orders: tiered 0.05%, min €1.25, plus small venue fees.

The plan

Recurring Investments from €10, fractional shares native.

The cash

Not a bank: uninvested cash sits in segregated client accounts at third-party banks. The protection is segregation, not a per-client deposit guarantee. Some securities are custodied at its US affiliate, where US SIPC cover applies.

The taxes

No country-native tax service: treaty and reporting machinery only; you file everything yourself from its statements.

The exit

In-kind transfers supported; no fee is published for European outbound transfers (US ACATS transfers are free).

Where it operates

It advertises accounts in these countries, on its published list:

all 31 countries
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Czechia
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Malta
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Iceland
  • Liechtenstein
  • Norway
  • Switzerland

The UK runs through a separate entity, with its own protection scheme.

Tax-sheltered accounts it documents: ISA (United Kingdom).

Compare Interactive Brokers head to head

The same bill and the same facts, next to another broker:

Compare any two, side by side
vs
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Sources: check it yourself
Keep it honest

Know a figure here that's wrong or out of date? Point me to the line and a source. Every correction gets checked before the next refresh. That's how this page stays right.

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Common questions

What does Interactive Brokers cost?
On the example I use everywhere on this site, €300 a month into one euro-listed ETF, Interactive Brokers works out at €0 a year. That's the free or near-free savings-plan route. Your own pattern changes the number: the Broker Bill prices your buy, your pot and your country.
Is Interactive Brokers safe?
It's a regulated firm you can verify in its regulator's public register. If it failed, the backstop is the Irish Investor Compensation Scheme: 90% up to €20,000. That protects against the firm failing, not against your funds falling in value. The fine print above names the exact entity you'd contract with.
Does Interactive Brokers do my tax paperwork?
No. No country-native tax service: treaty and reporting machinery only; you file everything yourself from its statements. That's the norm on this list, not a fault of this broker: only a few of the nine do any of it for you, and only in their home markets.
Can I set up automatic monthly investing with Interactive Brokers?
Yes. Recurring Investments from €10, fractional shares native.

What to hold in it

The broker is half the decision. Which fund to hold in it is the other half, and the gap between two ETFs on the same index is real money: The Tracking Gap

The broker guide: all nine, and your bank The Broker Bill: price your own pattern

No affiliate links: no broker pays me, and none of them knows it's on this page. The order is arithmetic, not sponsorship.

Education, not advice. Fee schedules change and brokers reprice. Check the current price sheet before you open anything. Which broker suits you also depends on your country and your tax situation; I'm not a licensed adviser, happily.

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How the sessions work

Ninety minutes, online, €600. The Exit Audit included.