IBKR, negative CHF Credit Interest?

So, today I have logged in to IBKR to do buy some ETFs which I do on a monthly basis and I have found that IBKR automatically liquidated one share of the ETF in which I invest:

This is to inform you that Interactive Brokers liquidated certain positions in your account XXXXXX because a negative cash position is not allowed in this specific account type. Such an account type becomes subject to liquidation upon going negative cash.

I have a cash account (no margin) in CHF. So, I went to see how come I ended up with negative amount and I saw that it was due to the fact that on that day when IBKR did automatic liquidation, they settled interest accruals from the previous months which ended up being negative. When I run cash statement, I see that the negative interest came from CHF Credit Interest (CHF Credit Interest for Nov-2021) which exceeded what I had in CHF on that day (I had less than a franc, though I also had several dollars in USD, but apparently since the account is in CHF the USD balance didn’t count).

What’s this CHF Credit interest and how come it can be negative? When I made CHF deposits to my IBKR account I have never exceeded 100k, so it shouldn’t be because I exceeded the 100k limit for CHF cash.

What does IB’s customer service say about your questions?

IBKR does charge you from 50K upwards.
Another possible source could be from FX-exchange. If you buy shares before the exchange is settled (2days) you pay interest for this time (dont know if you can even buy shares before settlement on a cash account).

But why? You don’t have to go negative if you have a margin account, but it helps to avoid exactly this type of situations. Settlement times are an inheritance of floor trading days and can be a headache sometimes.

But why? You don’t have to go negative if you have a margin account, but it helps to avoid exactly this type of situations. Settlement times are an inheritance of floor trading days and can be a headache sometimes.

When I was opening my IBKR account I didn’t have much experience so I just followed the guides from MustachianPost and ThePoorSwiss. Both of the guides recommended cash accounts. Plus, I didn’t want to get charged with interest when the cash goes negative. But I might rethink about switching to margin, since I don’t want to have those surprise automatic liquidations.

Another possible source could be from FX-exchange. If you buy shares before the exchange is settled (2days) you pay interest for this time (dont know if you can even buy shares before settlement on a cash account).

I suspected that it was due to FX-exchange settlement. But when I do currency conversion I can buy shares immediately after the conversion and from what I understood based on the guide from MustachianPost, if I can buy shares with the converted currency, then the settlement has happened. Plus in the IBKR portal it says that the settled cash amounts to the total cash I have in the portfolio immediately after I do the FX conversion.

Probably the assumption that if I can buy shares with the converted currency, then the settlement has happened, was wrong and I got charged the interest rates. The next time I will wait 2 business days after the conversion to see if I get charged those interest rates again to test this assumption.

Is there a way to get the information about actual settlement of FX conversion in the IBKR portal?

In the Activity statement there is a “Cash report”, where you can see how much cash is settled for each currency (Ending Settled Cash).

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