The short version
- Start with the regulator's register, not the firm's website: confirm the exact legal entity that would hold your money.
- Compare the full cost of a round trip and a withdrawal, not the headline fee.
- Bonuses, pressure to deposit, guaranteed returns and unusual payment methods are reasons to walk away.
How to choose a broker or a crypto exchange is less about finding the perfect firm than about ruling out the unsafe ones and understanding what the rest will cost you. We do not recommend or rank companies. Instead, here are ten checks you can apply to any forex broker, share-dealing service or crypto platform, with notes on how the answers differ between them.
Keep a simple note for each platform you look at, with a line per check. Writing the answers down makes gaps obvious.
Checks 1 to 3: who you are really dealing with
1. Is the firm authorised where you live?
Go to your national regulator's website and search its public register, rather than following a link from the firm. In the UK that is the FCA register; elsewhere it may be the securities commission, the central bank or a dedicated crypto licensing authority. Check that the firm's name, registered address and website domain match the register entry. Clone firms copy the details of genuine authorised companies, so a match on the name alone is not enough; contact details should match too.
2. Which legal entity would hold your account?
International groups often run several companies in different countries. The well-regulated one may not be the one that opens your account, especially if the site routes you to a "global" version offering higher leverage. The client agreement names the entity; read that line.
3. What protections come with that entity?
Ask how client money and assets are held, whether they are segregated from the firm's own funds, and whether any compensation scheme applies. For crypto, look for published information about custody arrangements and reserves, and be realistic: a proof-of-reserves report shows assets at a moment in time and does not always show liabilities.
Checks 4 to 6: what it will cost
4. The full round-trip cost
Add up what you pay to open and close a typical trade: commission or trading fee, the spread, any currency conversion, and for leveraged positions the overnight financing. A platform with no commission can still be expensive if its spreads are wide. Our guide to trading fees explained walks through each charge.
Worked example (illustrative figures)
Buying $2,000 of bitcoin at a 0.5% fee costs $2,000 × 0.5% = $10. At 0.1% it costs $2. Selling later costs a similar amount again, so the difference roughly doubles over a round trip, and it repeats every time you trade.
5. Deposits and withdrawals
Check which payment methods are accepted, what each costs, how long withdrawals take and whether there are minimums. For crypto, look at the withdrawal fee for each coin and which networks are supported for USDT and bitcoin. Withdrawals should go back to an account or wallet in your own name; be suspicious of any firm that asks you to pay a fee or "tax" before it will release a withdrawal.
6. Inactivity and account fees
Some providers charge a monthly fee after a period without trading, or custody fees on holdings. These are easy to miss because they are not shown on the order screen.
Checks 7 and 8: the products on offer
7. What exactly are you buying?
Owning a share or a coin is different from holding a CFD, a future or a perpetual swap, which are contracts with the provider. Derivatives allow leverage and short selling but add financing costs and the risk of being closed out. Crypto platforms may also offer "earn", staking and lending products, which can involve lending your coins to others. Understand each before using it, and treat very high advertised yields as a sign of high risk.
8. Leverage and risk controls
Regulated providers in the UK and EU are limited to 30:1 on major currency pairs, 20:1 on gold and major indices, 5:1 on individual shares and 2:1 on crypto for retail clients, and must provide negative balance protection. A provider offering far higher leverage to you is probably doing so from an entity without those rules. Check whether the platform supports stop-loss orders and how it handles margin calls. Our margin calculator helps you see what a given leverage means in practice.
Checks 9 and 10: safety and service
9. Security features
Look for two-factor authentication with an authenticator app or security key rather than SMS alone, withdrawal address allow-lists, login alerts and the option to lock withdrawals for a period after changing security settings. A platform should never ask for your password or recovery phrase by chat or email.
10. Support and complaints
Find out how to contact support, whether there is a formal complaints procedure and whether an independent ombudsman or dispute scheme applies in your country. Try asking a pre-sales question; the quality of the answer is informative.
Deal-breakers
- Guaranteed or unusually high returns, or pressure to deposit quickly.
- Contact that started with an unsolicited message, a dating app or a social media "mentor".
- Bonuses for depositing; these are banned for retail CFD clients in the UK, EU and Australia.
- Deposits requested by gift card, in crypto, or into somebody's private bank account.
- An app installed from a link rather than an official app store, or a website address that differs slightly from the real one.
- A balance that grows impressively but cannot be withdrawn without extra payments.
Our full guide to how to spot trading scams explains these tactics in detail.
How to choose a broker for each market
The ten checks apply everywhere, but each market has its own points of emphasis.
Forex and CFD brokers
Look at typical spreads on the pairs you would trade, not only the best-case figure in the advert, and whether they widen sharply at news or at the daily rollover. Check the financing rates for positions held overnight, whether the broker acts as the counterparty to your trades, and how it handles margin close-outs. The risk warning showing the share of retail accounts that lose money is required in the UK and EU and is worth reading.
Share-dealing and investment accounts
Weigh the dealing commission against the account or custody fee, the foreign exchange charge on overseas shares, and the range of funds and markets available. Check whether tax-advantaged accounts are offered where you live and whether you can transfer holdings to another provider later without selling them.
Crypto exchanges and apps
Focus on custody and withdrawals: whether you can move coins to your own wallet, which networks are supported, how withdrawal fees compare, and what the platform publishes about how customer assets are held. Check whether the product you buy is the coin itself or a contract that only tracks its price.
Whatever the market, the free pip, margin and crypto profit calculators help you put numbers on what each platform's terms would mean for a typical trade.
Putting the checks together
Once you have a shortlist that passes checks 1 to 3, compare the rest on the things that matter for how you intend to use the platform. A long-term investor buying funds monthly should weigh account fees and fund charges; an occasional crypto buyer should weigh card fees, spreads and withdrawal costs; a forex trader should weigh spreads, commission and financing. There is no universally best platform, only a better fit for a specific use.
Start small. Deposit a modest amount, make a trade, and test a withdrawal before committing more. How the platform handles that first withdrawal tells you more than any review.
Next, read how forex works or how crypto works, depending on which market you plan to use.
Reader questions
Are online reviews of brokers reliable?
Treat them with caution. Many comparison sites are paid per referral, and review scores can be manipulated in both directions. The regulator's register and the firm's own legal documents are more reliable starting points.
Is an offshore broker always a scam?
Not always, but an offshore entity usually offers fewer protections, and disputes are harder to resolve. Many scams also claim offshore licences that turn out to be registrations with no real supervision.
Should I keep all my crypto on one exchange?
Concentrating everything with one custodian means one failure or account freeze affects all of it. Many people keep only what they actively trade on a platform and hold the rest in a wallet they control.
Sources
- UK Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Services Register and warning list
- European Securities and Markets Authority, CFD product intervention measures
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission, CFD product intervention order