Why choose Royal
Royal is an Australian forex broker that offers low non-trading fees with no inactivity or account fees. You can use a lot of deposit options and most of them are free of charge. Also, several high-quality research tools are available.
On the negative side, Royal has high trading fees, especially for forex, and it offers a limited product portfolio covering only CFDs and forex. There is a fee charged for most non-wire withdrawal methods, and we missed some educational tools, such as webinars.
AwardBroker gave Royal a 3.5/5 rating based on analyzing 600+ criteria and testing via opening a live account.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ Low non-trading fees ❖ Many deposit options ❖ Great research tools | ❖ Slim product portfolio ❖ Most withdrawal methods carry a fee ❖ No webinars and platform tutorial videos |
Royal at a glance
| 🗺 Country of regulation | Australia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Vanuatu |
|---|---|
| 🛡️ Negative balance protection | No |
| 💰 FX commission per lot | $3.50 commission per lot per trade |
| 💰 EURUSD spread | 0.2 |
| 💰 Inactivity fee charged | No |
| 💰 Withdrawal fee | $0 |
| 💰 Minimum deposit | $50 |
| 💵 Available base currencies | AED, AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, JPY, MXN, NZD, PLN, SEK, SGD, THB, TRY, USD, ZAR |
| 💵 Conversion fee of deposits in non-base currency | Exchange rate received from liquidity providers plus a mark-up. We used the EURUSD trading fees for the calculation. |
| 💳 Deposit with bank card | Available |
| 👛 With electronic wallet | Available |
| 🕖 Time to open an account | 1 day |
| 🎮 Demo account provided | Yes |
| 💵 Number of currency pairs | 50 |
| 🛍️ Products offered | Forex, CFD, Crypto |
Fees
Score: 2.1/5
Royal has average non-trading fees and it charges no inactivity fee. However, forex and CFD trading fees are high and most withdrawal options other than bank transfer carry a fee.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ No inactivity fee | ❖ High forex fees ❖ Most withdrawal methods carry a fee |
We compared Royal‘s fees with two similar brokers we selected, Eightcap and TMGM. These competitors were selected based on objective factors like products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed comparison of Royal alternatives.
High FX fees
Royal charges a forex commmission: $3.50 commission per lot per trade. Spread costs come on top of this, e.g. the EUR/USD spread is 0.2.
| Broker | EURUSD spread | FX commission per lot |
|---|---|---|
| Royal | 0.2 | $3.50 commission per lot per trade |
| Eightcap | 0.1 | $3.50 commission per lot per trade |
| TMGM | 0.1 | $3.50 commission per lot per trade |
High index CFD fees
All index CFD fees are built into the spread. The spread for S&P 500 index CFDs is 1.7.
Low stock CFD fees
All stock CFD fees are built into the spread. The spread for Apple stock CFDs is 0.3.
No inactivity fee, average withdrawal fee
The broker does not charge an inactivity or account fee. There is also no deposit fee in most cases, but a withdrawal feeis charged on almost all withdrawal methods other than bank transfer. Scroll down a bit for more details on deposit and withdrawal fees.
The deposit and withdrawal fees are different for bank transfers, credit/debit cards and electronic wallets.
| Method | Deposit fee | Withdrawal fee |
|---|---|---|
| Credit/debit card | Free | Up to 2% |
| Bank transfer | Free in most cases* | Free** |
| Neteller, Skrill, NganLuong.vn, GlobePay, Perfect Money, Trustly, UnionPay | Free | Up to 2% |
| PayR | Free | 3% |
| Interac | Free | 2% |
| FasaPay | Free for deposits over $1,000 | 0.5% |
| Paytrust88 | Free for deposits over $1,000 | 2% |
| Poli | 1% | N.A. |
| OMT | Variable | Variable |
| Cheque | Free | Free |
| Crypto (BTC, ETH, XRP, USDT) | 0.8% | 0.5% |
*No deposit fees for Westpac, AstroBank and Hellenic Bank wire transfers. In addition, $30 of any intermediary fees on deposits over $500 are also covered.
**Free, but intermediary banks may charge a fee.
Safety
Royal is regulated by multiple financial authorities, including the top-tier ASIC. However, the broker is not listed on any exchange and doesn't disclose its financials transparently.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ Well-designed platform ❖ Great account opening ❖ Quick and helpful customer support | ❖ Inactivity fee charged ❖ High conversion fee |
Pros
- Negative balance protection
- Investor protection
Cons
- Not listed on stock exchange
- Financial information is not publicly available
Is Royal regulated?
Yes, it is regulated by the following financial authorities:
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
- Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
- Lebanon's Capital Markets Authority (CMA)
- Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC)
- Financial Services Authority (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
Is Royal safe?
To be certain that a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:
- how you are protected if something goes wrong
- the background of the broker.
How you are protected
Clients are onboarded under multiple legal entities that are regulated by different authorities. This matters because the amount of protection you're eligible for differs from entity to entity. In Royal‘s case, only clients under the Cyprus entity are covered by any protection.
When you start the registration process, you can select the country that you would like to be onboarded to.
| Protection amount | Regulator | Legal entity |
|---|---|---|
| No protection | Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) | Royal Financial Trading Pty Ltd |
| €20,000 | Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) | Royal Financial Trading (CY) Ltd |
| No protection | Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of Lebanon | Royal Financials SAL |
| No protection | Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) | Royal CM Limited |
| No protection | Financial Services Authority (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) | Royal ETP LLC |
Royal provides negative balance protection. If the balance on your account goes into negative, you will be protected.
Background
Royal was established in 2006. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.
Deposit and withdrawal
Score: 4.5/5
Royal‘s deposit and withdrawal services are user-friendly, with several account base currencies available. On the other hand, withdrawals carry a fee in most cases.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ Credit/Debit card available ❖ Several account base currencies ❖ User-friendly | ❖ Most withdrawal options carry a fee |
Account base currencies
At Royal, you can choose from the following 19 base currencies:
| AED | AUD | CAD | CHF |
| DKK | EUR | GBP | HKD |
| HUF | JPY | MXN | NZD |
| PLN | SEK | SGD | THB |
| TRY | USD | ZAR |
Royal offers a great base currency selection when compared to its closest competitors.
Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you won't have to pay 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.
Deposit fees and options
Royal charges no deposit fees.
In a few cases, however, you may have to pay a fee for depositing funds. For example, Poli deposit has a 1% fee, while crypto deposits carry a 0.8% fee.
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.
Royal supports the following electronic wallets:
| Neteller | Skrill | fasapay | POLI |
| NganLuong.vn | Globepay | Perfect Money | Trustly |
| UnionPay | Poli | Paytrust | Pay Retailers |
| Interac | OMT |
There are also cryptos you can use to deposit: BTC, USDT, XRP, or ETH.
Royal review – Deposit and withdrawal – Deposit
Royal withdrawal fees and options
Royal charges a withdrawal fee for most withdrawal methods, except for bank transfer and cheque. See our detailed table a bit below for the withdrawal fees for the different withdrawal methods.
You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.
There is a withdrawal fee charged for most withdrawal options other than bank transfer.
| Method | Withdrawal fee |
|---|---|
| Credit/debit card | Up to 2% |
| Bank transfer | Free* |
| Neteller, Skrill, NganLuong.vn, GlobePay, Perfect Money, Trustly, UnionPay | Up to 2% |
| PayR | 3% |
| Interac | 2% |
| FasaPay | 0.5% |
| Paytrust88 | 2% |
| Poli | N.A. |
| OMT | Variable |
| Cheque | Free |
| Crypto (BTC, ETH, XRP, USDT) | 0.5% |
*Free, but intermediary banks may charge a fee.
How long does it take to withdraw money from Royal? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 1 business day.
How do you withdraw money from Royal?
- Once logged in to your account, select ‘Funds' on the left side of the menu.
- Select ‘Withdrawal'.
- Choose a withdrawal option.
- Fill out the form and send it.
Account opening
Score: 5/5
The account opening process at Royal is user-friendly and fully digital. On the other hand, it took more than 5 days for us to get our account approved.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ Fully digital ❖ Low minimum deposit ❖ User-friendly | ❖ Took more than 5 days |
Can you open an account?
No, you can't open an account at Royal if you live in the United States!
the United States
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86.67% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Royal accepts customers from all around the world.
What is the minimum deposit at Royal?
The required Royal minimum deposit is $50.
Account types
Royal provides 3 account categories by ownership type:
- Individual
- Joint
- Corporate
In terms of fee structure, you can choose from two main account types: Zero and Core. Within each category, the exact fees you are charged depends on the amount of money you deposit in your account, which ranks you as either a Classic or VIP client.
| Classic | VIP | |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | $50 – $9,999 | from $10,000 |
| Minimum spread as low as (pips) | ||
| Zero account | 1.4 | 0.4 |
| ECN account | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Commission per lot per trade | ||
| Zero account | $0.0 | $0.0 |
| ECN account | $7 | $3.5 |
| Maximum Leverage for Professional Clients | 1:1000 | |
| Maximum Leverage for Retail Clients | 1:30 | |
| Platforms | MT4 / Webtrader / Multi Terminal | |
| Account Currency | AED, AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, JPY, MXN, NZD, PLN, SEK, SGD, THB, TRY, USD, ZAR |
How to open your account
The online registration process was seamless and easy, and we completed it in 10 minutes. However, the account verification was unusually longer than expected. It took more than 5 days for the broker to verify our account.
The steps you need to go through to open your account are as follows:
- Provide your name, email, mobile number, country of residence and account type.
- Add more personal details, like address and information about your financial status.
- Select the account currency and the amount you plan to deposit.
- Upload documents for verification. You can upload a passport, national ID, or driving license to verify your identity. Utility bills and bank statements are accepted as proof of residency.
- Wait for Royal to verify your account.
- After your account is verified, you need to make your first deposit.
Royal review – Account opening
Mobile app
Score: 3.3/5
Royal has a great mobile trading platform, provided by MetaTrader 4. It is well-designed and user-friendly, but lacks a more secure login.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ User-friendly ❖ Good search function ❖ Price alerts | ❖ No two-step (safer) login ❖ No Touch/Face ID login |
Similarly to the web trading platform, Royaloffers MetaTrader 4 as a mobile trading platform. MT4 is available for both iOS and Android. We tested it on iOS.
After you download the MT4 mobile trading platform, you have to access the ‘RoyalPlatforms-Real' server.
The mobile trading platform is available in several languages.
| Arabic | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional) | Czech | English |
| French | German | Greek | Hindi | Indonesian |
| Italian | Japanese | Korean | Polish | Portuguese |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Russian | Spanish | Thai | Turkish |
| Ukrainian | Vietnamese |
Look and feel
Royal has a great mobile trading platform in MT4, we really liked its design and user-friendliness. You will easily find every feature.
Royal review – Mobile trading platform
Login and security
Royal provides only a one-step login for its mobile platform. A two-step authentication would be more secure and adding this feature should be high on any company's list of security changes.
You can't log in using biometric authentication. Providing this feature would be more convenient.
Search functions
The search functions are good.
You can search by typing the name of the product or by navigating the category folders.
Royal review – Mobile trading platform – Search
Placing orders
You can use the following order types on the mobile trading platform:
- Market
- Limit
- Stop
There are also order time limits you can use:
- Good 'til canceled (GTC)
- Good 'til time (GTT)
Royal review – Mobile trading platform – Order panel
Alerts and notifications
You cannot set alerts and notifications on the Royal mobile platform.
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86.67% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Desktop platform
Score: 2.8/5
Royal uses the MetaTrader web trading platform. It is highly customizable and has a clear fee report. However, its design is outdated and it lacks a two-step login and price alerts.
| ✅ Pro | ❌ Cons |
| ❖ Clear fee report ❖ Good customizability (for charts, workspace) ❖ Order confirmation | ❖ No two-step (safer) login ❖ No price alerts ❖ Poor design |
Royal offers MetaTrader 4 as a desktop trading platform.
The platform has the same design, is available in the same languages, offers the same order types (plus Trailing stop), and has the same search functions as the web trading platform.
The portfolio and fee reports are clear as well, and you can download them if you right-click on the ‘History' tab and select ‘Save as detailed report'.
The major difference is that you can set alerts and notifications on the desktop trading platform in the form of mobile push or email notifications. To do this, you have to provide your email address and mobile MetaQuotes ID, which you can find in the MT4 app's settings by going to the ‘Tools' menu and then selecting ‘Options'.
Royal review – Desktop trading platform
VISIT BROKER
86.67% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Product selection
Score: 2.1/5
At Royal, you can trade only forex, CFDs and cryptos. This means that many popular asset classes, like real stocks and ETFs, are not available.
Royal is primarily a forex broker, but it also provides some CFDs and cryptos for trading. To learn more about CFDs, please read our CFD trading tips.
Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 86.67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
At Royal, you can change the default leverage level of the products. This is great, as we think it is something you should be in control of.
You can choose from these leverage options:
- 10:1
- 20:1
- 30:1
- 100:1
Changing the leverage is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. Be careful with forex and CFD trading, as preset leverage levels may be too high.
Social Trading
Royal has partnerships with social trading providers. This means that clients can follow trades made by other traders in Royal's Social Trading System directly from their trading accounts.
2 social trading providers are available: ZuluTrade and Myfxbook.
ZuluTrade is a peer-to-peersocial trading platform where you can mimic the trading strategies of thousands of registered currency traders from 192 countries. Using ZuluTrade’s proprietary performance evaluation algorithm and feedback from ZuluTrade’s knowledgeable community, Royal clients can customize trades according to their preferences and risk tolerance.
Myfxbook is a social trading site, which allows users to share, analyze, track and compare their trading activities. It also allows users to set up auto-trading to follow selected traders. Myfxbook is an affiliate of Royaland MetaTrader 4 is fully integrated with the Myfxbook system. All that a Royal client has to do is sign up for a Myfxbook account and link it to their Royal account.
FAQ
We recommend Royal for traders looking for low forex fees and preferring the metatrader platform.
Below you can find links to all aspects of Royal in this comprehensive collection.
Lower fees, lower costs?
We detailed this in our Royal fees article.
What about the minimum deposit?
Our ultimate guide to the Royal minimum deposit is updated regularly.
How to start your Royal account?
Look no further than our evaluation of the Royal account opening.
How's their trading app?
Here's our expert view after checking the Royal trading app.
Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?
All you need to know about the Royal customer service.
Legit or scam?
Is Royal 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 Royal is really free.
Is this broker good for beginners?
We checked it in Is Royal good for beginners.
Should you buy your silver bullets on Royal?
Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on Royal guide
I want to trade options, are they available at Royal?
We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Royal?
What is the minimum account balance at Royal?
Check out the current account balance requirements at Royal in our What is the minimum account balance at Royal article.
Looking for commission and fees data for Royal?
We collected them in Royal commission and fees.
How do you withdraw money from Royal?
We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on Royal.