Should I close my other broker accounts?

Question

I am new to investing.

A few months ago, I applied for an Interactive Brokers account because a review site said it had low fees. It was taking a long time for me to transfer the funds to the account because I was looking at the cheapest way to make the transfer and also finding out what methods the broker would support, what I need to do to ensure that the transfer is made safely, etc.

The delay in making the transfer turned out to be beneficial to me in another way. I realized that Interactive Brokers is cheaper only for those who are day-trading or making frequent trades, whereas I plan (or at least I intend to) to buy and hold.

I applied to many brokers, but was declined, as they don't accept clients residing in the U.A.E.

I then found two other brokers that are available to residents of the U.A.E.: Sogotrade and TradeStation. I applied for both, not knowing which one would accept.

Now, I have 3 brokers who have accepted my application, but I've only funded TradeStation. I did not fund the other two.

Should I inform the other brokers that I wish to close the accounts? Or, should I keep them open in case I want to move my funds to them later, avoiding having to go through the approval process again?

(I thought of writing to them, but I imagine they might understandably get ticked off that I wasted their time)

Answer 1

If you have not funded the other accounts, I would leave them open and dormant because you might change your mind at a later date and you'll avoid the time consuming process of having to open them again. This assumes that there are no inactivity fees.

I think that it's also a good idea to have a second account open and available for quick funding. This is more important for a trader with open orders and open positions because he is less likely to be tolerant of a broker's server going down for a period of time. For a buy and holder, this would most likely be irrelevant.