Deposit and withdrawal costs are part of the trading cost

[Shadow Trader]

A broker with a spread of 0.1 pips and a withdrawal fee of 30 dollars isn't automatically cheap. For a small account that withdraws monthly, the fee can outweigh a year of spread savings.

Fees hide in several places. Card deposits sometimes carry a percentage. Bank wires have fixed charges at both ends. Crypto transfers have network fees and conversion spreads. Some brokers waive the first withdrawal each month and charge afterwards.

Currency conversion is another quiet one. Depositing in one currency into an account denominated in another means a conversion at the broker's rate, which includes a markup. The same happens in reverse on withdrawal.

Speed matters as well. A withdrawal that takes five days ties up capital, and one that takes two weeks signals a problem.

A simple calculation: add up deposit fees, withdrawal fees and conversion costs over a year, divide by the number of trades, and add the result to the per-trade cost. For a small, active account, the figure is often a noticeable fraction of the spread.

Which payment method has proved the cheapest and fastest in both directions?