CMC Invest Review: Fees, the A$1,000 Cliff and Who It Suits

This review runs on published fees read at source on 19 September 2026, our own order-cost engine, and one exchange rate applied to every competitor. It ends in arithmetic, not a recommendation.

The short version

• ASX brokerage under A$1,000: A$0, on three published conditions. The buy must be under A$1,000, it applies once per security per day, and it excludes trades settled on a margin loan.
• ASX brokerage at A$1,000 and above: the greater of A$11.00 or 0.10%. A A$1,000 order costs A$11.00. A A$20,000 order costs A$20.00.
• International brokerage: A$0 on US, UK, Canadian and Japanese shares. Conversion is 0.60%, so a A$500 US order costs A$3.00 and a A$20,000 US order costs A$120.00.
• Everything else: other European and Asian markets are A$59.00 or 0.59%. mFunds are A$29.95 or 0.11%, whichever is greater. No account fee is published.
• Ownership: ASX holdings are CHESS sponsored under your own HIN. International holdings sit under a custody arrangement with BNP Paribas SA, which is a different structure.
• Ten years at A$1,000 a month: A$1,320 buying ASX only, A$1,020 split half and half, A$720 buying US only. At A$999 a month, the ASX-only decade costs A$0.

What it actually costs

The pricing page publishes two schedules. The standard one charges A$0 on ASX buys under A$1,000, then the greater of A$11.00 or 0.10% above that. A second schedule, ALPHA, is published at A$9.90 or 0.075%. The same page lists A$0 brokerage on US, UK, Canadian and Japanese shares, 0.60% conversion on international trades, A$59.00 or 0.59% for other European and Asian markets, and A$29.95 or 0.11% on mFunds, whichever is greater. The tables below model the standard schedule.

The page publishes no account fee. We could not confirm a minimum investment, fractional shares or auto invest at source either, so treat those as unverified rather than absent.

Order size, all in

Two lines move here. The ASX column jumps at A$1,000 and then sits still until the 0.10% overtakes the A$11 minimum, which happens at A$11,000. The US column climbs in a straight line, because a percentage charge does that, and it is the whole bill since brokerage is zero.

Ten years, A$1,000 a month

The ASX-only figure is 120 orders at A$11.00. Split it half and half and 60 orders pay A$11.00 while 60 pay the A$6.00 conversion on a A$1,000 US order. Go US only and all 120 pay A$6.00. Drop the monthly amount by one dollar, to A$999, and the ASX-only decade costs A$0. That row deserves its own section.

The A$1,000 cliff, in detail

One dollar a month separates a free decade from a A$1,320 decade, and no part of that is a trick. It is simply where CMC Invest publishes the edge of its A$0 tier.

At A$999 a month, every buy lands under A$1,000, so every buy is A$0. Over ten years that is 120 buys at no brokerage. At A$1,000 a month, every buy sits on the line, so the greater of A$11.00 or 0.10% applies. A$11.00 beats the percentage, which is only A$1.00 on that order. The same decade now costs A$1,320.

Read the conditions and it behaves exactly as written. There are three.

First, the order has to be under A$1,000. The tier is about order size, not monthly volume. Three A$400 buys this week are three A$0 buys. One A$1,200 buy is not.

Second, A$0 applies once per security per day. Buy A$600 of a stock in the morning and A$600 more after lunch, and the first order costs nothing while the second is charged the greater of A$11.00 or 0.10%. Splitting one A$600 purchase into two A$300 buys of the same stock on the same day creates an A$11 charge out of nothing. Place the second parcel tomorrow and the condition applies fresh.

Third, the A$0 tier excludes trades settled on a margin loan. Use a margin loan facility and those trades fall outside the free tier entirely.

So the question is not whether A$0 exists. It does, and it is published. The question is whether your habits stay on the right side of a line you cannot see when you tap buy.

Why A$0 international brokerage is not a free trade

A$0 brokerage on US shares sounds like the end of the conversation. It is the beginning, because the conversion charge is where the money goes. CMC Invest publishes 0.60%. On a A$20,000 US order that is A$120.00. On a A$500 US order it is A$3.00. The brokerage is genuinely zero. The conversion is genuinely not.

Compare Stake, which publishes US$3 flat brokerage plus 0.55% conversion. At the RBA rate of 0.7126 on 18 September 2026, US$3 is about A$4.21. That gives Stake an all-in A$6.96 on a A$500 US order and A$114.21 on a A$20,000 one, against CMC Invest at A$3.00 and A$120.00. Read those pairs together and the pattern is plain: CMC Invest is cheaper on small US orders because there is no flat fee to pay, and dearer on large ones because 0.55% beats 0.60% once the order outruns a A$4.21 flat fee.

The crossover sits at roughly A$8,400 per US order, where both come to about A$50.52. Below it CMC Invest is lower, above it Stake is, and the exact point shifts with the exchange rate because Stake quotes brokerage in US dollars and CMC Invest does not. The Stake vs CMC Invest comparison runs the same numbers side by side.

That crossover is the whole story of A$0 international brokerage. An all-in US cost is a flat fee plus a percentage, never one or the other. Flat fees decide small orders, percentages decide large ones, and CMC Invest has set the flat fee at zero and the percentage at the top of our range. Two more data points at A$20,000: Pearler comes in at A$106.50, and Interactive Brokers at A$6.17 all in, though it runs a custodian model rather than CHESS sponsorship.

Who actually holds your shares

This is the part most reviews get half right, and the half they get wrong matters.

The account is usually described as CHESS sponsored. On the ASX side that is accurate: holdings are registered on the CHESS subregister under your own HIN, you are the registered holder, and the HIN travels with you if you move to another sponsoring broker. International holdings work differently. US, UK, Canadian, Japanese and other overseas shares sit under a custody arrangement between CMC Markets Stockbroking and BNP Paribas SA.

So CHESS sponsored describes about half the account. It is true of ASX shares and ETFs. It is not true of anything bought on an overseas exchange.

That distinction is worth understanding rather than fearing. Custody is the standard structure for international shares in Australia, because CHESS is an ASX system and does not extend to overseas registers. In a custody arrangement the custodian holds legal title and you hold a beneficial interest, which is a different legal position from holding shares in your own name and comes with different processes if something goes wrong. If the structure matters to you, read the current terms for the international leg before you buy.

Is CMC Invest safe?

The stockbroking business is CMC Markets Stockbroking Limited, ABN 69 081 002 851, which holds Australian Financial Services Licence 246381. That licence is held directly rather than through an authorised representative arrangement, which is worth knowing because plenty of brokers operate under someone else's licence instead.

An AFSL is the licence ASIC requires before a business can deal in financial products or give financial product advice. Holding one means meeting conduct and compliance obligations and only providing the services listed on the licence. It is not a promise of returns, not a performance rating, and not a government backstop sitting behind your shares.

The Financial Claims Scheme, run by APRA, covers deposits with Australian banks, building societies and credit unions up to A$250,000 per account holder per institution. It covers deposits. It does not cover shares. That applies to every broker: shares held through any platform, CHESS sponsored or held in custody, sit outside the scheme.

Where CMC Invest wins and where it loses

Where it wins

• ASX buys under A$1,000. A$0 is the lowest published ASX cost in our set at that size. CommSec charges A$5, Stake A$3, Pearler A$6.50 and Selfwealth A$9.50.
• Small international orders. A A$500 US order costs A$3.00 all in, against A$6.96 at Stake and A$9.00 at Pearler.
• Four overseas markets. The A$0 brokerage covers London, Toronto and Tokyo as well as New York.
• The ASX leg is CHESS sponsored. Registered under your own HIN, and portable to another sponsoring broker.

Where it loses

• The A$1,000 line. Above it, A$11.00 a trade against Stake's A$3 flat up to A$30,000. Over a decade of A$1,000 monthly ASX buys, A$1,320 against A$360.
• Large US orders. 0.60% is the highest conversion rate of the nine. On A$20,000 that is A$120.00, against A$114.21 at Stake and A$106.50 at Pearler.
• Same-day repeat buys. The A$0 tier applies once per security per day.
• Margin loan users. Those trades do not get the A$0 tier at all.
• Other overseas markets. European and Asian exchanges outside the four named ones are A$59.00 or 0.59%, a different schedule entirely.
• Unconfirmed basics. A minimum investment, fractional shares and auto invest were not confirmed at source.

The Pearler review and the Selfwealth review run the same ten-year arithmetic on those two schedules.

Who it suits and who it does not

It suits

• ASX investors buying in parcels under A$1,000, once per stock per day, where A$0 is published.
• Investors placing small US, UK, Canadian or Japanese orders, where A$0 brokerage beats a flat fee.
• People who want ASX shares CHESS sponsored under their own HIN and one account across several markets.

It does not suit

• Regular ASX buyers at or above A$1,000 an order, where A$11.00 a trade builds up against A$3 flat.
• Anyone who buys the same stock more than once in a day.
• Margin loan users, whose trades fall outside the A$0 tier.
• Large international orders, where 0.60% is the highest conversion rate we track.
• Investors who want the international leg registered in their own name rather than held in custody.