EasyEquities Review 2021

EasyEquities has low South African stock and ETF fees, and there's also no fee for inactivity or withdrawal. However, it charges a fee for credit/debit card deposit.

How we ranked fees

We ranked EasyEquities's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

First, let's go over some basic terms related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of EasyEquities for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing the most important fees are commissions.

We also compared EasyEquities's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Saxo Bank and Interactive Brokers. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of EasyEquities alternatives.

To have a clear overview of EasyEquities, let's start with the trading fees.

EasyEquities trading fees

EasyEquities trading fees are low. We also liked that the fee structure is transparent.

Stock fees and ETF fees

EasyEquities has low stock and ETF fees. South African stock fees are lower than what is charged by its competitors, but US stock fees are not the most competitive on the market.

In the table above, we calculated with the commissions only. However, there are administration fees and taxes that may be added on top of the commission you pay, so you should definitely consider these as well.

Commissions and administration fees depend on which market you trade on.

In addition to stocks and ETFs, you have the option to invest in pre-defined portfolios, called Bundles. Fees range between 0.5% and 1.5% of the trade value annually, depending on the type of bundle you invest in.

Non-trading fees

EasyEquities has low non-trading fees. There are no account, inactivity or withdrawal fees.

There is also no deposit fee if you use a bank transfer. However, credit card transfers cost ZAR 1.60 + 2.3% of the deposited value. The credit card option is available only for ZAR-denominated accounts.

Other non-trading fees charged by EasyEquities include currency conversion and account transfer fees:

• Currency conversion fee ("EasyFX transfer fee"): charged when you convert your funds between ZAR/USD/AUD accounts. The cost is 2% above the mid-FX spot rate, which is considered quite high.
• Fees for transferring your account to another broker: ZAR 150 for South African assets, $25 for US assets, and AUD 25 for Australian assets. These amounts are per asset - so for example if you hold Apple and Amazon shares in your account, you must pay 2 x $25 to transfer them out, regardless of how many shares you own of each.

Account opening at EasyEquities is fully digital and requires no minimum deposit. However, verifying the account took more than a week for us.

Can you open an account?

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EasyEquities accepts customers from all around the world. One notable exception is the US.

What is the minimum deposit at EasyEquities?

The required EasyEquities minimum deposit is $0. This is great if you start investing with smaller amounts only.

Account types

EasyEquities offers three account types based on ownership:

• Retail - owned by an individual
• Kids - maintained on behalf of your children
• Corporate - owned by a legal entity

If you are a South African resident, you can also open a tax-free savings account (TFSA).

How to open your account

Account opening at EasyEquities is easy and fully online. However, it took more than a week before our account was approved.

When you open an account with EasyEquities, you must follow these steps:

1. Choose your country of citizenship and residence.
2. Select the account type.
3. Add some personal information (e.g. date of birth).
4. Enter your residence address.
5. Answer a few questions about your wealth and employment status.
6. Verify your identity by uploading your passport, national ID or driver's license. You need to also provide proof of residency, such as a bank statement.

During the verification process, we encountered a few minor issues. For example, you can upload only PNG files but not PDFs. Also, any documents you upload must be in color; black and white copies are not accepted.

EasyEquities offers free withdrawal, and ZAR account holders can use credit/debit cards for transactions. However, a fee is charged for depositing with a credit card.

Account base currencies

At EasyEquities, you can choose from 3 base currencies: ZAR, USD and AUD. This selection lags behind that of the company's closest competitors.

If you have a personal bank account in a currency other than USD, ZAR or AUD, you will be charged a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Compare digital banks

Deposit fees and options

EasyEquities bank transfer deposits are free of charge; this option is available for ZAR, USD and AUD accounts. You can also deposit by credit card if you have a ZAR-denominated account, but this costs ZAR 1.60 + 2.3% of the deposited value.

EasyEquities doesn't accept electronic wallets for depositing money.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant.

You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

EasyEquities withdrawal fees and options

EasyEquities charges no withdrawal fees. Similar to deposits, you can use bank transfer for all currencies, and credit/debit cards for ZAR accounts only. Electronic wallets are not accepted. Still, this selection of withdrawal options is at least as good as those offered by competing brokers.

How long does it take to withdraw money from EasyEquities? We tested bank transfer withdrawal and it took 2 business days.

You can only withdraw money to accounts that are in your name.

How do you withdraw money from EasyEquities?

If you want to withdraw money, here’s how you should proceed:

• Log in to your account
• Click 'Menu' and select 'Withdrawal'
• Enter the amount you wish to withdraw
• Initiate withdrawal

Compare to other brokers

EasyEquities has a user-friendly web trading platform with clear fee reports and excellent search functions. However, there is no two-step login and customizability is limited.

EasyEquities uses its own web trading platform rather than a third-party tool. The platform is available only in English.

Look and feel

The EasyEquities web trading platform is user-friendly; it is easy to find all features.

On the negative side, the platform is not customizable. The size and positions of the tabs cannot be changed.

Login and security

EasyEquities provides only one-step login. Two-step authentication would be more secure.

Search functions

The web platform's search functions are good; you can easily find any asset you're looking for.

To make things easy, there is a filtering tool that allows you to narrow down your search by investment type and category tags:

• 'Investment Type' covers asset classes such as equities or ETFs.
• 'Category Tags' filter for industries in the case of stocks and for risk profile in the case of ETFs.

You can of course also search manually. Just start typing the name of the company or asset and see relevant results appear. You can sort results alphabetically, toggle between various views, and display as many as 48 results on a single page.

Placing orders

You can use only two order types:

• Market
• Limit

To get a better understanding of these terms, read our overview of order types.

There is also just one order time limit you can use: Good 'til canceled (GTC)

Alerts and notifications

You can't set price alerts or notifications on the web platform. You can do it only through the EasyEquities mobile app and only for South African and Australian markets.

Portfolio and fee reports

EasyEquities has clear portfolio and fee reports. You can access these reports by clicking 'Account overview'. You can easily check the value of your portfolio and the costs you paid.

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The EasyEquities mobile trading platform is user-friendly, has a good search function and offers price alerts. On the negative side, order types and login options are limited.

As is the case with the web trading platform, EasyEquities offers its own in-house developed mobile trading platform. The app is available only in English.

Look and feel

The EasyEquities mobile trading platform is user-friendly, making it easy to search and trade.

Login and security

EasyEquities requires only one-step login for its mobile platform. Two-step authentication would provide an extra layer of security.

You also can't log in using biometric authentication. Providing this feature would make the process more convenient.

Search functions

The mobile app's search functions are good. They are the same as those on the web platform.

Placing orders

You can use the same order types as on the web trading platform.

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts on the EasyEquities mobile platform. However, this feature is available only for South African and Australian assets.

You can set up price alerts by selecting the asset you would like to invest in and click the bell icon in the top right corner.

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EasyEquities does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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At EasyEquities, you can invest only in stocks, ETFs and some pre-defined portfolios. However, many other popular asset classes such as bonds or forex are missing.

The selection offered by EasyEquities lags behind competing brokers, both in terms of product types and the number of stock markets you can trade on.

Stocks and ETFs

EasyEquities' stock and ETF selections are limited. It gives access to South African, US and Australian markets, but actually only a few stocks are available from US markets.

Fractional shares

EasyEquities offers the possibility to invest in a fraction of a share. For example, the price of a single Amazon stock is more than $3,000, which may be too high for many retail investors. Instead, here you can buy a fraction of an Amazon share, let's say for $100.

If you accumulate fractional share positions in a specific stock and their value adds up to make one share, then the whole actual stock will be credited to you.

EasyEquities provides fractional shares as CFDs (contract for difference), but without providing any leverage/margin. In this case, EasyEquities (or its parent company, to be more precise) acts as a principal and not the exchange where the stock is listed. As a result, there is also a counterparty risk when you hold fractional shares.

Bundles

EasyEquities allows you to invest in pre-defined portfolios called Bundles. These are portfolios that track a variety of assets, for example there may be a portfolio that tracks the top cryptocurrencies. When you invest in these portfolios, you have to pay a management fee.

EasyEquities has limited research tools. There are great analysis articles on its blog, but that's about it, as the platform offers no fundamental data, trading tools/ideas or a news feed.

Trading ideas

EasyEquities doesn't provide trading ideas, such as analyst recommendations to buy, hold or sell a specific stock.

Still, you can read great stock analyses on the EasyEquities blog.

Fundamental data

EasyEquities doesn't provide fundamental data, such as annual reports.

Charting

EasyEquities has poor charting tools. There are no indicators or trendlines you can use. All you can do is choose from 5 different time frames on the chart:

• 1 month
• 3 months
• 6 months
• 1 year
• MAX

News feed

When you click on a stock, you will see a link to Yahoo! Finance, but there is no dedicated news flow section on the platform itself.

Compare research pros and cons

Customer service at EasyEquities could be improved. There is no live chat and the phone support had poor quality. As a plus, the email support gave fast and relevant answers.

You can contact EasyEquities via:

• email
• phone

The email support works well. We received fast and relevant answers.

EasyEquities phone support was slow and we received largely useless answers.

We missed live chat and 24/7 availability.

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EasyEquities has great educational materials. You can use demo accounts, participate in webinars, watch educational videos and read quality texts.

At EasyEquities, you can learn in the following ways:

• Demo account
• Platform tutorial videos
• General educational videos
• Webinars
• Quality educational articles

At EasyEquities Academy, you can watch videos to learn the basics of trading, but there are also courses for those at a more advanced level.

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EasyEquities is regulated by the top-tier ASIC, and its parent company is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Among negatives, it offers no investor protection.

Is EasyEquities regulated?

Yes, EasyEquities is the brand of First World Trader (Pty) Ltd in South Africa, which is a Financial Services Provider (FSP) authorized by South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

In Australia, EasyEquities is a Corporate Authorised Representative (AR No. 1276104) of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd, which is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Is EasyEquities safe?

To be certain if a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

EasyEquities operates through two legal entities. Neither of them provides any investor protection.

*More specifically, EasyEquities Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (AR No. 1276104) of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd and Sanlam Private Wealth Pty is regulated by the ASIC.

Background

EasyEquities was established in 2014. The longer the track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

EasyEquities is part of the Purple Group, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Find your safe broker

EasyEquities is a solid South African stockbroker.

As a plus, its stock and ETF fees are low. There is also no withdrawal or inactivity fee. The quality of educational materials and the account opening process is great.

On the negative side, customer service is not very responsive, especially as there is no live chat support. Research tools are rather basic, and the product selection is quite limited.

Feel free to try EasyEquities as there is no inactivity fee or minimum deposit for standard accounts.

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Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our EasyEquities fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the EasyEquities minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your EasyEquities account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the EasyEquities account opening.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the EasyEquities trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the EasyEquities customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is EasyEquities legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether EasyEquities is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is EasyEquities good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on EasyEquities?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on EasyEquities guide

I want to trade options, are they available at EasyEquities?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on EasyEquities?