Transparency is disclosure, not generosity
The obvious way to build this ranking would be to sort brokers by how few fees they charge. That would be a cheapness ranking wearing a different name, and it would reward exactly the wrong behaviour — a broker that charges nothing visible and makes its margin on a conversion rate you never see is not transparent, it is opaque and inexpensive.
So the criterion here is completeness. eToro appears in this table while charging a fixed withdrawal fee and a minimum withdrawal amount; XTB appears while charging on withdrawals below a threshold; Saxo Bank appears while charging custody fees on some instruments in some jurisdictions. All three publish those charges in figures. A broker that says nothing about withdrawals at all is not cheaper — it is unknown, and it does not rank.
The four charges worth finding before you deposit
- Inactivity fee: the amount, and how many months of dormancy triggers it.
- Currency conversion: the margin applied when your bank currency differs from the account currency.
- Withdrawal minimum: the figure below which money cannot economically leave.
- Overnight funding: how the swap is calculated, and whether the broker's markup is stated.
Why deposit bonuses disqualify a broker here
A deposit bonus is credited with a volume requirement attached: trade a stated number of lots before anything — often including your own original deposit — becomes withdrawable. The requirement is usually large enough that meeting it costs more in spread and commission than the bonus is worth, and the terms are written so that early withdrawal forfeits the bonus and sometimes the profit made with it.
That is a fee structure whose real cost depends on conditions in a separate document. A broker can run one and still be a decent firm — several in our other rankings do — but it cannot simultaneously be an example of published, complete pricing. The exclusion is a definition, not an accusation.
'No slippage' is not a fee policy, it is a claim nobody can honour
No broker controls the price at which a liquidity provider fills an order during a fast market. A firm advertising no slippage has told you what its marketing is willing to say, which is the most useful thing you will learn about its published figures. Brokers making that claim are excluded from this ranking.
The charges that cost small accounts the most
On an account under a few thousand dollars, non-trading fees usually exceed trading costs. An inactivity charge of ten to twenty dollars a month, triggered after three months of dormancy, will empty a small residual balance within a year and is levied precisely when the client is least likely to be reading their statements. Currency conversion takes a margin on the way in and again on the way out, which on a euro-funded dollar account can be one to two percent of the round trip before a single trade.
Withdrawal minimums are the quietest of the three. A $50 minimum against a $30 residual balance means the money is not retrievable, and the inactivity charge will eventually take it. None of this is fraudulent, all of it is in the terms, and almost none of it appears in the spread comparison that decided the broker choice.
Common questions about broker fees
Where do I find a broker's full fee list?
In the account agreement and the separate fees or charges schedule, not on the marketing pages. If the schedule cannot be found without opening an account, that is itself the answer.
Is a broker with no commission cheaper?
Not necessarily. Zero commission means the cost is in the spread, where it is harder to compare. Convert both models to a cost per round-turn lot before deciding.
Can a broker change its fees?
Yes, with notice as set out in the agreement — usually thirty days. Fee changes are the most common reason a good broker quietly becomes an expensive one, and almost nobody re-reads the notification.
How do I avoid an inactivity fee?
Withdraw the balance if you have stopped trading, rather than leaving a small amount behind. Logging in is rarely sufficient — most policies require trading activity, not access.