Problem SparenFX

[wlthintl]

We have had an account with SparenFX (Sparen FX) and have been happy with the operation of same for the majority of the time that the account has been operational.

However, in the past months we have requested withdrawals but have not received same. This has been ongoing.

Sparen offers the excuse that all of their funds were tied up due to problems with Eurowire halting operations when ING purchased PostBank. We can verify through news sources that Eurowire did indeed halt operations following the bank buyout -- that is a matter of public record, however I find it somewhat difficult to believe that funds cannot be transferred anywhere merely because Eurowire isn't operating.

The good news is that we are told that Eurowire will re-commence operations this week, so hopefully we will not have long to wait prior to verifying the story -- one way or another.

The bad news is that Sparen's once beautifully operating platform has now started sticking really badly to the point of being pretty much untradeable, so it appears that we will no longer be able to trade effectively using their platform anyway.

Does anyone have additional information about this broker, or the ability to verify if whether or not their story about Eurowire creating complications for them is accurate?

 

[gbfree]

Sparen Sucks

It has been a couple of months and I can not get my funds out of them.
I also have had problems getting the platform to work. The MT4 platform was one of the fastest, immediate fills, and now the delay in execution makes the platform untradable. I just want my money out of them and they keep giving me the same excuses as you mention about Euro-Wire. Help!!!!!!!!

 

[A1programmer]

Been with SparenFX for 10 months

I am an IB with sparen for 10 months and have 30+ clients with them. We have never had a problem with taking money out or with their great feeds. Once their aggregate feed locked up for 3 minutes but that is the worst incident. They are not for the small trader and have canceled three of my clients due to terms violations.

PM me for help if I can.

Jaime

 

[wlthintl]

I am an IB with sparen for 10 months and have 30+ clients with them. We have never had a problem with taking money out or with their great feeds. Once their aggregate feed locked up for 3 minutes but that is the worst incident. They are not for the small trader and have canceled three of my clients due to terms violations.

PM me for help if I can.

Jaime

Thanks for your reply, A1. I would love to contact you directly via private message, but that doesn't seem to be possible. I clicked on your username in your post, but there was no option to message you.

We have been with these guys for about the same amount of time that you have, maybe a little longer. For us the platform worked REALLY well for an initial period of maybe 6 months and then all of a sudden started sticking and having terrible delays when trades were being entered, to the point that it really was no longer tradeable. If your clients continue to trade with no issues, then I don't know what the problem could be.

As I said in my earlier post, we have been told by our IB that funds were locked up as a result of problems with Eurowire (and now apparently some other issue with alleged dirty money coming into their account). We were initially told that the issue would be resolved this past week, but that time frame has passed and we are now told that the bank will have things sorted out "imminently".

So here we wait...

 

[gbfree]

A1 please add a v-card with your email address or an instant messanging user so we can contact you. Strange how you are some clients at Sparen are having great expereinces and some not. Weird. or click my user and download my v-card or skypeme.
thanks

 

[A1programmer]

Thanks for your reply, A1. I would love to contact you directly via private message, but that doesn't seem to be possible. I clicked on your username in your post, but there was no option to message you.

We have been with these guys for about the same amount of time that you have, maybe a little longer. For us the platform worked REALLY well for an initial period of maybe 6 months and then all of a sudden started sticking and having terrible delays when trades were being entered, to the point that it really was no longer tradeable. If your clients continue to trade with no issues, then I don't know what the problem could be.

As I said in my earlier post, we have been told by our IB that funds were locked up as a result of problems with Eurowire (and now apparently some other issue with alleged dirty money coming into their account). We were initially told that the issue would be resolved this past week, but that time frame has passed and we are now told that the bank will have things sorted out "imminently".

So here we wait...

withintl, sounds like an IB problem. Your scrap should be with where ever you sent your money. Did you send funds to your IB or sparen. I do not handle client funds. All of my clients deal directly with sparen people and they have had no problems with withdrawals or any matter either. The platform has performed very well for us with no recent problems. So your comments regarding tradability puzzle me. Has your internet connection or other tech issues changed within the last 2-3 months? If there were platform problems I would be stepping all over the tech people at sparen. I have dealt with Hans and Liz both very good to work with. We especially like the multiple feeds sparen offers. One of my EA's only works with them.

 

[wlthintl]

Hmmm...

withintl, sounds like an IB problem. Your scrap should be with where ever you sent your money. Did you send funds to your IB or sparen. I do not handle client funds. All of my clients deal directly with sparen people and they have had no problems with withdrawals or any matter either. The platform has performed very well for us with no recent problems. So your comments regarding tradability puzzle me. Has your internet connection or other tech issues changed within the last 2-3 months? If there were platform problems I would be stepping all over the tech people at sparen. I have dealt with Hans and Liz both very good to work with. We especially like the multiple feeds sparen offers. One of my EA's only works with them.

Thanks for the further info.

That this is an IB problem is certainly a possibility. We have inquired regarding said possibility directly with Sparen, but are not receiving responses to our queries. If this is the case, we would hope that they would confirm.

We have made no technical changes within the past 2 to 3 months and platforms for other brokers are working without a hitch. The Sparen platform is giving us problems from multiple computers in multiple locations (on different internet accounts), so it does seem to be the platform. I don't know why our accounts would be sticky and yours would not as it would seem that all would run on the same feed. But perhaps not.

How is it that you contact the tech people at Sparen? We leave messages via the platform but never get a reply.

 

[Maranello]

Hi, I saw this discussion about SparenFX and just wanted to say that our group has been trading there since early 2009 and we've had no problems whatsoever. We've tried literally every brokerage out there and couldn't have found a better place for our systems than Sparen. Their feed and execution are on a totally different level than what you get from other well known brokers.

They are a smaller brokerage and some of the things don't work like they do on other fancy brokers, it just depends on what you want to get from a broker. Chatting 24/7, withdrawals the next day or core trading? Their business model is different, and they are limited on their staff, which might take a bit longer to reply, but they always come back to us. Their withdrawals take longer (that means sometimes up to 2 weeks, but if bank instructions are wrong, it can take longer!!), because they don't have a reserve pool like the big brokers, but as an ECN broker, they have to withdraw clients' funds from their liquidity providers first. And that's about it. That eliminates the conflict of interests, and that suits us. For us it's easy to swallow some of those negatives for what we get in return. Of course some clients find those problems interrupting, and Sparen is certainly not the brokerage for those. Depends on what you want.

About the technical issues, we've never had them in our year of trading with them. Maybe we've been lucky, maybe not, but the thing is, they have worked better than all the rest we've tried. And that's good enough for us.

 

[Jbam]

I also have had good experiences with Sparen, trade wise in particular. I will admit the customer service is far from great. But they always do come through for me. Im a relatively low maintenance investor, so I may not feel the customer service effect as much as others. I have made roughly 4 out-bound wires so far from them. The first two took a little longer - nearly 2 weeks. The last ones were quite speedy though (about 3 days). I think that it depends on when you put the request in. No probs on my end though. I am enjoying the execution I get with them.

 

[wlthintl]

Update

It seems that other people posting in this thread were correct -- the problem was with the IB.

We put forth the effort to get out from under the IB and get our accounts lodged "directly" with Sparen, which we were able to get both Sparen and the IB to agree to.

Shortly afterwards we requested a withdrawal which Sparen completed very quickly. Trading has also worked correctly since the switchover, so as of now we have no complaints about Sparen and are satisfied.

Hopefully this will continue indefinitely.