Best Brokers That Pay Dividends on Uninvested Cash

Benzinga readers often choose Interactive Brokers as the best broker to receive dividends on uninvested cash.

If you have cash in your brokerage account that you haven't invested, you might be missing out on opportunities to earn interest or dividends. The lost opportunity can be costly, especially now that interest rates have risen. To avoid missing out, consider looking for brokers that offer cash sweep programs, which allow your uninvested cash to earn interest or dividends. The best part is that your money remains available for investment whenever you find a good opportunity. 

Best Brokers for Uninvested Cash

• Best for Low Fees: Interactive Brokers
• Best for Robo-Adviser: Betterment
• Best for Free Trading: Robinhood
• Best for High-Net-Worth Individuals: Empower
• Best for High Dividend Rate: Fidelity
• Best for Active Traders: moomoo

6 Best Brokers That Pay Dividends on Uninvested Cash

To help you choose, here are the top five brokers that pay dividends on uninvested cash.

1. Best for Low Fees: Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers is a low-cost online brokerage platform that offers access to over 150 markets worldwide. It provides advanced tools for all levels of traders and allows trading of various financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, options, futures, forex and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Interactive Brokers pays dividends on uninvested cash at an impressive rate of 3.83% for IBKR Lite accounts and 4.83% for IBKR Pro accounts. 

However, there is a catch. The broker will only pay interest on all your uninvested cash if your total balance is over $100,000. If you hold less than $100,000 in your brokerage account, Interactive Broker will not pay interest on your first $10,000 of uninvested cash. In other words, only $4,000 will earn interest on a cash balance of $14,000.

2. Best for Robo-Adviser: Betterment

Betterment is a top robo-adviser in the U.S. that offers automated investment management and financial planning services. Its simplicity and convenience stand out as you only need to answer a few questions about your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon to get a personalized portfolio. 

Betterment provides a high-yield cash account known as Cash Reserve that offers an impressive annual percentage yield (APY) of 4.75% on all balances. There is no minimum balance requirement to earn interest and the rate is applicable to all accounts. 

3. Best for Free Trading: Robinhood

Robinhood is a favored online broker for millennials and Gen Z investors because of its commission-free trading options for stocks, options, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. Its ease of use and accessibility are unmatched, as you can trade using your smartphone or desktop with only a few taps or clicks. 

Robinhood's competitive program for uninvested cash requires you to open a Robinhood Gold account, which costs $5 monthly. With Robinhood Gold, you can earn 4.9% on your uninvested cash, compared to just 1.5% with a free Robinhood account. To use the program, you must opt-in to cash sweep on the app, which increases your Federal Deposit Insurance Coverage (FDIC) coverage up to $1.5 million. There are no minimum balance requirements.

4. Best for High-Net-Worth Individuals: Empower

Empower is a robo-adviser that combines automated investment management with access to human financial advisers. Empower robo-adviser is available for people with at least $100,000 in investable assets and who want a personalized and comprehensive financial plan. Empower's investment accounts do not have an initial balance requirement if you invest independently.

Empower's Personal Cash account also has no minimum balance requirement and offers a high APY of 4.7%. You must manually transfer your cash from an Empower investment account to the cash account to earn this interest rate. 

5. Best for High Dividend Rate: Fidelity

Fidelity is a highly-regarded U.S.-based online broker, providing an extensive selection of investment products and services, including stocks, options, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, forex, futures, education, retirement accounts and robo-advisery. The platform charges zero fees or commissions on stock and ETF trades, offers low administrative fees and provides user-friendly tools and features for beginners and serious investors alike.

Fidelity's uninvested cash program offers a 4.98% interest rate through a sweep into money market funds, with a cash management program earning an APY of 2.72%.

6. Best for Active Traders: moomoo

Moomoo is an intuitive investment platform that offers a professional experience for traders of all expertise levels along with 5.1% APY in the Cash Sweep program for new and qualified customers. Since you can save your uninvested cash, you can take greater control of your money, and spend time utilizing these features:

• Real-time Level 2 stock and options market data for funded accounts
• Advanced technical indicators and charting tools
• Advanced order types
• Full extended trading hours from 4 AM to 8 PM EST
• Multi-market quotes
• Low fees, including $0 commission on U.S. Stocks and ETFs plus $0 equity on options contract fees

You’re welcome to read the FAQs in the Help Center any time to find specific answers to your questions, or reach out via phone or email during trading hours. There are also educational resources, professional-grade research options, and a community with more than 20 million users who are trying to make the most of their uninvested cash—just like you.

What is a Broker That Pays Dividends on Uninvested Cash?

A broker that pays dividends on uninvested cash offers a brokerage account that allows investors to earn interest on the money not invested in stocks, bonds or other securities. The cash is typically held in a separate account or fund that earns interest or dividends from the broker or a third-party provider. This type of broker allows investors to benefit from both the returns of their investments and the interest earned on their cash balance. It's an attractive option for those who want to keep some cash on hand for liquidity, emergencies or future opportunities without missing out on potential income.

How Do Dividends Work?

Dividends earned on uninvested cash are interest payments that some brokers offer customers with cash balances in their brokerage accounts. These brokers automatically transfer or sweep the uninvested cash into interest-earning accounts at banks they work with. The dividend rate on uninvested cash may vary depending on the broker and the market conditions, but it is usually lower than the rates offered by high-yield savings accounts or money market funds. Dividends earned on uninvested cash are typically paid monthly or quarterly and taxed as ordinary income. 

Benefits of Getting Dividends on Uninvested Cash

Receiving dividends on uninvested cash can benefit investors with idle cash in their brokerage account. Some of these benefits are:

• Passive income: Earning passive income through dividends on uninvested cash can boost your overall returns and complement your existing sources of income, allowing you to increase your earnings without having to invest in specific stocks or funds.
• Liquidity: You can access your cash anytime without selling any of your investments. This privilege can give you flexibility and peace of mind to handle any emergencies or opportunities that may arise.
• Diversification: You can diversify your portfolio by using dividends from your uninvested cash to buy shares of different sectors, industries or markets. This diversification can lower your risk and volatility by spreading your exposure across different types of assets with varying performance patterns.
• Compounding: Receiving dividends on uninvested cash can help you benefit from compounding, which is the process of earning interest on interest over time, helping you grow wealth faster and achieve your financial goals sooner.

Other Tools for Getting Interest from Cash

While earning interest from your uninvested cash is a nice perk, it won’t be a significant amount, even if you’re using Interactive Brokers. If you’d like to earn interest risk-free, you’re better off using one of the following vehicles.

• Money market funds:Money market funds function in a similar manner as savings accounts, but with fewer restrictions. Most importantly, money market funds can invest capital in CDs and federal securities, which allows them to offer higher than normal interest rates.
• Certificates of deposit (CDs): Certificates of deposits work similarly to bonds. You’ll give the bank a certain amount of cash as a deposit which is promised to be returned later with interest. CDs come with many different lengths to maturity and deposits are FDIC-insured, but the money must remain with the bank until the CD reaches its maturity date.
• High-yield savings: Many new banks are introducing savings accounts with interest rates as high as 2%. This is especially true with online-only banks that don’t have the extra costs associated with physical branches. E-Trade’s banking wing currently offers a savings account yielding 2.1%.

Maximizing Uninvested Cash: Earning Dividends in Your Brokerage Account

Getting dividends on uninvested cash can be an excellent way to maximize your idle cash in your brokerage account. However, not all brokers offer this feature and the dividend rates may vary depending on the broker and the market conditions. Therefore, you should research and compare different brokers to find the one that best aligns with your needs and preferences. 

Frequently Asked Questions