CommSec Review: Fees, the CDIA Condition and Who It Suits

The short version

• ASX brokerage is tiered by trade value, from A$5.00 up to A$1,000 through to 0.12% above A$25,000, but only on online orders settled through a CommSec CDIA or margin loan.
• Settle to an outside bank account and the floor is A$29.95 on any order under A$10,000. Six times the price on a A$1,000 parcel.
• Ten years of A$1,000 a month costs A$600 with a CDIA and A$3,594 without one. A difference of A$2,994.
• US shares cost the greater of US$5.00 or 0.12% on the Standard account, plus 0.55% currency conversion. The Plus account is US$9.95 or 0.20%.
• CHESS sponsored with your own HIN, A$0 account fee, no application, inactivity or custody fee, and its own AFSL.
• CommSec Pocket is a different product, at A$2.00 a trade under A$1,000, on a separate account with separate rules.

What CommSec costs

Every figure below comes from CommSec's own rates and fees page, read on 19 September 2026. The tiered ASX rates assume two things at once: the order is placed online, and it settles through a CommSec CDIA or a CommSec margin loan. Both conditions are stated at the source.

The ASX ladder, online orders with CDIA settlement

Order size, all in, CDIA settlement assumed

The US column uses the greater of US$5.00 or 0.12%, plus 0.55% currency conversion.

Ten years, A$1,000 a month

The CDIA condition, in detail

This is the biggest single condition in our nine-platform set, and the one most comparison tables leave out.

CommSec's published tier table is not unconditional. The A$5.00 rate on an order up to A$1,000 applies when you place the order online and settle it through a CommSec CDIA or a CommSec margin loan. Link an outside bank account instead, and the minimum brokerage becomes A$29.95 on any order under A$10,000.

Work that through on a single trade. A A$1,000 ASX order settled through a CDIA costs A$5.00. The identical order settled to an outside bank account costs A$29.95. Same shares, same market, same day, six times the brokerage.

A$3,594 is the most expensive ten-year outcome anywhere in our set, and it belongs to the platform whose headline tier is the second cheapest in it. That is not a contradiction in CommSec's pricing, it is the point of it: the cheap tier is priced for customers who bank inside the group.

To be fair about it, this is a published condition, not a hidden fee. It sits on the same rates and fees page as the tier table, and opening a CDIA is free as far as the pages we read show. The problem is not disclosure. It is that the A$5 figure travels through comparison tables and forum posts without the condition attached, and a reader who links their existing bank account and expects A$5 will be charged six times that, and will find out on the contract note.

If you already bank with Commonwealth Bank, the condition costs you nothing and the tier table applies as printed. If you do not, and have no intention of opening a CDIA, price CommSec at A$29.95 a trade and compare it that way.

The four tier boundaries

The ladder has four steps, and each one is a cliff rather than a slope. The fee is set by which band the whole order falls into, not by a blended rate.

• A$1,000: up to A$1,000 costs A$5.00, and A$1,001 costs A$10.00.
• A$3,000: up to A$3,000 costs A$10.00, and A$3,001 costs A$19.95.
• A$10,000: up to A$10,000 costs A$19.95, and A$10,001 costs A$29.95.
• A$25,000: up to A$25,000 costs A$29.95, and above that the fee is 0.12% of the order.

The A$3,000 boundary is the sharpest. A A$3,000 order costs A$10.00 and a A$3,001 order costs A$19.95: one extra dollar of shares roughly doubles the brokerage, a A$9.95 penalty for a A$1 decision.

The practical move is to size orders to land just under a boundary rather than just over. With A$3,050 to invest, A$3,000 this month and A$50 next month costs A$10.00 plus A$5.00. Sending the whole A$3,050 in one order costs A$19.95. The same logic applies at A$10,000 and A$25,000, where the gap between bands is wider and the cliff just as abrupt. Above A$25,000 the structure changes shape: the fee becomes a flat 0.12%, so a A$30,000 order costs A$36.00 and a A$50,000 order costs A$60.00.

US shares

On the Standard account, US brokerage is the greater of US$5.00 or 0.12% of the order. On a small parcel the US$5.00 floor applies, on a large one the percentage does, and the crossover sits at about US$4,167 where 0.12% of the order equals US$5.00. The Plus account is priced higher, at US$9.95 or 0.20%, and the two should not be quoted interchangeably.

On top of brokerage, CommSec charges 0.55% currency conversion when money moves between Australian and US dollars. That charge applies to the amount converted, not to the trade, so it scales with how much you send rather than how often you trade. A A$1,000 US order works out at A$12.52, and a A$20,000 one at A$134.00, where the 0.12% takes over from the floor. Over a decade the US leg is the more expensive half, mostly because of the conversion rather than the brokerage.

What A$5 buys that A$3 does not

CommSec is the most expensive mainstream ASX option in our set at most order sizes. It is also the one with the longest operating history and the deepest institutional backing, and it is worth being precise about what that gets you.

CommSec is owned by Commonwealth Bank, holds its own AFSL, and sponsors your holdings through CHESS with a HIN in your own name. It integrates with the bank account a large share of Australians already hold, so funding a trade is a transfer between accounts you already have rather than a new relationship. It has been running long enough that its platform, research and support processes have been tested through several market cycles. For a reader who wants one login for banking and investing, and who values a familiar institution over a lower fee, that is a real and defensible preference.

Now the arithmetic, because none of that changes the arithmetic. Stake gives you CHESS sponsorship and a HIN in your own name for A$3.00 flat per ASX order. Over ten years of A$1,000 monthly purchases that is A$360 against CommSec's A$600 with a CDIA, and A$360 against A$3,594 without one. The custody arrangement, which is the part people assume they are paying for, is the same in both cases. Your name on the register, your HIN, your ability to transfer to another sponsoring broker.

What the extra A$240 across a decade buys is the bank integration, the operating history and the research. Whether that is worth A$240 is a judgement about what you value, not a fact about the market. What is a fact is that the A$5 tier is conditional on banking inside the group, and is not available to a reader who keeps their banking where it is. The Stake vs CommSec comparison runs both schedules side by side.

Is CommSec safe?

The operating entity is Commonwealth Securities Limited, ABN 60 067 254 399, holding AFSL 238814, and it is part of the Commonwealth Bank group. Your ASX holdings are CHESS sponsored, registered at the ASX in your own name under your own HIN, and portable: you can move them to another sponsoring broker by transfer rather than by sale.

An AFSL is a licence to provide financial services, carrying obligations around conduct, disclosure, capital and dispute resolution. What it does not do is guarantee investment outcomes or insure your shares against loss. A licence tells you the provider is regulated and accountable. It does not tell you your portfolio will hold its value.

That distinction matters most when people reach for the Financial Claims Scheme as reassurance. The scheme covers deposits held with authorised deposit-taking institutions up to A$250,000 per account holder per institution, and it applies to bank deposits. It does not cover shares held at any broker, CommSec included, because shares are not deposits.

There is a detail here that catches people out. A CommSec CDIA is a deposit account, so the cash sitting in it is covered by the Financial Claims Scheme up to that A$250,000 limit. The shares you buy with that cash are not covered, at CommSec or anywhere else. The protection follows the cash, not the portfolio.

What is not published, and what we have not stated, is anything about fractional shares, automated investing or a minimum investment on this account. Where a figure is not published, treat it as unconfirmed rather than absent.

Where it wins, where it loses, who it suits

Where it wins

• Bank integration. If you already bank with Commonwealth Bank, settling through a CDIA is frictionless and the A$5 tier applies as printed.
• Large ASX orders. Above A$25,000 the 0.12% rate is competitive, and the structure rewards bigger parcels rather than penalising them.
• Custody. CHESS sponsored with your own HIN, portable to another sponsoring broker.
• Longevity and backing. A long operating history inside one of the country's largest banking groups.

Where it loses

• Small ASX parcels. A$5.00 a trade against Stake's A$3.00 flat and Superhero's A$2.00 flat.
• Outside bank settlement. A$29.95 minimum under A$10,000, the most expensive ten-year outcome in our set at A$3,594.
• Tier cliffs. A A$3,001 order costs roughly double a A$3,000 order.
• US trades. The 0.55% conversion compounds the brokerage on every funded purchase.

It suits a reader who banks with Commonwealth Bank, invests in larger ASX parcels, and values having banking and investing in one place. The A$5 tier is genuinely available to that reader, and the arithmetic works.

It does not suit a reader who keeps their banking elsewhere with no plans to move it. For them the relevant number is A$29.95 a trade, not A$5.00, and the ten-year comparison is A$3,594 against A$360 at Stake. That is not a close call, and it is worth knowing before the first contract note arrives rather than after.

One more thing, briefly. CommSec Pocket is a separate product with its own rules, charging A$2.00 per trade under A$1,000. It is cheaper than the tiers above on small parcels, it is a different account, and the two should not be mixed when you work out what CommSec costs you.