RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
We are reviewing OffersFX, a licensed broker offering CFDs on Shares, Indices, Commodities and Forex. In the following article, we’ll describe our actual experience with the broker in order to show you whether it’s worth trading with it or not. Find out what you need to know about it in the full OffersFX review.
OffersFX REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
OffersFX is a legit Cyprus broker regulated by the local watchdog CySEC, so your funds are considered safe if you deposit. However, before we’ve commenced reviewing, why don’t you see the high-rated EU brokers and British brokers first. We suggest these companies because they are proven safe and also covered by deposit insurance funds. For example, CySEC brokers’ clients can claim up to €20 000, while the guarantees in Britain are up to £85 000.
So, as a CySEC broker, it participates in the Investor Compensation Fund, and its customers can get €20 000 in compensation in case things go wrong. The CySEC license also means that OffersFX has provided at least 730 000 EUR in paid-up capital so as to guarantee it has better chances to survive turbulent times. Another regulation worth noting is the negative balance protection: the account balance can’t go below zero, and even if it did, the broker gets under the obligation to bring it back positive for free. To put it another way, if you trade with OffersFX, you can’t lose more than you deposited, getting indebted to the broker.
In our opinion, though, the most critical customer protection rule is account segregation. Namely, OffersFX has to store clients’ funds in segregated bank accounts, and that guarantees that the broker won’t use the money for other purposes than trading. It won’t be able to pay salaries with your money, transfer it to other accounts or do anything else viewed as suspicious. Thus transparency improves, but also clients will be able to withdraw much faster than before. Most importantly, though, if the broker goes bust, the clients will get their funds back as their accounts are not commingled with the broker ones.
OffersFX TRADING SOFTWARE
OffersFX provides a Webtrader and Mobile trading apps. Well, we found the browser-based platform to be unreliable because it’s built on a TradingView chart. OffersFX definitely saved some money because such a platform is cheap to create and maintain, but it comes at a cost for traders- reduced security and reliability.
That being so, we’d like to offer the high-rated MetaTrader4 brokers and MetaTrader5 brokers on both lists instead. We put MTs forward as the terminals in question deliver peerless advantages- reliable indicators, easy-to-use charting tools and sophisticated features such as Expert Advisors. The OffersFX’s platform can’t deliver any of these.
The EUR/USD spread is 5 pips fixed or around 5 times worse than the regulated broker’s standards. Such a Buy/Sell difference makes OffersFX’s services expensive, and the profit potential with the broker is significantly downgraded.
The maximum leverage is 1:30– the maximum ratio CySEC permits. However, the default leverage can’t be changed- a significant downside as clients are not allowed to control the risks further if they want to. That’s unacceptable!
OffersFX DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The minimum deposit is $250 via Credit/Debit cards, Wire Transfers, Skrill, Neteller and other unspecified options if available. Well, too many brokers are now accepting clients for $100 or less (some companies are happy to take as little as a $5 initial deposit), so OffersFX once again proves to be at odds with the industry standards.
Still, while talking about funding, see the Skrill brokers, Neteller brokers, FasaPay brokers, Sofort brokers, and Bitcoin brokers on top of the lists if you have a trusted payment system.
There are no minimum withdrawal requirements, and the broker process requests free of charge, which is actually in accord with the rest of the brokers.
However, the inactivity fees are not only offensive but poorly designated, too. We say so as we saw different sets of provisions in the FAQ and the Terms, respectively. Namely, according to the FAQ section, an account becomes dormant after 3 months of inactivity and will be charged $50 per month. According to the Terms, the dormancy starts after 6 months, and the fee is $25 per month. Such inconsistencies are intolerable when it comes to licensed brokers! Whatever the case, though, OffersFX once again proves to be overly costly as the regulated brokers are taking 5 to 10 dollars per month at most.
The bottom line
OffersFX is licensed, but its features are questionable, to put it mildly. It comes with a deficient platform delivering unreasonably huge spreads, and clients are not even allowed to change leverage- a regulated broker shouldn’t put its clients at a disadvantage. Some services are overly costly and inconsistent, further undermining the broker’s credibility. Finally, OffersFX is licensed but sluggish and unreliable, so we can’t give it a high score.
