Plus500 Review

In this Plus500 Review we’re going to cover all good and bad about the broker. Along with it we will be covering its services offered and account opening procedure.

What is Plus500?

It is a regulated online broker founded in Israel in 2008. The company is listed in London Exchange and is the number one stock broker in the U.K.  Its lifelong demo account offer makes it  more popular among traders. It is regulated by the UK’s authority FCA and Australian authority ASIC. 

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76.4% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Account Opening:

Opening an account with Plus500 is an easy and fully digital process. You can open your account in just a single day. However, US and Canada’s residents can’t open accounts with Plus500. 

What is the minimum deposit?

The Plus500 minimum deposit is $100 for debit/credit cards and electronic wallets and $300 for bank transfers.

Account Types: Plus500 offers two types of account Retail account and Professional account. One can switch to  professional account only when 2 of these three requirements are meet:

• Sufficient trading activity in the last 12 months
• Financial instrument portfolio over €500,000 
• Relevant experience in the financial services sector 

Fees :

Plus500 fee snapshot

Assets	Fee terms
S&P 500 CFD	The fees are built into the spread, 0.5 points is the average spread cost during peak trading hours.
Europe 50 CFD	The fees are built into the spread, 2 points is the average spread cost during peak trading hours.
EURUSD	The fees are built into the spread, 0.7 pips is the average spread cost during peak trading hours.
Inactivity fee	$10 per month after 3 months of inactivity. Inactivity means that you don’t log in to your account.

The leverage used by Plus500 for fees is :

• 20:1 for stock index CFDs
• 5:1 for stock CFDs
• 30:1 for forex

It charges high inactivity fees of $10 per quarter after being inactive for 3 months. You just have to login on a regular basis to keep your account active. 

Deposit and Withdrawal:

Deposit and withdrawal services are good. You can easily deposit or withdraw via bank or debit/credit card or through eWallet. The first five withdrawals of the month are free from charges. After this the withdrawal fee is $10/transaction.

Plus500 is available in many currencies, some of them are : USD, GBP,EUR, CHF, AUD, JPY, PLN, HUF, CZK, CAD, TRY, SEK, NOK, and SGD. The base currency depends on the entity from which you made up your account. 

Plus500 Trading Platform :

Plus500 platforms are easy to use and are beginner friendly. It supports two types of platforms i.e; Mobile and web  trading platform. Web trading platforms are available in many types of language. Those are : 

Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian,Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish.

Plus500 mobile app is as good as a web platform. It is also well designed and user friendly. Mobile apps are available for Android, iOS and Microsoft. Plus500 provides two step login and  biometric authentication, which makes it safe to use.

Market and Products :

You can only trade CFDs at Plus500. 

Plus500 product selection

Currency pairs (#)	70
Stock index CFDs (#)	26
Stock CFDs (#)	1900
ETF CFDs (#)	95
Commodity CFDs (#)	25
Cryptos (#)	14

Is Plus500 safe?

Plus500 is regulated by big financial institutes. It has a customer protection scheme depending upon the location of the customer’s residence. 

Plus500 investor protection 

Client country	Investor protection amount	Regulator	Legal entity
EEA countries (EU, Switzerland, Norway)	€20,000	Authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (#250/14)	Plus500CY Ltd
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa	No protection	Licensed by the ASIC (AFSL #417727), Financial Markets Authority (FSP #486026), and FSCA (FSP #47546)	Plus500AU Pty Ltd
Singapore	No protection	Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (#CMS100648-1) and the IE Singapore (#PLUS/CBL/2018)	Plus500SG Pte Ltd
UK	£85,000	Authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (#509909)	Plus500UK Ltd
All other clients	No protection	Authorized & regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (#SD039)	Plus500SEY Ltd

Pros	Cons
Easy to use platform	Only CFDs available
Quick and helpful customer service	Limited educational data
First five withdrawals are free of charge	Inactivity fee
No deposit fees	Limited customizability
24/7 availability	Does not hold a banking license

The Verdict:

Plus500 is a good CFD broker. It is beneficial for those who are ready to take risks.  As mentioned earlier CFDs are highly complex instruments with 75% traders being at a loss while trading the same. Customers are protected under the protection scheme. Hence, before investing must check that you come under scheme or not. 

It provides a free demo account for lifetime, no minimum investment, no withdrawal fee and inactivity fee kicks after 3 months. So you can definitely give it a try.