Markets.com scam broker review, why to stay away from it

There are not a lot of companies around the world that inspire confidence in our team of reviewers and Forex professionals. And you cannot even ask us why especially when you look at the Markets.com FX broker reputation and the way they conduct their business. The company might be global, but the way they do their business feels a little strange. There are of course those who have found success with the company, but the number of people reporting problems, whether with withdrawing funds or with communicating, is pretty high as well. Markets.com does not even have a direct license itself but uses the license owned by their operator, Safecap Investments Limited, which in a way, makes us suspicious of the company. The fact that Markets.com have a very conflicted track record with their clients is bothersome. Still, let us take a closer look at the company and see what makes it tick the way it does and whether it is even worth trading with.

Page

The Markets.com FX brokerage page is very well designed. It runs very smoothly and is rather sleek and nice to look at. The front page is well constructed and provides some basic information regarding the company, the current currency pair situations on the market at the moment, as well as a little bit of showboating regarding what their current market position is. Despite all of this nice information, some of our team members have found it concerning that the company does not have a page dedicated to presenting more detailed information about the company itself beyond the support center. And the navigation of the website is, in general, a little annoying. The navigation bar is simplistic and does not provide much information regarding where you could travel on the website. Though mousing over some of the options expands the menus, giving you additional options of pages to travel to. The support page leads is in actuality an FAQ page where most of the most relevant information regarding the company is contained. This is also where the client will be able to gain access to actual support.

Communication

Which brings us to the actual communications part of this Markets.com review. The brokerage offers its clients several types of communication bridges, which is pretty standard in the industry. The primary way and the most famous way of communication of its clients is the live chat option. The live chat on the platform operates pretty well and pretty quickly, with clients being able to receive replies within seconds of sending out a message. Unless, of course, there is a long queue in which case the wait might take a bit more. There are also other alternative methods – call centers and emails, each of which provides an answer to their client pretty quickly and pretty consistently. This is a very nice thing to see with a Forex brokerage that has had some very disappointing allegations made against it, that we are going to discuss a bit later on.

Education

The page of the Markets.com Forex broker also provides their users with some limited educational sources as well as some news sources and general analytics. The tools they provide, while not entirely specific in terms of education, are capable of catching an utter beginner up to the rhythm of the market, while also teaching them the basics of using the local platform. The analytics tools present on the website, on the other hand, tend to provide some interesting insights regarding the market trends and directions, as well as reactions to news and the happenings around the world related to the subject of foreign exchange markets. Overall, the company could be doing better in terms of the educational sources they provide to their clients. The analytical part of the page is the highlight of the educational section.

Platform and offers

With Markets.com MT4 and MT5 are the trading platforms you will be having your business conducted with. These two platforms are some of the most popular and famous around the world. Both of these have their own advantages and disadvantages by which their dedicated users swear, but the final consensus is that the two platforms are trustworthy enough that a client will not be getting questions about why they are being used. The industry has had a very long time to experience both and approve of them, which is why so many of the Forex brokers around the world use them and so does Markets.com.

Spread and Leverage

The company does not charge any fees, instead opting for charging spreads per trade, which is the preferred standard in the industry. It also solidifies our belief that Markets.com fraud is not really a thing. The spread they charge for the most popular currency pairs goes as low as 2 pips, which is on the high end of the average market spread for most Forex brokers. Still, it is not something that will be ruining your bank, as you will still receive profit from successful trades most of the time, with these pips.

The company offers leverage of about 1:300 on most of the popular currency pairs. This leverage is pretty high and pretty tempting, especially for those not aware of the risks associated with such high leverage. We are going to warn you – while it is a chance to win a lot of profit, it is also a chance to lose a lot of money.

Deposits and Withdrawals

The company has a very specific demand for their clients, in terms of minimum deposits. Markets.com only allows a minimum of 1500 Rand as a minimum deposit to trade. This amount is pretty standard within the industry, with most Forex brokers actually keeping their minimum deposits around 3000 Rand for the most part. This is a good opportunity for beginner traders to start trading with low amounts of capital who want to be part of the Forex trading world.

There are four Markets.com withdrawal types. Credit or debit card, Paypal, Wire Transfer, Skrill or Neteller. Each one of these has a minimum withdrawal requirement, but the minimum goes as low as 80 Rand, so nobody should have a problem withdrawing any kinds of funds they own on the market. There are also no withdrawal fees charged by Markets.com so anyone trying to withdraw money, even the smallest scale traders, will find themselves happy and able to do so.

Markets.com opinions on their history

So, speaking of all of these great qualities, what makes us so suspicious of Markets.com? Well, it is the history of the company itself. Markets.com is actually operated, as stated above, by Safecap Investments Limited, which in turn is a subsidiary of a huge company called Playtech, which has existed since 1999 and got a hold of Markets.com by purchasing its previous owner. In theory, this should allow us to give Markets.com rating even more points, but we feel a bit bad doing that. The reason is simple – Markets.com does not own a license on its own but operates under the license that their operator received. While legally this is allowed, it might bear some ramifications for the trader that works with the company, simply because Markets.com is not a direct owner of a license. And over the years this has become a problem for some.

Community reviews

There have been a large number of negative Markets.com reviews of the company over the years of its operation. Many people find themselves feeling swindled or cheated out of their money, as they make a profit and they are either charged the full amount of the profit or are unable to withdraw it. Market.com fraud like actions has also caused further suspicion for our team, as they have several times sued a company over the negative reviews posted on its website. While the operator company does have a license with CySEC, they have also been fined at least once by them, making us suspicious of the continued goodwill of the company in the future. Because of this a lot of people on our team refrain from giving the company a good or a high score at all. They feel like, while the company seems to promise a lot, there are times when the company produces some very controversial results.

Licensing

But one thing is for sure: we can be sure that Markets.com scam is not really a thing. The fact that they have been licensed by one of the most reliable financial regulatory bodies in the world leads us to believe that whatever problems users have had over the years with the company might be isolated incidents or bugs. These things happen, unfortunately, and judging by how long the company has remained operational, it is only natural for some mistakes to have been made. It does not speak to the overall nature of the company, thankfully, and so far we can be confident that the company does not have a criminally minded way of thinking. So then, they are licensed, what is the problem? Why is the company still receiving such a low score from us and why is the answer to the question “is Markets.com legit?” nebulous? Well, the track record is there, and there must be a reason for the way it has been over the years. Whether it is a platform bug, the occasional mistake by an employee or whatever it is, they need to fix it before we can give them a higher score for their license and promises.

Markets.com bonus

The company offers their new users a sign-up bonus that might be interesting to some users. A 25 dollar no deposit bonus is definitely something a lot of people will find beneficial to their trading. Though the bonus does not change our Markets.com opinion.

Can Markets.com be trusted?

For most people, the answer will be yes. Unfortunately, there are also those people who have been wronged by the company on accident or otherwise. Thankfully, it is possible to make a complaint with CySEC and punish the company for their wrongful actions. We would recommend working with Markets.com, but only in the future, once we can all be confident that they have fixed the issues that have been causing problems over the years.