Chose your broker wisely

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Note on brokers…

(JUST TO BE CLEAR- THIS IS NOT ABOUT FREETRADE- I am happy customer here).

Back in a day, when I started investing I opened an account with UK based discount broker. To make story short, my “investing” turned more to gambling and in the end I lost some money. But this a story not about that. This is a story about the caution of choosing a broker.

The broker that I had an account with was quite a new kid on a block (operated for about 10 years?) Commissions were low, they offered trading in many markets- UK, Europe, USA (although I was never able to access that functionality, or simply did not looked at it too much). It had quite nice interface, were mailing daily market emails (if you signed for that ), had even phone app, that was very nice too. Everything looked very professional, deposits, withdrawals worked great too.

The company was FCA authorized too.

Unfortunately some time ago I received an email, telling me that the broker went under and was acquired by other company. Meanwhile there was no access for the shareholders to log in to their accounts, to withdraw money, to sell shares, etc etc.

I was lucky one, since I closed account quite some time ago before that. Not because of anything related to the broker, I actually felt that the broker was great- bot using their services and commission. It was simply because my “investment” turned to “gambling” and losses. My hard earned money turned to nothing. So I sold out at loss whatever I held in account and to have zero temptation closed the account for good.

Today I received a phone call from the company that acquired the dodgy broker. It seems that there is more things… Apparently the director of the brokerage was doing dodgy things (insider trading?), had another company and was doing something that he not supposed to do, was overcharging commissions, etc.

So here is the conclusion- it seems that being FCA authorized is just a good start, but in the end does not prevent from bad apples, professionally looking broker might be doing dodgy things…

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What was the name of the broker or a link to an article about them?

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Was it Beaufort Securities Limited?

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My bet is SVS

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This makes no sense to me, why would you write a post and not name the broker?

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Why haven’t you named them? Obviously the first thing you’d do. Add a news link too?

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I did not named it, since I was looking for callback from the company that acquired the failed broker. Wanted to add to the story… As it turned out, it was probably phishing scam. Very odd though, since they knew that I used the broker, they knew my first and last name and address. I never told anyone that I used the broker, so who was calling me- some rogue employees who withheld customer database after their company went insolvent? Anyway, googling of the phone number turned out some questionable things plus later I received unusual volume of scam calls.

People who guessed that it was SVS securities, were right.

fscs.org.uk/failed-firms/svs

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Yes I remember this. Someone posted it last year.

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Since I closed an account with them a few years before they went under, I found out relatively recently, when checked spam folder in my email box. That was quite shocking info at that time, since broker looked really legit.

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Yay! What do I win? :partying_face:

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