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Forex Brokers

InitialRate Review

InitialRate is a Forex broker operating since 2018. In this review, we will detail all the information we have found about this broker. Pay special attention before investing your money with InitialRate, as we have enough doubts about this broker.

InitialRate is the trademark of Ez Education LTD. This is a company that is registered in the Marshall Islands, a place where Forex brokers are not adequately regulated. This is a big problem for us, as customers do not have all the rights to appeal if they have significant problems, and their interests are not adequately protected.

InitialRate has informed that its registered address is at Trust Company Complex Ajeltake Road Ajeltake Island, Majuro Marshall Islands MH 96960. We have to note that several offshore brokers, such as iForex24, PBN Invest, iForex24, Crypto Eu, PBN Trade, and FXG Invest, to name a few, are also registered at this same address. To this, we must add that we have reviewed comments about these brokers, and most have turned out negative, as a consequence of the bad experiences of their clients.

InitialRate customers can buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but with one caveat, they can only do so against USDT and EURT (Tether). Tether is the cryptocurrency, supposedly backed by US dollars or euros, respectively. So, you can’t buy the most popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin, for example, with US dollars or “real” euros, or with any other fiduciary currency.

ACCOUNT TYPES

InitialRate has four different accounts. They are called, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. It is incredible that the broker’s website does not mention any specific differences between these types of accounts, does not provide information about the minimum investment required, and we have not been able to know the minimum and maximum trade sizes.

PLATFORMS

InitialRate offers an excellent platform with good graphics. It is a tool where the broker offers his services on a web-based platform. Its commercial interface is intuitive and simple, but seems fast enough and is equipped with some advanced features. One of the things we liked is that it includes good graphics with TradingView and a wide range of technical analysis indicators. Also, the web platform has some risk management tools, such as the well-known Stop Loss and Take Profit options, which are very easy to handle.

Although the web trading platform used by InitialRate is not bad, it lacks many of the advanced features of the popular MT4 platform. For example, the InitialRate platform does not support automated business strategies, while MT4 is well-known for its Expert Advisors (EA’s).

LEVERAGE

This is one of the essential facts that we have not been able to verify, given the scant information that the broker provides on his website.

TRADE SIZES

In the same way, this is one of the crucial data that we have not been able to verify, given the scant information that the broker provides on his website.

TRADING COSTS

We haven’t been able to tell if this broker applies trading fees. We have only been able to see their spreads, of which we speak in the corresponding section.

This broker has an inactive account policy. A trading account will be considered inactive, according to InitialRate, if it has no movements for a period of 30 days. InitialRate will perform monthly revisions of all accounts where there is no activity (no operation has been performed for an extended period of 30 days). InitialRate, you have the right to freeze the trading account, which we consider abusive temporarily. The broker will charge a 5% percentage of the deposit amount for each month the account remains inactive. To reactivate the trading account, the customer must perform at least three operations.

The other expense to take into account is the Swap or Night Financing, which is an expense that all brokers apply, except in Islamic accounts that have to comply with Sharia law. The Swap is any position held overnight, which will incur a maintenance cost (interest). This amount can be negative or positive depending on the instrument and the direction of the position, and its amount is fixed by the central banks of the base currency of the open position.

ASSETS

An advantage of InitialRate is that it offers the possibility to trade in many asset classes, including Forex, CFDs in indices, commodities, stocks, and a wide variety of cryptocurrencies.

SPREADS

We found the spreads attractive. Although InitialRate does not mention any commercial costs on its website, we have tested its platform and found the spreads to be quite good. For example, the InitialRate benchmark spread EUR/USD is fluctuating around 0.9 – 1.0 pips, and GBP/USD over 1.2 pips.

MINIMUM DEPOSIT

We have not found information about the minimum deposit required to open an account with this broker.

DEPOSIT METHODS & COSTS

The deposit methods available with InitialRate are 4, bank transfer, credit or debit cards (Visa or Mastercard), Skrill, and Neteller. No information is provided on deposit costs, but there is normally no charge for bank card income, and for bank transfers, it is the commission that your bank can charge for issuing it.

WITHDRAWAL METHODS & COSTS

In accordance with generally accepted rules and regulations, withdrawals must be made only through the same bank account, credit/debit card, or electronic payment means, which was used to deposit the funds.

InitialRate charges for withdrawals. The broker charges a fee and is applicable for all different withdrawal methods.

  • Bank transfers 50 USD/GBP/EURO
  • Credit card 25 USD/GBP/EURO

Credit card processing fee:

  • 10 USD or 8 GBP or 9 EURO
  • Electronic payments 25 USD / GBP / EURO

WITHDRAWAL PROCESSING & WAIT TIME

When we submit a withdrawal request, InitialRate.com may take up to 5 business days to process such a request. Once the application is approved, you will have to wait between 5 – 7 additional days before viewing your funds in your account, as they report.

The minimum amounts that can be withdrawn are as follows:

  • Credit card 100 USD/GBP/EURO
  • Bank transfer 500 USD/GBP/EURO
  • E-wallet 100 USD/GBP/EURO

BONUSES & PROMOTIONS

InitialRate does not currently offer Bonuses or promotions, but we know that in the past, it has offered deposit bonuses.

EDUCATIONAL & TRADING TOOLS

InitialRate has, on its website, an area dedicated to education. It deals with nine different aspects of trading, which are: What is Trading?, What is Forex?, Money Matters, Forex Advantages, Forex Players, Trading Sessions, Trading Styles, Speak Forex, and Trading Advice.

Analyzing the content, we found it rather weak and sparse. You can spend 10 minutes or less reading all the educational content this broker offers. We lack an economic calendar, a handy tool for traders because in it they can consult the most important daily events, and how can affect the different assets.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

To get in touch with InitialRate’s customer service, you have 3 options, a phone from England, an email, and a contact form that you can find in the “Contact Us” section of the website. The contact details are:

Phone:+44 7872237038

E-Mail:

DEMO ACCOUNT

InitialRate does not offer a demo account, which is bad news, but at least it gives us direct access to its web platform to know it and see its features.

COUNTRIES ACCEPTED

The website does not explicitly describe any country with restrictions on operating with InitialRate. We’ve only seen one phrase like this one: “InitialRate.com offers financial services of trading to its users, only in jurisdictions where it is permitted by law”. What we have done is to go to the account opening page and see the list of available countries. We have detected that the United States of America and Canada are not on the list. Either way, in case of doubt, when opening an account, we recommend contacting customer service to verify if you are a potential customer or not.

CONCLUSION

InitialRate is a newly created CFDs and forex broker that seems to want to focus on cryptocurrencies. Their trading platform and the spreads they offer are good, and it is the positive part of this broker. On the negative side, there is a lack of regulation, and that gives us a lack of confidence. The broker is not licensed or supervised by any authority and therefore does not deal with InitialRate on any regulated market, such as the EU, USA. U.S. Or Japan, it’s just not legal.

If you are a fan of cryptocurrencies, we can suggest another more solid broker like, for example, Kraken, as InitialRate trades only against Tether. We find unfavorable conditions in the Terms and Conditions; it is a worrying sign regarding InitialRate that we find some clauses in the broker’s terms and conditions that are quite unfavorable to customers. For example, InitialRate reserves the right to refuse any trade for any reason. In our opinion, this is totally inappropriate. Additionally, the broker charges a 5% inactivity fee for your funds, if a customer does not use their trading account for a period of 30 days.

Advantages:

  • Spreads are acceptable.
  • Friendly platform.
  • Wide variety of assets.
  • It offers cryptocurrencies for trading.

Disadvantages:

  • Broker registered in a tax haven.
  • No information on the characteristics of the accounts offered.
  • No demo account offered.
  • MT4 not available, although the web platform they offer is not bad.