Best Swap Free Forex Brokers (Islamic Accounts)

There are some brokers offering swap-free or Islamic forex accounts. It means the accounts must not be charged with an interest rate or swap but do all of them have real Islamic accounts, are all the accounts really swap-free, and what brokers offer the best Islamic forex accounts?

Although swaps aren’t charged in the swap free accounts, you still have to pay a maintenance or administration fee ,either from the day 1 or after a number of days, to keep your trader open overnight. The questions is which forex brokers offers the swap free accounts with the best conditions.

I examined more than 100 brokers in order to find the best Islamic Forex accounts with the best swap free accounts.

I also went through the websites of the selected brokers and asked them one by one about some differences or any other limitation or extra fees that their Islamic accounts may have, compare to their other types of accounts.

I’ll explain about them on this post and you can see a concise form of them in the table at the bottom of this post but before that let’s introduced the best islamic or swap free brokers.

Forex Brokers with the Best Islamic /Swap-free Accounts

Here’s a list of Forex brokers with the best conditions for Islamic accounts:

• StarTrader
• HYCM
• IFCMarkets
• Moneta Markets
• FXPro
• XChief
• IC Markets
• NordFX

What Is An Islamic Forex Account?

An Islamic forex account is a type of account that is free from swap or overnight interest rates.

According to sharia law, Muslims are banned from paying or receiving any interests or as it’s called in sharia, riba which is considered haram in Islamic law.

It’s a controversial issue because some Muslims consider excessive interest rates as riba while others see any interests, even nominal ones, as riba.

Leaving aside different interpretations, Islamic accounts offered by forex brokers are normally without any interest rates, however, some of them have some kinds of overnight fees. We’ll talk about that in detail in the next section.

What Are the Differences Between Swap and Swap Free Accounts?

In a nutshell, Swap is an interest rate that you either pay or receive if you keep a position more than one day.

As you can see, sometimes you pay a swap (negative swap), and other times you actually receive one (positive swap).

For instance, if you buy one lot of EUR/USD and keep your position open overnight, you might receive $4, $5, or another amount depending on your broker’s swap structure. In this case, the swap works in your favor, giving you a small benefit.

Conversely, if you sell one lot of EUR/USD and hold it for more than a day, you’ll need to pay a fee as a negative swap.

Swap rates can change daily, so the amount isn’t always the same. For more information about the types of swap and how it’s calculated, you can check out a post that I wrote about that here.

On the contrary, in swap-free accounts there is no fee, neither paid nor received, as swap; however, some brokers play with that and charge a fee with a different name such as commission or administration fee, and etc.

Types of Swap Free or Islamic Forex Accounts

In my study, I came across three main types of swap free accounts:

Accounts with an Overnight Fee

Although this type of account isn’t charged with a fee as swap it has a fixed overnight fee. Sometimes it’s called commission and in some cases a fixed or administration fee.

In some cases, the fee is not even fixed and is the same as swap. They just change the name from swap or interest rare to overnight or administration fee.

I asked one of the brokers that has such a fee and they told me there’s no difference. Since interest rate is forbidden in Islamic law or more specifically in sharia law, they just change the name to commission!

Aside from the name, method, or structure, a fee is involved in the positions kept open for more than one day.

Anyway, I didn’t put forex brokers with such Islamic accounts in my list and cross them all out.

Accounts with Grace Period

There is another version of Islamic forex accounts that is really swap free but this free swap is bound by a time period AKA grace period.

In this type, the swap is free for a few days and after that, an administration fee is charged.

For example, if you open a position and hold it for 5 days, you don’t pay any fees but you have to pay that if your position is still open on the sixth day.

The limitation is different from broker to broker; it can be 2 days, 5 days, 10 days, and so on.

In some brokers it’s different from pair to pair, for example, the swap is free on EURUSD for 2 days and it’s free on GBPJPY for 7 days.

It’s a good option for the swing traders (Muslim ones of course) that their positions last for a few days.

Position traders who keep trades open for a long time—say, 20 days—can benefit as well. In a standard swap account, you might pay $9 every day, whereas in an Islamic account with a 10-day grace period, you’d only start paying around $9 per day from day 10 onward.

Although most forex brokers provide Islamic accounts to their Muslim clients, some of them offer swap free accounts to all clients so non-Muslim traders can take advantage of this opportunity if they are position or swing traders.

Probable Limitation on Swap Free Accounts

As we’ve seen so far, swap free or Islamic accounts have grace period and a fee is allocated to them after a few days.

Another limitation that you may see in some brokers’ Islamic accounts is a limit on the type of accounts.

In general, forex brokers have different types of accounts including fixed spreads, floating spreads, and ecn or zero spreads.

Normally you choose one type of a broker’s account and then change the status to swap free or Islamic version.

Some brokers allow you to convert any of their account types into an Islamic Forex account, while others offer swap-free accounts only for specific types—for example, standard floating spread accounts—excluding others such as ECN accounts, as noted in the table below.

Some brokers’ Islamic accounts have also different conditions. They try to make up for free swap with charging a bit wider spreads.

As I said early on, all the brokers that I picked claim that they don’t charge any extra fees and the conditions are the same as their other types of accounts however in reality you have to pay higher spreads and commission.

The next difference that forex Islamic accounts may have compared to non-Islamic ones is the number of instruments or trading products.

Since swap fees are high for instruments like cryptocurrencies or exotic Forex pairs, some brokers exclude them from their Islamic accounts. You can still trade these instruments if you use a regular, non-Islamic account.

Can Non – Muslims Use Swap-Free Forex Accounts?

Yes, non-Muslims can use swap-free accounts in some forex brokers. Although swap-free accounts are for Muslim traders, there are some forex brokers offering this type of account to non-muslim traders as well.

Some brokers don’t have any extra conditions for providing swap-free accounts to non-Muslim traders but some of them do.

For example, you don’t need to be a Muslim to use their swap-free accounts but you need to live in a Muslim country in order to be eligible for this kind of account.

Other brokers have a minimum deposit condition for non-Muslims so if you deposit less than that, you can’t use swap-free accounts.

You can see all the relevant information about that on the non-Muslim section of the table at the bottom of this article.

Swap-Free Accounts and Swap Arbitrage

One strategy that some traders use is swap arbitrage. Swap rates differ between brokers—some may charge more for negative swaps while paying more for positive swaps compared to others. If you can find a positive difference between the swap rates of two brokers, you can potentially profit from it.

Some traders take this a step further by using a swap-free account at one broker and a regular swap account at another. The idea is to take advantage of the highest positive swap on a particular pair while hedging the position. For example, if Broker A offers a positive swap on a long EUR/USD position, you could buy EUR/USD there, and then sell the same pair on a swap-free account at Broker B to hedge your trade.

This approach allows you to collect swap fees from one broker while paying nothing on the swap-free account. Because your positions are hedged, market price fluctuations don’t affect your trading budget.

However, brokers generally disapprove of this strategy, and many explicitly forbid it. If a broker detects such activity, they may close your swap-free account. Always make sure the brokers you use allow such strategies before attempting them.

For more information on swap arbitrage, you may want to check out [this post].

How to Choose the Best Islamic Forex Account

As we’ve seen so far, there are some specific factors that can distinguish a good Islamic forex account from a bad one.

Let’s summarize them one more time.

Free swap is the fundamental distinction between an Islamic account and a non-Islamic one so you should make sure there is no fee is paid or received whether it’s called commission, overnight, or administration fee from day one.

If you are a day trader or scalper and your trades don’t roll to the next day, you don’t need a swap free or Islamic account — it’s already Islamic 🙂

Islamic accounts offered by brokers come with a day limit, or grace period, so it’s important to ensure that this period is longer than the typical duration of your open positions.

There are no restrictions on major and minor Forex pairs, metals, or indices in Islamic accounts. However, if you trade cryptocurrencies or exotic pairs, choose a broker that offers a swap-free option with no limitations on those instruments.

In the following table, you can find all the explained features.

Broker	Grace Period	Non-Muslims	Instrument	General Info	Regulation	Account Type	Platform	Payment Option	Banned Country
Visit Website	14 days	Yes	FX pairs, Shares, Metals, Indices, Commodities, ETFs, Energies	Min Deposit: $100 Max Leverage:1:1000 Min Lot Size: 0.01	FCA, ASIC FSCA, FSA, FSC SCA	Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile	Visa, Mastercard, Bank Wire Transfer, Stickpay, PM, Wise, Crypto	the US, Canada, Sudan, Syria, North Korea,Cuba, Eritrea, Iraq,
Visit Website	14 days	If you Deposit $2500 and more, Yes	FX pairs, Stocks, Metals, Indices, Commodities, Futures, Cryptocurrencies	Min Deposit: $1 Max Leverage:1:400 Min Lot Size: 0.01	CySEC, BVI FSC	Fixed Spread: YES Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile NetTradeX	Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Bitcoin, bitwallet, CASHU, Neteller, Pasargad Novin, Skrill, TopChange, Unistream, WebMoney, Western Union	the US, Japan, Russia
Visit Website	14 days	No	Forex, Metals, oil, commodities, indices Exception: Stocks	Min Deposit: $100 Max Leverage:1:200 Min Lot Size: 0.01	FCA, CySEC, DFSA, CIMA	Fixed Spread: YES Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile	Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Neteller, Skrill, Webmoney	Afghanistan, Belgium, Botswana, Cambodia, Saskatchewan), France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Iceland, Iraq, Japan, North Korea, Panama, Sudan, Syria, The Bahamas, Trinidad &Tobago, Turkey, USA,
Visit Website	10 days	If living in a Muslim country	Forex, Metals, oil, commodities, indices, shares, ETF, crypto Exception: Forex exotic	Min Deposit: $50 Max Leverage:1:1000 Min Lot Size: 0.01	FCA, FSCA, SCA	Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile Pro Trader	Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, FasaPay, Sticpay, JCB Card, Cryptocurrency	U.S, Canada, Cyprus, France, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Italy
Visit Website	8 Days No Limit on: Indices, Futures, Shares	No	FX Pairs, Commodities, Indices, Stocks, Crypto, Futures Exception: Forex exotic	Min Deposit: No Max Leverage:1:3000 Min Lot Size: 0.01	FCA, CySEC, FSCA, SCB, FSA	Fixed Spread: Yes Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4 for Desktop, Web, Mobile cTrader FXPro platform	Bank Wire Transfer, Credit/Debit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, Maestro), PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, Crypto	the US
Visit Website	7 Days	No	FX Pairs, Commodities, Indices, Stocks, Crypto Exception: only major and minor fx pairs are eligible	Min Deposit: No Max Leverage:1:1000 Min Lot Size: 0.01	MISA	Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4 for Desktop, Web, Mobile	Bank Wire, Debit and Credit Cards, BPAY, Neteller, Advanced Cash, Web Money, Perfect Money, Crypto	the US
Visit Website	7 days	No	FX Pairs, Metals, Crypto, Indices, Oil Exception: Commission is higher on cryptocurrencies	Min Deposit: $10 Max Leverage:1:1000 Min Lot Size: 0.01	VFSC, CySEC	Fixed Spread: YES Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4 for Desktop, Mobile	Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Neteller, Ngan Luong, PayToday, PerfectMoney, Qiwi, Skrill, Yandex Money, Dragonpay	the US, South Africa
Visit Website	charge fee from day1	No	FX pairs, Shares, Futures, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies Exception: Forex exotic	Min Deposit: $200 Max Leverage:1:500 Min Lot Size: 0.01	ASIC	Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES	MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile cTrader	Credit and debit cards, Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Union Pay, Wire transfer, Bpay, Fastpay, Broker to Broker, Poli, Thai Internet Banking, Rapidpay, Klarna, Bitcoin wallet, Vietnamese Internet Banking	the US, Canada, Israel, North Korea, Iran