IB Overcharging on Exchange Fees

F

FroggerMan

About 3 months ago I became a CME member under Rule 106.R Electronic Corporate Member - Volume Incentive Program. This entitles me to Rule 106.R Electronic Corporate Member - Holding Member rates during ETH. IB refused to pass the holding member rate discount onto me stating they were unable to differentiate between the two and would just charge me the higher rates. I only use them as a secondary clearing firm so I didn’t make a huge deal about it.

After becoming a member on the NYMEX today I got an E-Mail stating I will receive a rate of $0.70 per contract not the $0.45 that you receive for day trades. While IB has not gotten back to me yet about the NYMEX issue I suspect they will tell me the same thing as they told me prior.

I figured this was against exchange policy so I gave CME a call and they told me that this was not aloud and IB should be making an adjustment every month for the difference. The woman I spoke to will be escalating this issue to her boss and I suspect IB will have to change their policy and not steal from their customers because just charging the correct rates is a little inconvenient for them.
Anyone who has any memberships on the CME, CBOT, or NYMEX I encourage you to check the CME fee schedule to make sure that you are not being overcharged and if so report IB (or whatever firm you clear with) to the CME.

And any IB staff who monitor these forums, I encourage you to try to defend your company’s actions.
 
Thanks Froggerman,

I will check again the fees IB is charging me. When I first became part of the European Incentive Program, I calculated their fees made sense but I haven't checked in a long time. Like you, IB is not my main broker.

ETH means Extended Trading Hours? I didn't know some membership fees were applied depending on the hours.
 
Here are the fee schedules for anyone who is interested:

CME -http://www.cmegroup.com/company/files/CME_Fee_Schedule.pdf

CBOT - http://www.cmegroup.com/company/files/CBOT_Fee_Schedules.pdf

NYMEX - http://www.cmegroup.com/company/files/NYMEX-Fee-Schedule.xls

I would go through them carefully and read all the notes. For me even though IB is not my primary firm, the difference in fees per year is $1,000+ on the CME and $5,000 on the NYMEX if they in fact do provide me with the correct rates. $0.15 - $0.35 can add up fast.
 
I wish I had your problems actually, I'd be a big playa' instead of working on my writing skills via ET..

I recall a thread once.. a guy was raising a huge fuss over something with IB.. started a thread.. eventually IB just closed his account and sent him his money!!! They just seem to treat some developments as outliers with no immediate solution so they terminate them. I'm not saying anything but I'm just sayin' :)

Thanks for the heads up though.. IB seems to get a lot of reportage about how flaky they are in some regards. It seems strange. I've worked in manufacturing and software quality and can't fathom why an organization would keep going forward with so many unresolved issues in the quality arena. Perhaps they are in a death-grip of fear due to having to fight hackers and fraud and all? Banks seem to be like that. Were I the chief warlord at IB I'd have a quality improvement program that wouldn't quit, similar to Japanese car manufacturers..
 
It's understandable that IB may have such problems with non standard fee schedule. They are a huge broker and everything has to be computerized.

However, even if they don't want to apply a different fee schedule depending on the trading hours, they must be able to refund the excess fees at the end of the month for sure.
 
Quote from TraDaToR:

It's understandable that IB may have such problems with non standard fee schedule. They are a huge broker and everything has to be computerized.

However, even if they don't want to apply a different fee schedule depending on the trading hours, they must be able to refund the excess fees at the end of the month for sure.
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That's pretty much what they told me when I called the CME. My primary firm charges me at the lower rate because 95% of my trades are done during the ETH and then once a month my account gets billed for the difference. I wouldn't mind if IB charged the higher rate and refunded monthly.
 
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