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Bank Transfers

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Brokers that accept bank transfers for deposits and withdrawals — the slowest funding method, and the one every broker supports.

Brokers supporting Bank Transfers

A bank transfer moves money directly between your own bank account and the broker's segregated client account. It is the one method essentially every broker accepts, the one that handles large amounts without a per-transaction ceiling, and the slowest of the group.

How long it actually takes

Speed depends on the rail, not on the broker. A euro payment inside SEPA usually credits the same or the next business day. A SWIFT payment crossing currencies or continents takes one to five business days, because it passes through one or two correspondent banks that each process it in their own business hours. Cut-off times matter: a transfer sent on Friday afternoon often starts moving on Monday.

Where the fee sits

  • Your bank charges a sending fee, and for a currency conversion applies its own retail rate rather than the interbank one. That spread is usually larger than the explicit fee.
  • Correspondent banks deduct their charge from the payment itself, which is why the broker credits less than you sent. The SWIFT charge code decides this: OUR means you pay all of it up front and the full amount arrives, SHA (the common default) means those intermediate deductions land on you as a shortfall.
  • The broker often charges nothing and refunds the incoming fee above a deposit threshold, but it will pass on the outgoing wire fee on withdrawals.

The rules that hold up withdrawals

Money leaves in the direction it came from. If you deposited by card, the broker returns your capital to that card first and only sends the remainder by transfer. And the receiving account must be in the same name as the trading account — anti-money-laundering rules make a broker reject a payment to a spouse, a company or a friend, and a third-party incoming payment is usually returned rather than credited, which costs another few days and another fee.

When it is the right choice

Use a transfer for the first large deposit and for taking substantial profits out: there is no card ceiling, no wallet limit, and the paper trail satisfies both your bank and the broker. For topping up a live position, a card or wallet is the sane option — by the time a wire clears, the setup is gone.