Tickmill review — costs, spreads & regulation

Overview

Legal / official name: Tickmill Ltd (Seychelles) — global operating entity of the privately held Tickmill Group; sister client-facing entities: Tickmill UK Ltd, Tickmill Europe Ltd, Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Parent company: Tickmill Group (privately held)
Founded: 2014 (group co-founded by brothers Ingmar and Illimar Mattus; Tickmill UK Ltd FCA-authorised 29 Jul 2016)
Headquarters: London, UK (Tickmill UK Ltd, First Floor, The Bengal Wing, 9A Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YN); other entity offices: Limassol (Cyprus), Mahe (Seychelles), Sandton (South Africa)
Publicly listed: Not listed — privately held
Accepts customers from: Global coverage via entity matching: UK (Tickmill UK Ltd), EU/EEA (Tickmill Europe Ltd), South Africa (Tickmill SA), most of the rest of the world via the Seychelles entity. NOT accepted: United States (no CFTC/NFA registration — the founders' separate MetroTrade venture serves US futures instead), Canada and Japan (per secondary sources), plus sanctioned and FATF high-risk jurisdictions. Australia: no ASIC entity; acceptance via offshore entity unverified.

Regulation & entities

Brokers operate multiple legal entities; the protections and leverage you get depend on which one holds your account.

Entity	Regulator	Licence	Region
Tickmill UK Ltd	FCA (UK)	FRN 717270 (status: Authorised since 29/07/2016); also DFSA Representative Office, ref F007663 (Dubai marketing presence, not a separate client-facing licence)	United Kingdom
Tickmill Europe Ltd	CySEC (Cyprus)	278/15 (Cyprus Investment Firm)	EU/EEA
Tickmill Ltd	FSA Seychelles	SD008 (Securities Dealer)	Rest of world / international clients (the tickmill.com global site with 1:1000 leverage)
Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd	FSCA (South Africa)	FSP 49464	South Africa
Tickmill Asia Ltd (status uncertain)	Labuan FSA (Malaysia)	MB/18/0028 — appears in older/secondary material but is NOT listed on Tickmill's current (Jul 2026) licences-and-regulation page; possibly discontinued	Asia (historical; unverified in 2026)

Accounts & pricing

Account	Pricing model	Commission (round turn)	Typical EUR/USD spread	Min. deposit
Classic	spread-only (zero commission)	$0	advertised 'from 1.6 pips'; ~1.7 pips average per ForexBrokers 2026 testing	$100 (base currencies USD/EUR/GBP/ZAR)
Raw	raw spread + commission	$6.00 round turn ($3 per lot per side, broker-published)	from 0.0 pips; ~0.1 pips average (ForexBrokers 2026 testing; Myfxbook live-spread feed corroborates)	$100 (base currencies USD/EUR/GBP/ZAR)
TradingView Raw	raw spread + commission (trading via TradingView integration)	$7.00 round turn ($3.50 per lot per side, broker-published)	from 0.0 pips; separate average not published (same raw feed as Raw account, so likely ~0.1, unverified)	$100 (USD base only)

Professional client account

Professional-account data is being compiled for this broker.

Costs

Deposit fees: $0 on all methods (min deposit $100, UnionPay ¥700). Zero Fees Policy: bank-wire deposits ≥ $5,000 in a single transaction get transaction fees reimbursed up to $100 (claim within 1 calendar month with bank statement)
Withdrawal fees: $0 broker fee on ALL published methods: bank transfer, Visa/Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, crypto, UnionPay. Minimum withdrawal $25. Caveat: intermediary banks / e-wallet providers may levy their own charges (broker-stated)
Inactivity fee: Per consistent 2026 secondary sources (BrokerChooser et al.): account 'inactive' after 60 days of no trading/login/deposits with balance ≤ $/€/£50; after 12 months classified 'dormant' and charged $/€/£/CHF 10 (PLN 40) QUARTERLY until balance zero or activity resumes. Primary FAQ page could not be fetched — see confidence_notes. Note some older sources still say 'no inactivity fee' (policy changed)
Currency conversion: No internal Tickmill conversion fee published. Broker states currency conversions incur 'automatic fees applied by banks or e-wallet services' on non-standard currencies. Account base currencies USD/EUR/GBP/ZAR limit conversion exposure
Swap-free available: Yes — swap-free Islamic option advertised on all three account types (regional eligibility applies)
Swap notes: Swaps applied at 00:00 platform time; triple swap Wednesday night (FX value-date roll). Crypto CFDs: 10%/year swap charge on all LONG positions, with a 5-day swap-free period on MT4/MT5

Platforms & execution

MetaTrader 4: Yes — all entities; EAs supported
MetaTrader 5: Yes — all entities
cTrader: Not offered
TradingView: Yes — native integration via dedicated 'TradingView Raw' account ($3.50/side)
Proprietary: Tickmill Trader (web + mobile). ForexBrokers 2026 notes it lacks trailing stops, price alerts and algo support
API access: No public retail REST/FIX API (per ForexBrokers 2026). Algo via MT4/MT5 EAs; integrations with MultiCharts, MotiveWave, Sierra Chart; exchange-traded futures/options via CQG and AgenaTrader on Tickmill UK Ltd only

Execution model: Claimed: no-dealing-desk / agency-style execution with raw interbank pricing on Raw accounts. Assessed: OTC CFD counterparty (liquidity arrangements not publicly disclosed); independent classification (STP vs matched-principal/market-making mix) could not be verified — treat 'NDD' as a marketing claim
Max leverage (by region): Seychelles global entity: up to 1:1000 (FX). UK/EU retail: 1:30 majors (FCA/CySEC caps; higher for elective professionals — exact pro leverage not verified). South Africa: marketed up to 1:1000 (site shows ZAR base + 1:1000; per-entity confirmation limited). Crypto: EU retail 1:2, global 1:200 BTC/ETH/LTC
VPS: 20% discount on all BeeksFX VPS packages (Bronze/Silver/Gold) for Tickmill clients; secondary sources say no volume/deposit conditions; servers co-located near Tickmill's for low latency (tickmill.com/tools/vps)
Copy trading: Tickmill Social — in-house copy trading, available to live clients of the Seychelles entity in select regions (strategy providers from South Africa not accepted); web-based, no dedicated app. Former Pelican Trading and ZuluTrade integrations retired in 2025

Instruments

Forex: 62 currency pairs (ForexBrokers 2026 count; broker markets '60+')
CFDs: ~637 tradeable symbols total: 20+ stock indices, commodities (metals/energies), 500+ stock & ETF CFDs, bonds; plus exchange-traded futures and options available under Tickmill UK Ltd (CQG/AgenaTrader)
Crypto CFDs: ~10–15 crypto CFDs (BTC, ETH, LTC + alts: ADA, BCH, DOGE, DOT, LINK, MATIC etc.); offering expanded in 2026 incl. crypto ETF CFDs (compareforexbrokers)
Crypto for retail (no pro status): UK: NO — FCA ban on crypto derivatives for retail (Jan 2021) still in force in 2026; Tickmill does not offer crypto CFDs to UK retail clients. EU (CySEC): YES, retail leverage capped 1:2. Seychelles/global entity: YES, up to 1:200 on BTC/ETH/LTC and 1:20 on altcoins. South Africa: no ban known, presumed offered but not separately verified. Australia: Tickmill has NO ASIC entity — any AU clients would onboard with the offshore entity (acceptance unverified)

Consumer protection

Negative balance protection: Yes. UK/EU retail: statutory (FCA/ESMA rules). Global (Seychelles) entity: broker-stated policy — 'If market fluctuations cause your account to fall into negative equity, we will reset it to zero'
Client fund segregation: Yes — client funds held in segregated accounts separate from operational funds, at what the broker describes as regulated/tier-1 banks (bank names not disclosed)
Compensation scheme: UK (Tickmill UK Ltd): FSCS — investment compensation £85,000 per person per firm (NOTE: Tickmill's licences page cites '£120,000', which matches the NEW FSCS *deposit* limit effective 1 Dec 2025; investment claims against a failed broker remain capped at £85,000 per FSCS). EU (Tickmill Europe Ltd): CySEC ICF — 90% of claim, max €20,000. Seychelles entity: no statutory scheme, but broker-arranged Lloyd's of London insolvency insurance covering $20,000–$1,000,000 per client (certificate published). South Africa: no statutory compensation scheme
Stated retail loss %: ~69–73% depending on entity and period: 69% (Tickmill UK Ltd) / 73% (Tickmill Europe Ltd) per BrokerChooser-cited disclosures; ForexBrokers 2026 review quotes '73% of retail investor accounts lose money'. Live banner could not be scraped from the JS-rendered site

Reputation

Trustpilot: Rating currently SUPPRESSED: as of June 2026 Trustpilot shows a warning — rating 'unavailable due to a breach of our guidelines' and 'we've removed a number of fake reviews for this company'. Historical/underlying score ~3.1/5 over ~1,130 reviews (distribution ~59% 5-star, ~23% 1-star); earlier 2026 sources had cited ~4.0/5 (Trustpilot)

Regulatory actions / fines

No enforcement actions or fines found on FCA, CySEC or Seychelles FSA records in searches (multiple 2026 reviews describe a clean primary-regulator record over the past decade)
Unverified: one low-credibility aggregator (BrokerhiveX, 2025) alleges CySEC/FSA 'penalties' linked to a 2024 surge in withdrawal complaints — no primary-source confirmation found; treat as unsubstantiated
Trustpilot platform enforcement (not a financial regulator): fake-review removal + rating suppression, June 2026

Noted issues

Trustpilot fake-review enforcement and rating suppression (June 2026) — a reputation red flag for review-based trust signals
Recurring complaint themes 2024–2026: withdrawal delays, repeated KYC/document requests, account closures or fund holds after profitable runs
Research/education output reduced per ForexBrokers 2026 (livestreams paused 10+ months, podcasts discontinued)
Tickmill Trader app lacks trailing stops, price alerts, algo support
Clone/impostor domains exist (e.g. tickmilltrading.com, tickmills.pro are not the broker) — use tickmill.com only
Former Pelican/ZuluTrade copy-trading integrations retired 2025; in-house Tickmill Social is Seychelles-entity only

Sources

Every figure above is drawn from these sources, retrieved as of the dates shown.

Data notes: Left null / flagged: (1) CPA payout amounts — Tickmill does not publish CPA rates or country tiers publicly; the CPA agreement PDF (Apr 2024) defines 'qualified client' but compensation is in a private schedule via the affiliate portal, so cpa_range=null. (2) Inactivity fee — the $10/quarter-after-12-months-dormant structure comes from consistent 2026 secondary sources (BrokerChooser etc.); the primary FAQ page 404'd, and Tickmill historically advertised 'no inactivity fee', so verify against the current client agreement before publishing as gospel. (3) Retail loss % — Tickmill's risk-warning banner is JS-rendered and unscrapeable; figures from reviews range 69% (UK) to 76% across dates; I report 69–73% as the best-supported current range. (4) FSCS discrepancy — Tickmill's own page cites £120,000, but that is the new FSCS *deposit* limit (1 Dec 2025); the applicable *investment* compensation for a failed CFD broker remains £85,000 (FSCS.org.uk) — our profile should show £85k. (5) Labuan entity (Tickmill Asia Ltd, MB/18/0028) is absent from the current licences page — status uncertain, possibly wound down. (6) TradingView Raw average EURUSD spread not separately published (only 'from 0.0'). (7) Execution model — 'NDD' is the broker's claim; actual liquidity/hedging arrangement not independently verified. (8) South Africa entity specifics (leverage cap, crypto availability) not separately verified against FSCA disclosures. (9) UK/EU account lineup assumed to mirror the global Classic/Raw/TradingView Raw structure (the /uk and /eu paths served the global page with 1:1000 leverage, which cannot apply to UK/EU retail — their retail leverage is 1:30 by regulation); UK/EU professional leverage not verified. (10) Trustpilot state (suppressed rating, ~3.1 historical) is from June-2026 search snapshots — the page itself blocks fetching (403); re-verify before quoting. (11) Old Pro/VIP account tiers ($4 and $2 round turn) were retired in the 2024 account revamp — any source still quoting them is stale. All broker-site fetches and searches performed 2026-07-11.

Cost figures reflect each broker's published specifications as of 11 July 2026 and can change; always check the broker's current terms. Most retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs. PipTax compares costs and is not investment advice. How we research this.

Tickmill — costs, regulation & account details