IB and lack of premium service

[Mike Williams]

Hello

I am used to Private Banking where I can send an email or make a call and have things fixed quickly

I have been testing IB for the last few months since I may need to leave the Private Banking I have due to residency changes and tax planning

I have found IB to be lacking on the support side. I need to use the chat and quite often it disconnects

I asked the chat guy today if they have more personalized services for HNW clients and he said no

Is that correct? Does anyone in this forum have a higher level of support directly with IB?

I have a hard time believing that unless they just want basic retail clients

thank you

 

[daniels27]

You mean Interactive Brokers aka IBKR or International Baccalaureate?

IBKR is a low-cost company for investing yourself. If you want service and are willing to pay for it, you can contact Swiss Banks and those from Liechtenstein.

(They also lack service, but at least they give you the feeling of getting service while waiting to be helped. Trust me, it makes a big difference if you are waiting in a nice hall drinking wine while not being helped vs. sitting in a shitty chair at home glaring in a dysfunctional chat over a bad internet connection. If you are waiting too long, you can always go to Hermès across the street and drink some more Champagner while looking at handbags they aren't selling.)
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Thread 'Are Swiss banks expensive or not?'​

Jan 3, 2025

nobel said:
dukascopy.bank sounds good. However, I see now, fees from assets 1.5% per year, is that serious? Then of course not acceptable.

Maintenance fee 1.5% per year (The maintenance fee (cumulative swap points) is charged monthly for the assets held in the previous month. The fee is calculated from the sum of the end-of-day balances of the investments' * (maintenance fee in % / 360). ja334¤¤#
Click to expand...

Just put some cash there and don't do any trading.

• daniels27
• Replies: 33
• Forum: Offshore Bank & EMI Accounts

Last edited: Jan 21, 2025

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Mike Williams said:
Hello

I am used to Private Banking where I can send an email or make a call and have things fixed quickly
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There should never be anything to be fixed. Especially if you are paying private banking fees.

Mike Williams said:
I have been testing IB for the last few months since I may need to leave the Private Banking I have due to residency changes and tax planning

I have found IB to be lacking on the support side.
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That's not my experience. Whenever I open a ticket it gets replied within 24h.

Mike Williams said:
I need to use the chat and quite often it disconnects
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Perhaps you have connections issues from your side?

Mike Williams said:
I asked the chat guy today if they have more personalized services for HNW clients and he said no
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You don't need any personalized services when you trade on financial markets. All you have to do is enter buy/sell orders, and all you need is a platform that allows you to do that efficiently.
Of course you need to know what you are doing, but this is a different story.

Mike Williams said:
Is that correct? Does anyone in this forum have a higher level of support directly with IB?
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I don't and I never hear anyone who does.

Mike Williams said:
I have a hard time believing that unless they just want basic retail clients
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There are big institutional clients moving hundreds of millions daily with IBKR.
I have been using it since year 2000, and in these 25 years I've never had any issue.

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@JohnnyDoe ”“ Your #1 Source for Guidance in Different Offshore Fields​

 

[Mike Williams]

thanks for the replies...just not used to using chat or submitting a ticket for support.
There are three types of Private Banking
1. Where you have a private banker who assists with wire transfers and anything else to do with banking. Just call or send an email and they do all for you
2. Private investment management services. Where they manage your investments depending on your objectives. Quarterly meetings to review
3. Private management services for self directed investors who manage their own investment trading accounts. You can call or email a dedicated individual or team - no need for online chat or tickets

I use all all three services

I was hoping IB was more like the third option I mention above but I will adapt. Likely also use SwissQuote not to put all my eggs in one basket

Thanks for your feedback

Last edited: Jan 20, 2025

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Mike Williams said:
thanks for the replies...just not used to using chat or submitting a ticket for support.
There are three types of Private Banking
1. Where you have a private banker who assists with wire transfers and anything else to do with banking. Just call or send an email and they do all for you
2. Private investment management services. Where they manage your investments depending on your objectives. Quarterly meetings to review
3. Private management services for self directed investors who manage their own investment trading accounts. You can call or email a dedicated individual or team - no need for online chat or tickets

I use all all three services
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They are the Swiss bank's way to justify their nonsensical high fees. Completely inefficient and outdated way of working today. Perhaps all this made sense in the ”˜90s or earlier.

Mike Williams said:
I was hoping IB was more like the third option I mention above but I will adapt. Likely also use SwissQuote not to put all my eggs in one basket
Click to expand...

The third option literally consists, in the best scenario, in instructing someone to do exactly the same things you can do yourself on IBKR TWS; or, more often, for that someone to call someone else to do that. It's time to take your own responsibility and manage your money by yourself.

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