That 5% rate only applies if you fully utilize the margin for the entire year. If you do not, and do not drop out of the gold tier when not using the margin, y

That 5% rate only applies if you fully utilize the margin for the entire year. If you do not, and do not drop out of the gold tier when not using the margin, your effective rate sky rockets. As to IB, again my point was there is a trade off between paying nothing for commissions and overpaying for margin vs paying a low commission and getting a market margin rate that only kicks in when in use.