I’ve been trading with IG for about 8 months now and I keep going back and forth on whether their support is worth the hassle. On one hand, they respond pretty quickly most of the time. On the other hand, I’ve had a few instances where the answers felt generic or like they weren’t really solving my problem.
What’s been bugging me lately is trying to figure out if support quality should even be a major factor when I’m choosing a broker. I mean, if I’m getting decent rebates through GlobeGain and my overall trading costs are lower, does it matter if support takes an extra day to respond? Or does bad support actually cost me money in other ways—like missing trades while I’m waiting for help or not understanding platform features properly?
I’ve been tracking my real costs on IG (spread + commission minus rebates) and it looks solid compared to some alternatives. But I’m wondering if I should be weighing this differently. Should I look at IG’s support reputation compared to what other traders are actually experiencing? And how do you even measure whether support is “good” beyond just response time?
Has anyone else dealt with this tradeoff? Are you staying with a broker despite mediocre support because the costs work out, or do you jump ship if support isn’t reliable?
Support quality matters most when things actually break. A slow response on a technical issue—platform crash, withdrawal delay, account lockout—costs you money. You can’t trade, you can’t exit positions, you’re stuck.
The rebates help your bottom line, but they don’t help if you’re locked out of your account during volatile market movement. I’d rank it this way: execution quality first, then support quality, then rebates last.
IG’s support is middle of the road. They respond, but often with standard answers. If you’re scalping or trading news, find a broker with faster support and better technical infrastructure. If you’re swing trading and hold positions for days, IG’s support delays matter less. Your trading style should dictate which broker you use.
I switched from IG to another broker two years ago because of support. The rebates were good but I had a withdrawal issue that took 10 days to resolve when it should have taken 2.
Looked back and that cost me way more than any rebate would have covered, because I was stressed about my money and couldn’t focus on trading.
Now I use a broker with faster support even though the rebates aren’t quite as generous. The peace of mind is worth more to me than an extra 50 bucks a month in cashback. That said, IG has improved a bit. Check recent reviews from actual traders to see if things have changed since I left.
I think it depends on what kind of problems you run into. If you’re just asking general questions about the platform, IG’s support is fine. They usually get back to you in a few hours.
But if something goes wrong with your account or money, you want someone who can actually solve it fast. That’s where it gets risky with IG. The rebates are nice, but having good support gives you more confidence to trade bigger positions. For me, that confidence is actually worth paying a bit more in spreads if needed.
Support only matters when you need it. Test them first.
IG support is okay but not great. The rebates help with costs though. Depends if you’re patient or not.
Here’s a framework: calculate your cost per trade including rebates. Then add the cost of support delays. If support takes 5 extra hours to fix an issue and you miss a profitable setup, that’s real money lost. IG’s typical delay is 4-8 hours depending on the issue. That’s roughly worth maybe 10-20 bucks on a standard position if things go wrong. Your GlobeGain rebates probably earn you 5-15 per lot traded. So you’re breaking even at best. Only stick with IG if your main issues are simple and get solved fast.
I haven’t had major issues with IG so support hasn’t mattered much. Rebates are the real draw for me.
One thing I learned: test support before you commit real money. Open an account, ask them a technical question, see how long it takes. If it’s over 6 hours for a basic answer, that tells you something.
IG usually responds faster than that, but the quality of answers matters too. A fast wrong answer is worse than a slow right one. Read their FAQ and support articles first—if those don’t help, that’s when quality gets tested.
I track this stuff and honestly the rebates do add up over time. But last year I had to contact IG about a deposit issue and waiting around for support to respond stressed me out more than the rebate value could offset.
Maybe the real question is: do you trust IG enough that you’re confident support will actually be there if you need it? Because that confidence affects how you trade.