Hi Australian traders using PLUS500. I have had probably the worst experience I can remember when attempting to withdraw around $2,000.00 from my PLUS500 account. The withdrawal requests were rejected on a number of occasions with one exception where a valid request for my Credit/Debit card was requested and supplied. This was not required previously to validate and establish the account. Rather the 2nd reason for rejecting a withdrawal request.
Stupidly I suffered some losses and accept accountability for that, for all the obvious reasons and "Don't Do's" that we all understand. I think that with some forensic analysis however those transactions will uncover and discover some issues that accentuate the likelihood of incurring a loss using this platform. To be determined if I follow through with a dispute as they appear to invite (and purely my personal opinion at this stage).
There certainly was no issue with the account balance. Anyway I am up to my 4th attempt trying to recover (and withdraw) what is left in my account. Seriously, there is no actual support to assist making a withdrawal rather a glib reference to a 3-5 day delay to process a request. Then the withdrawal is rejected because My Financial Institution Wire Transfer isn't correct. The facility to provide this isn’t available within their withdrawal request screen. So although that info is supplied in a subsequent support thread explaining that in context their withdrawal screen “that it doesn't allow that code to be provided”. At this stage we are just going around in circles, which I fear they intentionally facilitate.
The deposit process appears flawed however when you use, in my case a Debit Card the draw-down your funds from your Bank, then the deposit into your account is instantaneous and credit to your PLUS500 account immediately. Try reversing the process and receiving those funds back into that account which POLI and other services handle. In the case of the PLUS500 support response, they just do not respond to queries, rather provide a GLIB support statement quoting there Policy and Procedures without actually responding to the request. This is basically the same as when you throw your money away dealing with a bookmaker using POLI. They extract the money instantaneously then reluctantly refund.
So try then saying that you wish to complain. Then your withdrawal request now becomes a complaint which they acknowledge and then convert your withdrawal request into a complaint. This process is provided in their Terms and Conditions and their Senior Complaints SUPPORT Officer from the "COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT" GLIBLY advises you that “the matter has been escalated and this new ticket will be handled "at their convenience" and should only take some weeks to fully investigate”. Please refer to Clause 32.4. In that Clause 32.4 of their T&C's they declare disputes will be promptly and fairly handled. They then direct you to lodge a complaint the Australian Financial Ombudsman and provide the contact details. Sounds reasonable however we simply want to withdraw our money and now need to achieve that through the Australian Financial Ombudsman.
