Beware! Swiss Prime is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
Swiss Prime is a forex broker of unknown origin, although the name suggests the beautiful country of Switzerland. Don’t be fooled, however! This broker is not to be trusted and we’ll explain why.
Swiss Prime Regulation and safety of funds
We couldn’t find any address or country mentioned on the company’s website. However, judging by the name, we checked with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the body that regulates forex brokers. We found on its website that Swiss Prime is not entered in the commercial register and therefore is non-registered, non-regulated broker with chances of being a scammer. Another proof that we are dealing with a shady broker is the domain used for its website which is .cc and is generic country code not intended for the geographic region where this broker is from. We want to warn you not to trade with this broker as your funds could be at risk.
If you are looking for a licensed broker from the EU, we want to inform you that there are many of those from which to choose. They are reliable to trade with as to be regulated by CySec or FCA, those brokers must meet very rigid requirements. In addition to providing an initial capital of no less than 730,000 EUR, these brokers must keep their clients’ accounts separately in tier-1 bank establishments and report their transactions on a daily basis to avoid shady deals. Also, to provide a guarantee for the safety of their clients’ funds, these brokers must contribute to a compensation fund or scheme from which their clients will be compensated if the broker goes bankrupt. If the broker is regulated by FCA in the UK and contributes to the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme, its clients will be repaid up to 85,000 GBP per person. Traders using a broker regulated by CySec that contributes to the local Investor Compensation Fund will be repaid up to 20,000 EUR per person. As you can see, these measures provide a wall against scammers who will never invest such huge initial capital just to look legit, and, a guarantee for the safety of traders’ funds and peace of mind. We s strongly advise you to use the links provided above to select a licensed broker that will suit your trading needs.
Swiss Prime Trading software
Swiss Prime is a forex broker trading in forex, cryptocurrencies, indices and commodities. The trading software offered to the clients is a web trader (screenshot below). On the left-hand side, you can see the trading instruments which in this instance are forex pairs with their bid/ask price. In the middle is displayed the chart of one of these currency pairs, the EUR/USD with its price fluctuation in a given time frame. In the top right corner are given the values for the trading lots, spread and required margin. From the bid/ask price of the above-mentioned currency pair, we find out that the spread is 0.1 pips which way lower than the industry average. But if you look in the account types information which is in the last screenshot, you can see that the spread can go higher than 0.6 pips. We are alarmed to see that the leverage offered by this broker is quite high – 1:200. Such high leverage signifies only two things – a big win or a big loss. It looks tempting as it adds more trading power and some traders go for it. However, you should be aware that statistically, 70% of forex transactions end in financial loss, so chances for a big loss are higher. That is why in the EU, there is an imposed cap on leverage and it cannot get higher than 1:30. In the US, the leverage cap is 1:50. Only Australia is lagging behind and still allows unlimited leverage. Things are about to change there, however, and soon, in March 2021, the new regulations in forex trade will impose a leverage cap as well which will be 1:30 for the major currency pairs. So, our advice is to avoid brokers offering high leverage as the exposure to risks of losing your hard-earned money will be greater.
As you can see, the trading software offered by Swiss Prime is a fairly basic one. On the other hand, the majority of licensed brokers prefer to use MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5. These platforms have a proven record of success which is due to the excellent package of trading tools and instruments they offer. For example, they come equipped with an auto trading option, trading signals, an app market, VPS, code base with customs scripts and a financial calendar. Their charting options and technical analysis indicators, such as Fibonacci retracement, Bollinger Bands, moving averages, etc., have proven very useful to predict the future direction of exchange rates which can help traders make a profit.
We strongly recommend these two platforms which will enhance your trading experience.
Swiss Prime Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
In the screenshot below, you can see the different trading accounts that Swiss Prime offers on its website – Standard, Premium and Luxury. The minimum initial deposit for the Standard account is $250. It may not seem like too much, but just be aware that some licensed brokers will ask for as little as $1-5. The other two accounts start at $2,500 and $25,000.
To make a deposit, clients can use a credit card, wire transfer, OK Pay and Bitcoin.
The minimum withdrawal amount for wire transfers is 250 EUR/USD/GBP and for any other methods is 100 EUR/USD/GBP. The withdrawal request processing time is 2 to 5 business days.
We noticed that there are a lot of fees on withdrawal. For example, if the trader wants to make a wire transfer, the fee is 50 EUR/USD/GBP, for credit cards, the fee is $10/7 EUR/5 GBP. For repayments, the fee is 25 EUR/USD/GBP. In addition to that, if the trader has not executed more than 200 in turnover, a 10% fee will be charged. Imposing so many fees, including a percentage fee is not at all beneficial to traders and we advise you to find a licensed broker that will offer you more favourable terms.
While perusing the information on this company website, we found some contradicting statements. For example, in Deposits/Withdrawal document, we found that a trading account that has been inactive for 6 months, will be charged 10% monthly fee. However, in the Terms and Conditions document, the inactive period is mentioned as being only 3 months. We can only guess what mess that contradiction will create if there is any dispute!
We also find contradictory statements where the bonus policy is concerned. In one document it says that if the client accepts a bonus, the bonus amount can be withdrawn only after executing a minimum trading volume that equals 25 times the deposit amount plus the bonus issued. However, in the Terms and Conditions document, the trading volume required from the client is 30 times the deposit amount plus the amount of the bonus. We just want to say that no self-respecting broker will put such contradictory information on its website. Besides, licensed brokers will never offer any bonuses or free gifts.
We want to point out here that it is very important to read carefully all the legal information provided by a forex broker before making a decision whether to join or not.
How does scam work?
A lot of people get scammed in different scammers’ schemes not because they are naive but because scammers are masters of persuasion and manipulation. It all starts with unsolicited telephone calls or a flashy ad on the Internet or social media. Sometimes people give up to temptation and invest money in shady schemes made to look legit and attractive and always promising quick and easy money fall. Once you deposit money into any of these schemes, you reach a point of no return! Your money is gone down the scammers’ food chain and you’ll have a lot of trouble recovering it. Scammers will do anything in their power to delay you, so you miss the opportunity to file for a chargeback. They will ask you for this and that document and will find hundreds of reasons not to let you retrieve your money. The trick with offering bonuses in forex trading is one of those as your funds are mixed with the bonus money and it takes a lot of hassle to fulfil the broker’s requirements before you are able to withdraw any funds.
What to do if scammed?
Speed does it! You need to act very quickly if you want to recover your money. Immediately apply for a chargeback if you have made your deposit via credit card. Fortunately, VISA and MasterCard give you 540 days within which to apply for a chargeback.
If you have paid via wire transfer or Bitcoin, chances of retrieving your fund are grim. Anyway, we want to warn you that some of the so-called recovery agents may approach you and offer to retrieve your funds. For a fee, of course! Be cautious when dealing with them as it may be another form of scam! Always check if the recovery agency is legitimate and visible to the public!
Another thing we advise you to do is to immediately cancel any credit cards if the scammers have your CVV code. Also, make sure to erase any programs on your computer that give scammers access to your personal data on your PC.
