AvaTrade freezes clients` funds

Along with the growth of the brokerage market, the number of so-called bucket shops, Ponzi schemes, and fraudsters is increasing. One of the biggest risks which can be taken by a trader is cooperation with a dubious company. In this case, a trader may have difficulties in withdrawing funds. Contact with the support service does not always help in trouble and it seems that the money is lost.

AvaTrade is an international broker which has representative offices in Paris, Dublin, Milan, Tokyo, Sydney, and Shanghai. The company has been operating in the market since 2006, and is officially registered in Ireland. As it should be, the main website contains the detailed information on the company's achievements and advantages. Independent sources refer to a large number of instruments available for trading as advantages, while they consider spread and leverage (400:1) to be the company's disadvantages. There are other opinions on this subject as well.

On the world scale, AvaTrade has proven itself to be a reliable and secure partner. More than 200 thousand traders keep their accounts here and the company's total trade turnover exceeds $60 billion per month. The statistics are impressive, although the fact that AvaTrade is not popular in the post-Soviet area raises questions. Nevertheless, it has good ratings.

AvaTrade presents itself as a reliable, stable, and time-proven broker. It seems to provide a safe environment for trading. However, constant complaints from traders suggest otherwise. Most negative reviews are about problems with the withdrawal.

In this way, customers show their discontent with the company's tricks, blaming it for fraud. Besides, they try to warn other traders about possible difficulties.

For example, a trader told that the withdrawal of his funds was delayed due to some problems with verification. All his requests have been neglected.

Withdrawal of funds from AvaTrade is not available to me. Verification is required. However, my manager said that I had successfully passed the procedure. Besides, they closed some of my positions. Feedback indicated that other users faced such problems. So, I do not recommend this broker.

Besides, negative feedback can be found from VIP clients. It is hardly necessary to explain the meaning of this “VIP” abbreviation. A special category of traders, large investors, requires more considerate and attentive service. Oddly enough, the broker does not care even about VIP clients. One of them lost $7,000.

In April, a group of analysts from the IFG group, a partner of AvaTrade, made me an interesting offer. They invited me to trade with this broker using their trading signals. In May, I deposited $1,000. As they promised, the monthly results showed a good profit. Then I was offered to increase the deposit to $10,000 and become a VIP client. They promised I would continue to conduct risk-free trading with good profit on condition of sharing it with them. In good faith I collected the required amount (I got a short-term loan at a high interest rate). In June, I began to work as a VIP client. In the same month, I managed to withdraw $3,000 and in early July, I completely lost my deposit. After this incident, I can't contact them.

There are a lot of traders who have lost rather large sums. The losses amounting to 5,000, 7,000, and 4,000 are common.

Another user mentioned the case when money had been debited from the account of Ava Trade but had not been credited to the trader’s wallet. He incurred a loss of 4,000 euros.

Apparently, traders are impressed by the fact that AvaTrade is also regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. In their opinion, this is one of the reasons to trust the broker. Another review is also about troubled withdrawing. An author reported on unpaid funds to affiliates for referring new customers. The dealer suffered a loss of 7,000. However, it is not clear what currency is meant.

AvaFX licensed by Ireland is awesome! But there's still the fact that they do not pay 7K to its affiliates.

Traders leave a lot of negative comments on forums pointing out that the broker freezes client’s funds. The fact is also confirmed by those who, in general, are positively disposed to AvaTrade.

Indeed, AvaTrade is a large company that has been operating in the market for more than 10 years. However, the problems regarding the main trading conditions have not been resolved. For example:

• The online chat is available only on trading days. On weekends, a trader can contact the support service and get an answer not earlier than Monday.
• Traders complain about Popunder which appears when you need to switch to another page or close it.
• The broker promises a welcome bonus which equals 40% of a deposit. In fact, the broker does not credit more than 20%..
• The Frequently Asked Questions section (FAQ) is not translated into Russian, so Russian-speaking clients have to ask questions using the chat.
• A demo account is available only for 21 days that is not enough for testing and learning the platform.

I do not recommend traders work with this broker, it is an ordinary bucket shop. Almost a month ago, I opened an account and wanted to deposit it using a bank card. The amount of $1,000 was debited but was not credited. With great difficulty, I contact its support service. The third time I get the same answer: "Make sure that the payment documents have been filled in correctly." I have sent a copy of the card transaction receipt, everything is correct, but the answer is the same. Last week, they stopped replying to emails. The money has not been credited yet to the trading account. I think I will never see it again.

Conclusion. There are a lot of articles on the Internet with recommendations on choosing a forex broker. Such web resources often carry advertisements - indirect or public. It happens that negative facts are concealed, while positive ones are highlighted.

Only experience of other traders will help to understand whether the broker’s conditions are profitable. So, be careful when studying them, pay attention to the source and date of publication.