Plus500 Review 2024
For this Plus500 review, we have opened an account with the broker and deposited over €6,000.
We traded the popular instrument in each market to get the real spreads and placed a total of 18 trades.
We also reached out to customer support to solve the issues we faced.
Finally, we withdrew our funds to see if there are any issues with the withdrawal process.
What is Plus500?
Plus500 was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Israel. It is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The broker has a presence in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Seychelles, Singapore, and Australia and holds licenses in all of these jurisdictions.
Plus500 offers trading services with forex pairs and CFDs of stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and options. It targets both retail and professional traders.
Some of the highlights of Plus500 are:
| 🗺️ Authorised & Regulated in | UK, Cyprus, Australia, South Africa, Seychelles, Singapore |
| 🛡️ Is Plus500 safe | Yes |
| 💰 EUR/USD Spread | 0.8 |
| 💳 Minimum deposit | US$100 |
| 💰 Withdrawal fee | US$0 |
| 🖥️ Trading Platform | Plus500’s proprietary trading platform |
| 📈 Markets offered | Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, ETFs, Options |
| 📉 Number of Products | 2400 |
Licenses and Regulations
Plus500 holds 6 regulatory licenses from several top regulators, like the United Kingdom’s FCA, Singapore’s MAS, and Australia’s ASIC.
The full list of all Plus500 licenses is below:
| Legal entity | Registered in | Regulator | License Number | Accepting clients from | Compensation Scheme Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plus500UK Ltd | United Kingdom | Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) | 509909 | United Kingdom | £85,000 |
| Plus500CY Ltd | Cyprus | Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) | 250/14 | EU | €20,000 |
| Plus500AU Pty Ltd | Australia | Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) | 417727 | Australia | No compensation scheme |
| Plus500AU Pty Ltd | South Africa | Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) | 47546 | South Africa | No compensation scheme |
| Plus500SEY Ltd | Seychelles | Seychelles Financial Services Authority | SD039 | Globally many countries | No compensation scheme |
| Plus500SG Pte Ltd | Singapore | Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) | CMS100648-1 | Singapore | No compensation scheme |
Plus500’s Australian entity holds licenses from the regulators in Australia and South Africa.
Is Plus500 Safe?
Yes, Plus500 is safe to trade.
Plus500 is a publically listed company. It has to publish its financial details every quarter to comply with UK regulations.
Plus500 clients’ funds are protected with compensation schemes of £85,000 and €20,000 under the FCA and CySEC, respectively.
Plus500 Australia Review
For this review, we opened an account with Plus500AU Pty Ltd, which is one of the ASIC regulated brokers in Australia. We deposited money, placed trades, and withdrew deposits for our tests.
We recommend you to register your account with the United Kingdom or Australian or Singapore entity if they are available in your jurisdiction.
Plus500 Fees and Commissions
Plus500 fees are built into the spreads.
In our tests, spreads for forex and ETFs were much lower than the average industry benchmark. However, spreads were higher than the benchmark for indices, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies.
Spread Charged in Our Trades
For our tests, we have chosen popular instruments in each market offered by Plus500. We placed 3 trades for each instrument to get a picture of the average spread.
Spreads in all the markets, except commodities, remained too consistent for all our trades. It seems the broker is charging fixed spreads instead of floating spreads.
Details of our trades are shown below the table.
| Markets | Instruments | 1st trade | 2nd trade | 3rd trade | Avg. spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indices | FTSE100 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Forex | EUR/USD | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Commodities | Gold | 4.4 | 4 | 3.6 | 4 |
| Stocks | Apple | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2 | 1.93 |
| Cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin | 49.02 | 49.02 | 49.02 | 49.02 |
| ETFs | QQQ | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 |
Our testing finds that Plus500 spreads for forex and ETFs are much lower than the industry average. Spreads on indices, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, are on the higher side.
After trading US stocks and ETFs, Plus500 asked us to fill in the US W-8BEN form.
For Bitcoin CFDs trading, our contract size was limited to 0.03 BTC. We tried to change it to 0.5 BTC or 1 BTC, but it was automatically brought back to 0.03 BTC. We approached the broker’s customer service regarding the limitation on Bitcoin CFDs.
| Markets | Instruments | Avg. spread charged in our trades | Industry avg. spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indices | FTSE100 | 2 | 1.65 |
| Forex | EUR/USD | 0.8 | 1.16 |
| Commodities | Gold | 4 | 3.53 |
| Stocks | Apple | 1.93 | 1.75 |
| Cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin | 49.02 | 72.81 |
| ETFs | QQQ | 0.17 | 0.45 |
Other Fees
Plus500 does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fee.
The broker, however, charges a monthly fee of $10 after 3 months of inactivity. A simple login to the account waves off the inactivity fee.
Account Types
Plus500 offers a single account type to traders.
Account Opening
Opening a new account with Plus500 is simple and fast.
Registration of a new Plus500 account:
- Enter your email and password (New traders can also register using existing Google, Facebook, or Apple account)
We had to go to the “account” section from the “menu” to complete the registration and verify the account.
- Enter the first name, middle name (optional), last name, and date of birth.
- Select country of residence (you have to declare non-US citizenship)
- Enter the residential address.
- Provide national registration card number.
- Provide economic profile (employment status and field of work).
- Provide financial details (annual income; savings and investments; source of funds).
- Answer some “knowledge assessment” questions.
- Accept terms and conditions, and risk disclosure.
Plus500 sends a letter at the residential address with a 3 digital code for address validation.
Traders have to make a minimum deposit via credit/debit card, PayPal, or bank transfer to activate their account.
We submitted the following documents to verify our Plus500 account:
- Copy of national identification (both front and back)
- Copy of passport
- Copy of Bank statement as address proof
The registration process took merely 16 minutes. Our account was verified the same day.
Our account was registered and verified on January 17, 2023.
Overall, our account opening experience was smooth.
We had to open a second Plus500 account for our tests because of some verification issues with the first one.
For our first account, we had to verify our debit card after making the first deposit. We provided a photocopy of our debit card, where the name, last four digits of the card number, issue/expiry date, and the logo of the issuer are visible.
Our verification was not successful even after 20 back and forth emails and submitting 5 different photos and a video recording of the card over a couple of months. We finally withdrew our funds and closed the account.
For our second account, the experience was completely the opposite (in a good way).
Before making any deposits this time, we approved our bank account and debit card, and it was done in minutes.
Deposit and Withdrawal
Both deposits and withdrawals on Plus500 are fast, easy, and without any fees. All our funding and withdrawal requests were smooth.
Plus500 Minimum Deposit
Plus500 requires a minimum deposit of $100 with a credit/debit card, ApplePay, and PayPal, while it’s $300 for bank transfers.
You have to make a minimum deposit each time you fund your account, not just for the first time.
Deposit
Deposit methods on Plus500 are limited to credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and two popular electronic wallets, PayPal and Skrill.
We tested the deposit process on Plus500 using multiple payment modes.
There was no deposit fee and the fundings were instant.
Details of our fund deposits are shown in the below table.
| Payment Method | Submitted Date | Funded Account Date | Funding Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit/Debit card | 2023-01-17 | 2023-01 -17 | Instant | zero |
| PayPal | 2023-01 -17 | 2023-01 -17 | Instant | zero |
| Skrill | 2023-01 -18 | 2023-01 -18 | Instant | zero |
You have to verify your credit/debit card or bank account when making the first deposit.
Withdrawal
Plus500 allows withdrawals via credit/debit cards, bank transfers, PayPal, and Skrill.
Overall, our experience with Plus500’s withdrawal process was positive.
However, the broker credited our funds to credit/debit card when we requested withdrawal on PayPal.
Details of our withdrawal requests are in the table below.
| Payment Method | Submitted Date | Fund Released Date | Fund Arrived Date | Withdrawal Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit/Debit card | 2023-01 -20 | 2023-01 -21 | 2023-01 -21 | 1 working day | zero |
| PayPal | 2023-01 -21 | 2023-01 -21 | 2023-01 -21 | same day (on credit/debit card) | zero |
| Skrill | 2023-01 -21 | 2023-01 -22 | 2023-01 -22 | 1 working day | zero |
Markets and Products
Plus500 offers CFDs trading services in many popular markets, including forex, indices, commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and options.
The number of instruments in each market is also good.
The complete list of Plus500 offerings are:
| Markets | Instruments |
|---|---|
| Indices | 29 |
| Forex | 71 |
| Commodities | 22 |
| Stocks | 1737 |
| Cryptocurrency | 14 |
| ETFs | 94 |
| Options | 433 |
Crypto
Plus500 is a popular broker for cryptocurrency CFDs trading.
It offers contracts with popular digital currencies and a crypto index. All Plus500 crypto CFDs are:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum/Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Crypto 10 Index
- Litecoin
- NEO
- IOTA
- Stellar
The offered leverage on such contracts is decent and in compliance with regulators. We have elaborated on Plus500 leverages here.
Trading Conditions
Plus500 does not allow hedging or scalping. It does not even allow traders to change leverage levels.
Plus500 defines scalping as a trading strategy based on which traders open and close numerous transactions within two minutes to accumulate quick profits from small price changes. This strategy is not allowed.
| Trading Method | Allowed |
|---|---|
| Hedging | No |
| Scalping | No |
| Change Leverage | No |
Leverage
Leverages offered by Plus500 on various asset class on all its platforms are detailed below:
| Markets | Plus500UK Ltd | Plus500CY Ltd | Plus500AU Pty Ltd | Plus500SEY Ltd | Plus500SG Pte Ltd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major Currency Pairs | 30:1 | 30:1 | 300:1 | 300:1 | 20:1 |
| Minor Currency Pairs | 20:1 | 20:1 | 200:1 | 200:1 | 20:1 |
| Exotics Currency Pairs | 20:1 | 20:1 | 30:1 | 30:1 | 20:1 |
| Gold | 20:1 | 20:1 | 150:1 | 150:1 | 5:1 |
| Other Commodities (except Gold) | 10:1 | 10:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 5:1 |
| Indices | 20:1 | 20:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 20:1 |
| Stocks | 5:1 | 5:1 | 5:1 | 5:1 | 5:1 |
| ETFs | 5:1 | 5:1 | 50:1 | 50:1 | 5:1 |
| Options | 5:1 | 5:1 | 5:1 | 5:1 | 5:1 |
| Cryptocurrencies | 2:1 | 2:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 | 2:1 |
Plus500 Bonus
Plus500 offers bonuses on the first deposits to traders on its Australia and South Africa-regulated platform.
The details of the bonus program are below:
| Minimum Deposit | Bonus Amount | Required TPoints | Bonus Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| AU$300 | AU$80 | 80 | Welcome |
| AU$400 | AU$100 | 75 | NEWYEAR21ID |
| AU$750 | AU$200 | 150 | BRONZE |
| AU$1,500 | AU$300 | 200 | SILVER |
| AU$6,000 | AU$1,500 | 1000 | GOLD |
| AU$15,000 | AU$3,000 | 2500 | PLATINUM |
| AU$75,000 | AU$15,000 | 10000 | DIAMOND |
| AU$400 | AU$120 | 75 | Special bonus promotion |
Pus500 Trader Points
Plus500 rewards traders with Trader Points or TPoints for open positions. These points can be redeemed while claiming bonuses.
Trading Platform
Plus500 offers its own trading platform. The platform is user-friendly, but cannot be customized.
The broker offers its trading platform on web and mobile, there is no desktop-specific client.
We executed our trades on Plus500 web client.
Research and Tools
Plus500 offers not so great market research tools. It offers some excellent charting tools.
Some of the tools offered by the broker are:
- Economic calendar
- Trading indicators and charting tools
- Price alerts
- Analysis of major economic events
- Good risk management tools
The broker does not offer fundamental market data or trading signals.
Education
Plus500 offers only a few basic videos to educate novice traders. It also provides demo trading accounts.
Customer Service
Plus500 has decent customer support.
Traders can contact the broker via:
- Live chat
Our experience with Plus500 customer support was mixed. Though the broker representatives were quick to answer, all of our issues were not resolved.
| Question | Response Time | Quality of reply | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live Chat | Changing account currency to USD | Instant | Clear and direct |
| Bitcoin contract size limitation | 1 working day | It was okay, but a standard scripted answer | |
| Debit card verification | 1 working day | Answer was okay but problem was not solved. |
We exchanged over 20 emails with Plus500 support throughout our test. Most of them are related to card verification. We are getting an answer the same day or the next working day.
The issue was not resolved and we ended up opening a second account.
The broker also has a detailed FAQ section for frequently faced issues.
Conclusion
Our experience with Plus500 was mixed.
There was a stark difference in experience between our first and second accounts. Our card verification failed even after exchanging over 20 emails with our first account, but we did not face any such issue with the second account; we opened both accounts with the Australian entity.
Plus500 lacks decent educational material and has no account manager to support traders. It does not allow hedging or scalping as trading strategies.
On the positive side, the broker holds six regulatory licenses. It is also listed on London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
It also offers a huge list of CFD instruments across several markets with attractive spreads on forex pairs.
We recommend Plus500 for traders who are
- Experienced traders
- Trading CFD
Plus500 might not be a fit if you are
- Scalping trader
- Hedging trader
- EA trader
- Trading through MT4/MT5 platform
- Commission based trading
Author of this review
By George Rossi
Author of this review
I am a well-rounded financial services professional experienced in fundamental and technical analysis, global macroeconomic research, foreign exchange and commodity markets and an independent trader.
Now I am passionate about reviewing and comparing forex brokers.
Everything you find on BrokerTested is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology