VaultOptions
VaultOptions is a binary options website which opened its doors to the public in 2011 and is based in the British Virgin Islands. The company accepts traders from the USA. Generally speaking, they are lacking in many features that would make them stand out as a broker worthy of consideration. They have no mobile trading, no demo accounts. and their customer service is also not particularly impressive. They don’t have much in the way of trading tools or resources, either, and there are no account tiers. The main draw is their hefty bonus offers. Their payout values and refunds are quite reasonable, and their SpotOption powered interface is very polished.
Opening a VaultOptions Account
Getting started with VaultOptions takes only a few minutes. You can deposit in either US Dollars or Euros using credit or debit card, wire transfer or CashU. The minimum deposit is just $100, but you should definitely invest more than that into your account since the withdrawal minimum is also set at $100. In other words, if you deposit the minimum and then lose a trade, you cannot withdraw your remaining funds and your money is no longer accessible to you at all. $100 is really not enough money to trade with and invest a responsible amount on your trades to begin with, however, so if you are a serious trader, you should be opening an account with more than that for that reason as well.
In terms of fees, VaultOptions only charges you $25 for wire transfers. There are no other associated fees for depositing, withdrawing, or trading. The $100 minimum withdrawal limit does contribute to the factors against recommending VaultOptions as a broker.
Trading Features on VaultOptions
The SpotOptions-powered platform really does look very sophisticated, and it is easy to read at a glance. There are 80 currencies, stocks, indices, and commodities available to trade, and you can place High/Low, One Touch, and 60 Seconds trades. Option Builder and Pro Trader give you more control over the trades that you place, and you can use double up and rollover to increase your investment.
The minimum trade size is $25 and the maximum trade size is $4,000. This is actually a nice wide range, especially for traders with big accounts who want to wager a lot on their trades. You can further increase your market exposure by accepting one of the bonuses offered by VaultOptions. Match bonuses of up to 50% on $1,000 and up to 100% on $2,000 or above are quite high compared to most of the bonuses offered by brokers in the binary options industry. Keep in mind these bonuses are leverage-based and not actual cash. You don’t get to convert the amount to cash until you achieve a certain turnover in your account. Until then, the bonuses boost your exposure, enabling you to profit (or lose) more quickly. This is a double edged blade and should be treated as one by serious traders and gamblers alike. If you like the idea of exposing yourself to a lot of risk, however and enjoy the thrill of knowing you could gain or lose a lot of money on a single trade, the bonuses are perfect.
Unfortunately, this is really it as far as trading features are concerned. There are no other exciting tools on the site, and the educational resources are limited to basics like how-to pages, a glossary. and a FAQ. There are no video tutorials, online courses, or other resources to speak of. Most binary options websites offer a fair bit more than this. So that is yet another drawback.
VaultOptions Customer Service
Customer service is available for VaultOptions customers via live chat, email, or telephone. The live chat desk was staffed when we checked in to ask some questions about information we were having a hard time locating on the site (and there were a number of gaps). The customer service agent joined the chat room fairly quickly, but the live chat interface itself was quite slow, and the customer service agent took a long time to answer each of our questions. The wait times were quite annoying, and the agent, while informative (after looking up the information) was not particularly amicable.
More annoying was the sudden disappearance of the agent about halfway through the list of questions. The agent simply stopped typing and never returned, even though we stayed on the chat line for another twenty minutes or so waiting. It is possible the agent walked away or that there was an error in the program or the connection broke. Either way, we had to search for the answers to our other questions on our own. So this was a very mixed experience. On one hand, finding an actual human being to talk to was great. It doesn’t happen all that often. On the other hand, that person was barely helpful, and we spent a lot of time on the chat line with only limited results, which was very frustrating. Customer service should save you time, not waste it.
Final Thoughts on VaultOptions
There are things about VaultOptions which can be appreciated. The wide range of investment amounts is excellent, especially for traders who have a large sum of money to invest in binary options. The different types of trades themselves are good, and there are a few features which make trading easier. And if you are into large bonuses, the 50-100% match bonuses are very attractive.
But the site’s deficiencies really stand out. Mobile trading is missing, a demo account is absent, and there are few educational resources. The existing resources are poorly organized and have many informational gaps. Customer service is existent, but inadequate. The high withdrawal minimum only adds to the problems that plague the site.
VaultOptions may not be entirely a negative experience, but they have a long ways to go before they can offer an experience which is genuinely positive and potentially lucrative. There are many other SpotOption white label sites which offer far better service and features. We would recommend that you check into some of these other binary options brokers.
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