Plus500 Review 2023 – Global CFD Provider
Plus500 is a leading CFD platform, providing online trading services to retail customers. Having launched in 2008, Plus500 has been one of the fastest growing CFD providers in the industry with over 200,000 active customers around the world.
Plus500 is a global CFD company with its main operation based in Israel and regulated entities in the UK, Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Plus500 Ltd is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: PLUS).
Plus500 Leading CFD Platform
What Are The Main Benefits of Trading With Plus500?
- Established CFD ProviderPlus500 are a global online trading giant. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 250 company and during 2018, they had over 304,000 active clients who made over 37 million trades – huge!
- No CommissionPlus500 do not charge commission; instead they make their money through the spread (difference between the buy and sell price), so every time you open a trade you will pay Plus500 a small spread fee.
- World-Class Mobile AppPlus500 must have some excellent mobile software providers because their mobile applications are some of the best out there. In fact, their iPhone and Android apps are two of the highest-rated CFD trading apps when you search on the App Store and Google Play.
- Complete Control of your AccountAccess many advanced trading tools and features to gain full control of your Plus500 trading account. Tools such as stop-loss limits, trailing stops, profit orders, guaranteed stop-losses, free notifications and negative balance protection.
- RegulationPlus500AU Pty Ltd (ACN 153301681), is licensed by: ASIC in Australia, AFSL #417727, FMA in New Zealand, FSP #486026; Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa, FSP #47546. You do not own or have any rights to the underlying assets. Please refer to the Disclosure documents available on the Plus500 website.
Which Markets Can I Trade With Plus500?
With Plus500 you can trade over 2,000 global CFD instruments, including:
Stocks: trade all the popular shares from the US, UK and Europe, as well as local Australian shares like Rio Tinto and Telstra.
Forex: trade 50+ FX pairs with up to 1:30 leverage and low margin requirements. Trade EUR/USD, GBP/USD and EUR/GBP, as well as many other FX pairs and Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Indices: access the most popular global indices like the UK100, NASDAQ 100, The Dow, France 40 and AUS200.
Commodities: trade Oil, Gold, Silver, Natural Gas, Copper, Wheat and more.
ETFs: trade the most popular ETF markets like the VXX Volatility, iShares EU50, SPDRUSA500 and many others.
Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin cash, Litecoin, NEO, IOTA, Ripple.
Plus500 Review – Other Important Features
- Risk management ToolsPlus500 offer a great many resources to limit your risk when trading. This includes access to guaranteed stop-losses, price alerts, trailing stops and limit orders.
- Large variety of CFDs to tradeYou can trade all of the most popular CFD markets that exist with Plus500, and you can also trade on Bitcoin which many other providers do not offer.
- Protection if Plus500AU goes into liquidationAll Client Money is held on trust for you in a segregated trust account. In such circumstances these deposits would attract all the legal protections afforded to trust money. Plus500AU is licensed by ASIC (AFSL Number 417727) and complies with client money regulations.
- Comparison ToolCheck out Plus500’s market information sheet and see the main benefits of each, as well as trading costs and leverage for each market. Click here to see more on this.
- Negative balance protectionCustomers of Plus500 cannot lose more than the funds they have on their account.
Why Plus500 Might Not Be For You:
No phone support: Plus500 offer Live Chat and email support 24/7 however there is no phone support which can be disastrous if you urgently need to close a trade, or amend an order etc.
$10 inactivity fee: If your trading account with Plus500 remains inactive for 3 months, you will be charged a $10 inactivity fee.
Does Plus500 Charge Commission?
The maximum leverage offered by Plus500 is now 1:30 under it’s AFSL (ASIC) licence. Leverage does vary depending on the asset class; for example, crypto trades have a maximum leverage of 1:2, meanwhile some major indices have leverage of 20:1
The Plus500 Trading Platform – WebTrader
Plus500 offers their own in-house built WebTrader platform which is a clean, easy-to-use piece of trading software. Plus500’s WebTrader is available in three different versions:
Desktop: download and install onto your PC or laptop
Web-based version: access WebTrader anywhere around the globe using the internet – simply go to plus500.com and start trading!
Mobile: a mobile version of Plus500’s WebTrader is also available to traders who wish to trade the markets using their smartphones. The mobile apps are free-of-charge and can be downloaded directly from the Google Playstore or Apple App Store.
What makes Plus500 WebTrader unique from many other platforms is that Plus500’s platform remains the same in all versions, which makes it easy to switch seamlessly between the differing versions without too much confusion.
Plus500’s WebTrader platform is also available in 30 different languages, including: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish!
Plus500 Accounts Types
Unlike many of its competitors, Plus500 only offers two types of retail trading accounts; it’s standard trading account and a demo account. The standard trading account is quick and easy to register for, and only requires an initial deposit of AUD $200.
When entering the “Select Account Mode” page, simply choose between the live (standard trading account) and the demo account. After making this selection, you will be taken to the registration page where you will need to fill in some basic information. Then click “Create Account”.
Plus500 Deposits
To deposit funds and begin trading with Plus500, you will need to login to your account and go to: FUNDS MANAGEMENT > DEPOSIT (fill in the required details) > SUBMIT. Deposits are free-of-charge and you can deposit by the following means;
- Bank transfer
- Credit or debit card (only Visa or Mastercard are accepted)
- Skrill
- PayPal
Any deposits you make with Plus500 are classified as client money and are afforded maximum protection in accordance with local regulation. Client money is held in segregated bank accounts and Plus500 does not use client money for hedging or any other business purposes.
Is it safe to use your credit card with Plus500? Yes. Their platform is protected by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) so all sensitive client information (credit card details, passwords etc.) are always transferred by SSL to a secure environment.
Is there a limitation on how much client’s can deposit? Yes – the maximum deposit per transaction is outlined on the deposit page for each available payment method.
Plus500 Withdrawal Fees
To make a withdrawal from your Plus500 trading account, simple click on FUNDS MANAGEMENT > WITHDRAWAL > Select your withdrawal method, fill in the required fields and then click SUBMIT.
You can make 5 x free-of-charge withdrawals per month with Plus500. Go beyond that and it will cost you $10 for any other withdrawals. This seems a little unfair given most other providers do not charge a fee for withdrawing money. There is also a minimum amount that you can withdraw at any one time and that amount is USD $50 for Paypal and $100 for credit/ debit cards and bank transfers. If you want to withdraw a lower amount than that, a $10 charge will apply.
What is the processing time for withdrawals?
Withdrawal requests usually take between 1-3 working days. Listed below are the available withdrawing options with Plus500, along with their expected processing times;
- PayPal and/or Skrill: withdrawals can take 3-7 business days to be received in your e-wallet account once the withdrawal has been authorised
- Bank transfer: bank-to-bank transfer withdrawals can take between 5-7 working days from when the approval was granted on the withdrawal.
- Credit/ debit cards: withdrawals to a credit or debit cards will be returned according to each bank’s processing time.
Their standard policy is to make withdrawals to the same source that was used to make the deposit. For example, if you use your MasterCard to fund your account, then Plus500 will always attempt to process your withdrawal back to that same account.