How to Open an Interactive Brokers Account in 2025?
| Updated: |
(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Interactive Brokers is an excellent broker from the United States. It is known for its cheap fees and unique investment product range. It is being used by many personal finance bloggers, for instance.
It is currently the best broker that allows access to U.S. ETFs. And U.S. ETFs are the most efficient ETFs for Swiss investors.
In this guide, I review how to open an Interactive Brokers account. It is not very difficult, but there are a few things you need to know before you start your application. And I also teach you how to optimize your account to save money!
Interactive Brokers
The broker you need to buy stocks and ETFs reliably and at extremely affordable prices. Trade U.S. stocks for as little as 0.5 USD!
- Extremely affordable
- Wide range of investing instruments
So what is Interactive Brokers (IB)?
IB is a brokerage firm from the United States. It was created in 1978 in New York, more than 40 years ago! IB is the largest brokerage firm in the United States and the leading foreign exchange (forex) broker. Interactive Brokers offers access to many instruments, such as stocks, bonds, options, futures, and more.
Interactive Brokers is a very well-known broker with an excellent reputation. It is known to be cheap compared to its competitors. I have already compared IB and DEGIRO in the past. This comparison showed that it is even less expensive than DEGIRO, the broker I used before.
An essential thing with IB is that, by default, they do not lend your shares to other people, such as DEGIRO does by default. But you have the choice, which is good! Indeed, you also can lend shares, and you will get some of the money from the lending.
If you want more information on IB, read my review of Interactive Brokers.
Why open an IB account?
So, why did I open an IB account? It is currently the best broker available to Swiss investors.
There are many reasons to prefer Interactive Brokers over other brokers.
- IB offers access to U.S. ETFs to Swiss investors, while many brokers are not.
- IB has excellent prices.
- IB offers access to many investing instruments.
- IB offers foreign exchanges at an excellent price.
- IB has an excellent reputation.
- IB has good financial strength.
So, we will see how one can create an account on IB.
Create an Interactive Brokers account
First, prepare some time in front of you. The account creation process on Interactive Brokers is not difficult, but it will take some time. You will need to answer a few questions, and you will need to wait a day for your account to be funded.
Interactive Brokers has several entities in Europe. The primary entity is IB UK, but one is in Luxembourg, and one is in Ireland, for instance. For Swiss investors, the best entity is IB UK because they offer access to a Swiss IBAN and give you access to US ETFs. For European investors, it does not make much of a difference.
First, go to the account creation page and click “Open account”.
On the first page, you must enter your email, user name, and password for the account. Make sure to choose a good password and user name.
I would recommend making your password at least 20 characters long. A long password is essential to secure your online accounts! Make sure to remember it correctly as well!
You also need to enter your country of residence. If your country of legal residence differs, you must also enter it. You can then confirm the first page.
At this point, they will email you to confirm your email address. Just check your mail and choose to continue the application.
Personal information
On the second page, you will have to set your account type. I put it to Individual for this example. You can check the kinds of accounts to ensure you choose the one according to your needs. But most people will want either an Individual or a Joint account.
Then, you will have to enter the general kind of personal information. Nothing is special here, only what you are used to entering on each website. You will have to set your addresses as well.
Since this will be related to your taxes, it is essential to enter them correctly. You will also need to enter a valid phone number. IB will use this phone number authentication, so once again, enter it correctly.
IB has several types of accounts. You will need to select the type you want. The primary type of account is a Cash account, which is the type you probably need. A cash account means you must have the money before each trade.
There are also Margin accounts (IB has some good information about margin accounts). Margin means you can use leverage for investing with money you do not have. Unless you know what you are doing, I recommend a Cash account.
Another thing you need to configure when you create an IB account is the base currency. Since I make most of my payments in Swiss Francs (CHF) and live in Switzerland, I chose CHF as my base currency.
You can always convert money from your base currency to any other currency. The base currency only matters for the interface’s display. If you select CHF, you can still transfer USD and buy shares in EUR, for instance.
Currently, the CHF balance has a positive interest rate. If it becomes negative again, you will see a warning about the negative interest rate on CHF balances. You can get the current negative interest rate and limit here.
Now, you will also have to set up three security questions. You will need these questions if you ever need to recover your account. Make sure you select questions from which the answer is not ambiguous (but challenging to find)! This procedure is, once again, a standard procedure.
Investment Questions
After this, you need to answer questions about your finances.
You need to tell how much your net worth is and how much income you have. You also must say what your objectives are for your investments. For instance, you may want to invest for capital appreciation or fixed income. All this information is here for regulatory reasons.
You also have to set which instruments you want to invest in. For instance, if you intend to invest in stocks and bonds, you must select these options. I only selected stocks. Stocks, bonds, options, and futures are among many other choices. You must also select which country (stock market exchange) you would like to invest in.
For each of the instrument you intend to trade in, IB will ask you how much experience you have with it. I would not recommend lying, but I would recommend overestimating your experience. The reason is that if you put zero experience, you will likely not be allowed to trade. So, add a few more trades per year and a few more years of experience if necessary.
In some cases, these questions will be followed by a short investment test for some instruments. You can do it multiple time, so do not be stressed out, this is normal. If you do not know, do not hesitate to use the internet to pass it (or even ChatGPT).
You also need to confirm your phone number with a code.
Confirmations
At this point, you must agree to all the rules IB has for trading. Ideally, you may want to read them. But you probably will not!
If you want, you can also join the Stock Yield Enhancement Program. This program will allow IB to lend your shares to other people. With that, you will receive half of the profits.
Of course, there is a slight risk to that, and you may also be unable to sell your shares when you want or need to. I am not using that feature now. But I have tested this feature recently, and it works well.
At this point, Interactive Brokers will want proof of your identification. For this, you can upload a driving license, an ID card, a passport, or an alien ID card for IB to confirm your identity. You will also have to enter information about your tax status on the same page.
You will also have to fill in information about your employer and job. Usually, you also need to submit something as proof of address.
Fund your IBKR account
IB will fully activate your account once they receive funding.
You need to deposit the first amount for IB to validate your account. First, you have to declare how much money you will deposit. Then, IB will give you all the information necessary for the payment.
Make sure you correctly copy the IBAN. With banking transactions, you should always double-check all banking information before transferring. The transfer will be free since they have a bank account in Switzerland!
And do not forget to include the line indicated by IB with your account number in it. Otherwise, the money will not go directly to your account, and you must contact them to resolve the issue. You must do that for all future deposits to your Interactive Brokers account.
Finalize your account
After you have funded your account, you can still do a few more things.
First, you can configure the market data. You should set your market data status to non-professional. And you should check that you are not buying any market data. Unless you plan to day trade, you do not need this data. You do not want to pay for it.
One great thing is that you have to use two-factor authentication (2FA). You have no choice. You must configure your mobile phone to use it as 2FA.
2FA is an essential part of online security. First, you need to install IBKR Mobile on your phone. This application is available for Android and iOS.
Once you have installed the application, you can register it as a two-factor authentication for your account. You will have to log in with your username and password, and you need to enter the code you received by SMS.
Finally, you can then choose a PIN for your future two-factor authentication. Remember that PIN since you must use it for each connection to Interactive Brokers.
If you do not know about 2FA and why it is necessary, read my article about online personal finance and security.
Wait for your account
At this point, you only need to wait for IB to create and fund your account.
It should not take too long. It only took one day for my account to be created and funded. It is pretty fast. The next day, I could directly make my first trade.
Optimize your IBKR account
Now that you have access to your account, there are two more things to finalize in your account.
The first thing remaining at this point is configuring the Pricing System. I recommend you use the Tiered Pricing system. IB is cheaper than DEGIRO when you use the Tiered Pricing system.
You can make the change in your Account Settings. If you prefer the more predictable Fixed Pricing, you can also opt for it. There are some cases where fixed pricing is cheaper than tiered pricing.
Here are my settings just before I made the change to Tiered pricing:
The second thing applies if you are a Swiss investor and will invest in U.S. ETFs. In that case, you need to fill out the W-8BEN form. That is pretty simple. You can go into your Account Settings. There, you can click on Profile next to your name. Then, you must click the (i) blue button next to your name below Profiles. Then, you can click on “Update Tax Forms”.
They will then take you through the process, and you can fill out the W-8BEN tax form. This form will halve the dividend withholding from your American stocks and ETFs. This step is essential if you want to profit from the great tax efficiency of U.S. ETFs.
Some people have told me that it sometimes takes about one day for the account currency to be changed on the interface. You have to wait one day, and the issue should disappear. In the meantime, you may see some numbers in other currencies (likely GBP).
Another thing you can choose to do is to allow IB to lend your shares. By doing so, you will get 50% of the profits. This feature is called the Stock Yield Enhancement Program. However, there are some risks. I have tried it on and off over the last few years, but whether you think it is worth it is up to you.
Conclusion
The broker you need to buy stocks and ETFs reliably and at extremely affordable prices. Trade U.S. stocks for as little as 0.5 USD!
- Extremely affordable
- Wide range of investing instruments
The procedure is now complete! If you followed this guide, you now have an Interactive Brokers account.
With this great broker, we have access to U.S. Exchange Traded Funds such as VT, which makes the most significant part of my portfolio.
I have now been using IB for more than two years. And I am delighted with IB. Interactive Brokers is the best broker available to Swiss investors.
The next step is now to buy an ETF from Interactive Brokers. It is also relatively simple and only takes a little time.
What do you think about Interactive Brokers? Do you already have an account? If not, which broker are you using?
More reading
IBKR Desktop Review 2025
IBKR Desktop is the new desktop interface for trading with Interactive Brokers. I review the interface to see where it fits.
How To Buy an ETF on DEGIRO
Learn how to buy an ETF on DEGIRO, on the web application, and on the mobile application. This works for shares of any ETFs!
Saxo Bank Review 2025 – The Best Swiss Broker
Saxo has significantly reduced its fees, is it good now? This in-depth review covers this broker in detail to see whether we should use it.
Learn easy ways to optimize your finances and save thousands in Switzerland with our exclusive e-book. Learn about the most cost-effective financial services tailored for savvy residents and expats!
Get Your FREE Swiss Money-Saving Guide
I just opened an account and it wasn’t easy! I had to pass the trading knowledge exam, otherwise I would get an error saying that I need some experience at least in one of the products (in this case stocks). I cheated and used ChatGPT for the answers. But in the end I managed to open it, yay me! Maybe it’s a new requirement since you do not talk about this exam in the article. So just a headsup for other readers.
I am not sure this is new, but this is not the case every single time. I don’t know exactly when this is necessary. Well done for using ChatGPT to help. I will improve the article regarding this!
Hello Baptise,
Great article very helpful! Thank you for all these informations!
You have motivated me to create an IBKR which I started doing however as a cross-border worker (France-Geneva) I have been stuck on the part in which I need to fill in my residential address, IBKR is expecting a CH address while I live in France… any advice on how I should create an account as a cross-border worker?
Also, what would be the implication of ETF trading from a tax perspective?
Regards,
Mehdi
Hi Mehdi,
If you are not a Swiss resident, you should set the country to France. And you should probably use Interactive Brokers IE instead of US since you are not a Swiss resident.
As a cross-border worker, do you pay taxes in Switzerland or France?
As a cross-border worker in Geneva and living in France, my taxes are deducted at source by Geneva Canton. I still have the obligation to do a tax declaration in France but since my taxes are already deducted at source in Switzerland, I don’t pay anything in France. As long as my incomes come from a Geneva source I will be taxed in Geneva only.
I guess that you would then have to declare your investments in France and this may lead to capital gains tax. But this outside my expertise.
Hi Baptiste
I tried opening an IB account this week and I am stumped on the proof of address. I uploaded the official confirmation of address registration by the city office and they just don’t accept it, repeatedly even after manual check, claiming that the document contains no address. I don’t have anything like the letters they suggest addressed to me since I only recently moved. Also, I find other bank statements a bit much to ask for because my spending is none of their business and I don’t have the means to black out pdfs properly.
What document did you use?
Also, what’s with the fake test portfolio you already get under your login while your application is being checked? With a fictional 1M portfolio? That’s not confusing at all, since it doesn’t clearly show it’s not real until you read the fine print of “want to do this for real’ Open an account now”.
Hi
It was a long time ago, but I believe I used a bill. It’s weird that they are not accepting an actual residency confirmation.
Normally, you should not get a fictional portfolio. These are only if you requested paper trading account.
Hi Baptiste, thanks for useful article, would like to ask you 1. when filling in tax information while opening an account, what data should I prepare? Do I need something special from tax authorities or an accountant? Or is general personal information like AHV insurance number… sufficient? 2. is minimum deposit required for the IB account? Bests, Miro
Hi Miro,
1) You only need a few personal information like your AHV number and a identity card or passport, nothing more.
2) no, there is no minimum deposit. Keep in mind that if you buy Swiss ETFs, it will cost at least 4 CHF, which means it’s expensive for small operations (it gets much better for larger ones).
Thank you for your help Babtiste, looking forward to reading more of your articles. Cheers, Miro
Hello Baptiste,
First of all thank you very much for your work on this Blog, it is a life saver for some choices I had to make.
I have a couple of questions.
1. I have tried to set up the account of IB and somewhere along the way I was faced with a “test”, I realised the account was set per default to Margin, when I changed it to cash I was still getting the test so I do not really know where did I go wrong here.
2. As many of us here in the blog I am faced sometimes with a vocabulary that I don’t fully understand regarding trading and economics, I have done some research but it is not so easy and sometimes the explanation opens up more questions than the ones I started with, a real rabbit hole…
Is there a book/books, internet tool or online course you recommend to beginner to start learning the basics in economics that the average Joe needs to get started with confidence?
Thank you very much
Hi Alejandro
1) Interesting, it should be set to cash by default. If you do not pass the margin test, then you should simply not be able to use margin and you should be fine if you do not want it, right?
2) What economics are you talking about? Sometimes, you do not want to dig too deep because there is no end to it unless you want to become an expert.
Hi,
1)Somehow it didn’t work, but I haven’t tried again for I am travelling right now and it is not pressing.
2) To be honest belonging to a very different sector (healthcare) I have learnt near to nothing regarding basic economic principles but I am interested in building a mid-long term investment, preferably using ETFs or index funds so they start working passively and in time and maybe with some more literacy semi-passive. To be honest I am unsure about some basic things like if I have 20k saved to put to work plus the possibility to add about 500 per month should I do that or dived the 20k over a year and invest it gradually without adding an initial deposit? Swiss vs US ETFs or index funds? Tax implications for people with “Quellensteuer”? Etc, some info I can find myself but it is truly not structured and I don’t want to delve into complex matters without learning the basics.
Best regards
Hi Alenjandro
1) Let us know how it goes when you try again.
2) I get it indeed. Most of the questions you are asking have answers on my blog, but I know that many of my readers don’t find everything on the blog. And so far, I have not been able to solve that issue.
Hi,
I am Swiss and will work with my wife for the next few years (say between 5 ad 15 years) in the USA. Our long term plan is to come back to Switzerland. We want to open an IBKR account, and we are currently trying to decide whether to open it in the USA or in Switzerland. I am unable to find comparison charts online, could you help?
Best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Overall, I think it will little difference. The conditions are the same for Swiss citizens whether you use IB UK or IB US.
If coming back to Switzerland, I would personally use IB UK since it is closer, but again the conditions are the same.
Hello Baptiste
I’ll ask you this here because it might help others as well.
First, thank you! Your articles and consistently kind and informative answers are of great help to many.
I recently opened an IB account and created my portfolio. It’s not as simple as the one you recommended because I’m investing a lump sum upfront rather than monthly contributions.
Now, I’ve received an email from IB suggesting there are a few options for a couple of the ETFs I’ve invested in. They mention these alternatives have similar historical performance but lower costs. Here’s the message:
—
**IBKR FYI: Mutual Fund/ETF Advisory**
Dear Client,
We would like to inform you that there may be Exchange-Traded Funds (“ETFs”) available with similar historical performance and lower fees than the following mutual fund/ETF holdings in your accounts. You can find them by using IBKR’s Mutual Fund Replicator available under the Analytical Tools menu.
**Mutual Fund/ETF**
– IWM
– VNQ
To unsubscribe from this IBFYI, please click here or modify settings in TWS using the FYI button in Mosaic or in Client Portal via the FYI menu.
—
I’m now a bit uncertain about what I should do. Could you suggest or guide me on the best way to proceed?
Thanks, and best of luck to everyone. Navigating IB is quite challenging, and there’s so much to learn. Each term and option takes time to understand fully.
Thanks again,
Carla
Hi Carla
If you are happy about your portfolio, you probably do not have to bother about this email.
It is possible that they may suggest you a slightly cheaper portfolio but it generally ends up being more complicated.
The problem is that their tool is only available in Trading Workstation (TWS) which is way too complicated for many people. If you are already using TWS, then you should definitely check out the tool, but otherwise, this is unlikely to make a major difference unless your portfolio is poorly optimized.
Hi Baptiste, I’m a Swiss citizen living in Switzerland and with a IBKR account. I invested a little amount to test the account, ca. 1000.- in an ETF: QQQM, which is a Investco Nasdaq ETF denominated in USD and I assume issued in the US.
Am I somehow liable to pay US taxes or declare it in the US? Do I have to declare something to anyone else besides my Cantonal Tax Office (in my regular tax return)?
Thanks!
Hi James
You do not to declare anything to the US, but you must declare every asset to your Swiss taxes. Nothing else than your regular tax return :)
Hi Baptiste,
First I would like to thank you for your amazing articles.
I read your article about FinPension Invest, I already have my 3rd Pillar with them, and now it will be nice to do investment as well.
Then I read this article about IB and how I have the possibility to save some fees by investing ETFs by myself. I tried to open an account with them but it get rejected (most probably due to my nationality).
I’m planning to put couple hundreds monthly in ETFs, so I’m seeking your advise, is it better for me to invest with FinPension (as Robo Advisor), or doing it by myself? (I never traded ETFs by myself before) If it’s the latter, can you please recommend other broker than IB for someone lives in Switzerland?
Thank you!
Hi Amjad
I have an article scheduled for next month when I compare Robo-advisors and brokers :)
Finpension Invest can compare to most Swiss brokers up to large portfolios (100k+) and at a few hundred per month, it will even compare with IB (although it quickly falls short as the portfolio gets larger).
If you cannot use IB and do not plan on investing very large amounts, Finpension Invest should be an excellent choice.
Thanks for your advise, appreciate it. And I’m looking forward for the next article :)
Hi Baptiste,
I’ve opened an IBKR account, and set it to non-professional.
The platform tells me that I am automatically subscribed to complementary services.
Are these the ones I need to uncheck? These seem t be fee waived rather than a montly subscription
many thanks!
Hi Andrea
I do not know what they mean by complementary services. What you need to be careful about are market data subscriptions.
If the fees are waived, you are good. But be careful that the fees may not be waived for ever.
Hi Baptiste,
I have the same issue.
It seems like I cannot unsubscribe a series of “complementary services”. Every time I try, after validating the changes, they come back active as they were before.
All of them have waived fees. Do you know how I can get rid of them?
Other question, on the platform it’s written that you pay per “snapshot” something like 0.01 CHF for US stocks and 0.30 CHF for non-US stocks.
I couldn’t find what they mean for “snapshot”.
If I am doing my research and I click on a stock to check its chart, data and report, does it calculate it as a “snapshot” ?
Does each click on a stock page count as a “snapshot”?
It’s really not clear. I hope you can help me.
Thank you in advance.
Hi Marco,
What complementary services are you talking about? This may be part of a promotion and may only go away after that.
A snapshot means getting the realtime price of a stock. When you are viewing a stock, you can request a snapshot to get the realtime price instead of the delayed one.
Just reading the research pages on a stock does not count as snapshot.
Hi Baptiste,
The complementary services I cannot unsubscribe are the following :
For North America :
– PAXOS Cryptocurrency;
– US Mutual Funds (NP, L1);
– US Real-Time non consolidated Streaming Quotes (IBKR PRO)
For Europe :
– Alternative European Equities (L1)
For Global :
– IDEALPRO FX (IDEAL PRO);
– US and EU Bond Quotes (L1)
It doesn’t matter how much I try to unsubscribe.
After I confirmed my choices, they come back as active.
They are all “fee waived” subscriptions.
Do you have any idea why?
Interesting. I have no idea why, no. Be careful that you don’t want to get out of IDEALPRO for instance, because that’s the most efficient way of converting currencies for large amounts.
Does it really matter if these are free?