eToro

The only good thing about eToro is that they remind you why regulation matters. I found them through word of mouth in my investment club. They are regulated in a jurisdiction with weak consumer protection. When things went wrong I had nowhere to turn. Stick to well-regulated brokers.

eToro had an outage that lasted several hours during a major market event. Not only did they fail to prevent it, but they also failed to communicate what was happening. We were left in the dark while our investments were at risk.

I wanted to transfer my portfolio from another broker to eToro. They said they do not accept in-kind transfers for my asset type. I had to sell, withdraw, deposit, and rebuy - incurring taxes and spread costs. They did not tell me this before I signed up.

Their two-factor authentication was optional when I joined. I enabled it. Later I lost my phone and could not log in. eToro recovery process took 3 weeks and required notarized documents. By then I had missed important trades. Their security is your inconvenience.

After since I retired last year with eToro I requested to close my account and withdraw. They said I had to complete a 30-day cooling-off period. Then they said there was a minimum holding period for my last deposit. They make it as hard as possible to leave.

Their execution during news is terrible. I had limit orders in place. When the news hit, my orders were not filled at the limit price - they were filled much worse. eToro said it was market conditions. Same news, another broker filled me properly. They are not honest.

The hidden fees at eToro are the real scandal here. What they advertise and what they actually charge are two different things. By the time I realized how much I was paying in various fees and spreads, I had already lost a meaningful amount.

After spending for over a year trying to make eToro work for me, I have given up. The platform has too many limitations, the fees are not competitive, and the quality of their market data is questionable. There are much better options available.

After using eToro for about three months, I decided to move my account elsewhere. The platform was unreliable, withdrawals took an unreasonable amount of time, and I could never get a straight answer from customer service. Frustrating experience overall.

Initially attracted to eToro by their advertising. The headline spreads look great but in practice there are additional costs that aren't immediately obvious. I also get bombarded with promotional emails and phone calls encouraging me to deposit more. The trading itself is fine but the marketing tactics are off-putting.