Charges for running Forex accounts

It is an increasingly common practice among brokers to introduce a fee for maintaining a Forex account. Of course, we are talking about a fee in the event of inactivity. Is this a new way to satisfy brokers' greed, or is it something else? We will try to explain it to you.

Not every broker has a fee for inactivity, however, it is worth asking about this service or carefully read the offer on its website.

Examples of brokers who have such fees in their price lists are Dukascopy Europe or CMC Markets.

Settlement of bills

Let's assume that the broker has 1000 clients, where on average every second has two accounts with him. This gives us a total of 1500 accounts. It is natural that a trader changes his broker, withdrawing funds or usually leaving some "leftovers" on him as a result of, for example, a Stop-Out (and margin Call). There are also traders who take a break from trading every now and then without making any withdrawals. For us, traders, this is a great convenience, because we usually do not plan a specific date to return to trading. Let's be honest - a payment order of 50 groszy is more than worthwhile for us and we usually just prefer to "forget" about them.

READ NECESSARY: Forex Account Fees. List of brokers 2020

Now let's look at it from a second perspective - from the broker point of view. Each active account must be regularly settled by the accounting department on a monthly, quarterly and / or annual basis. Imagine that 1500/1 of 3 accounts will be inactive after some time. The trader is just leaving a few pennies or has no plans to use them in the near future. These are accounts that are deficit for the broker, because nothing is happening on them and they need to be serviced (which we have no idea about).

The problem is but not ours

So what can a broker do? It may encourage us to pay, but ... The problem with our time and willingness to pay out, for example, the aforementioned 50 groszy, returns. We can say "if you want, take them". But it is not that simple - there must be an appropriate provision for this in the broker's regulations. After all, the funds are officially ours all the time, and for such a small amount we cannot conclude any transaction to clear the account and to broker he collected a commission on the order, which is allowed by the regulations. So what is the way out of this situation?

Fee for inactivity

This is the most effective option and, although it may discourage a trader from opening an account, for fear of charging additional fees, the conditions are usually very fair. You just have to remember about them. Generally speaking, inactivity is defined as a situation in which no transactions are made on the account or there is no "overdue" position on the account. Logging in to the account does not make the account "active" in the opinion of the broker. The time after which an account qualifies as inactive is usually at least 3 months without concluding any transaction. Fees range from $ 20 to $ 50 for a single period, and are billed monthly or quarterly. Thanks to this, you can quickly "eliminate"Accounts with a balance of several USD.

In the case of a zero balance, the broker does not charge fees and does not result in a debit. The account is immediately deactivated.

How to avoid the account maintenance fee?

There are three ways:

1. close account if you do not plan to use it,
2. pay all funds,
3. conclude any transaction at any time and close it immediately.

The first solution is the best when we definitely plan to end our adventure with the broker. Closing an account usually involves sending an appropriate e-mail order or sending a form. There must be no funds on the account for the account to be closed.

The second scenario is best for people who keep money in their brokerage account but don't plan to return to trading in an undefined perspective. They don't log into the trading platform regularly. This can lead to a situation where, after some time, we log into the account and we wonder what happened to part of our deposit. If you do not know when you want to return to trading and you do not want to have another thing on your mind - order a payment. You can only deposit again.

The last solution is the most convenient for traders waiting for their "5 minutes", that is, looking for the appropriate signal on the market or trading occasionally as they remember. This means that they regularly visit the platform - in this situation, it is best to conclude a transaction with a value of even one micro-lot (1000 units) from time to time. EUR / USD, which should not cost us more than 60 cents.