Public: Stocks, Options, Bonds Reviews

by Laddvance

I hope people don’t download Public because they read this review . No way of reaching a real person on the phone. I have had a nightmare situation been begging for an actual person to call me going on 4 days now. And the phone number takes you to a message that says to email them and hangs up on you. Their customer service rep told me know phone support. Really ?? When you are putting your trust into a company with your money you deserve way better than this . There was a glitch that transferred $1715 , 5 x when I got an error purchasing a stock. Wound up not getting the stock and it went up the next day. Now there is $10,000 I didn’t authorize in my account because of the error. Luckily it was pending so I had to freeze and might have to cancel my bank account because this app won’t cancel the pending deposit . Won’t listen to or take my concerns seriously snd keep ignoring my request to look into it. I get some standard answers from them that they can’t reverse the pending amount . They don’t even have my money and will never get it but they won’t look into the error I claimed happened . And are putting me through the worst time here I’m Los Angeles county worst coronavirus situation in the country and these people are making me have to go to my bank. Unbelievable. No compassion for people . I hope people don’t download Public because of this review .

by N Kramer

Customer Service is Non-Existent, Apple Needs to step in and remove them from Public Store, they will at some point mess up and take your money, with no way to contact or get assistance. You are trusting your money with unregulated Snake Oils Salesperson…. Make the move now to an established company!! These people deserve jail time for what they do. 9 months in and they still have yet to respond even to my States AG!!

Stay Away from this app!! First there isn’t a Customer Service to Speak off!! Second when their system makes a mistake in App, they will expect you to cover it!! Stay Away!! App reported the number of shares I had double a few months ago, then was corporate event locking the stock, after that was removed, sold stock, now they are putting me on the Hook for Extra Stock that their app told me I owned. Be warned!! Even my states AG is finding them difficult or impossible to reach out to anyone at this app. Easiest way to Hide I guess is not respond. Edit: Developer responses faster to negative comment than they do to messages in app or through email!! Stay Away!! Update: March 01 ‘21, be warned they stole about 40 dollars from me and have yet to make it right almost 6 months afterwards. March 17 ‘21 they are now still holding onto and not allowing me to sell the stock they forced me to purchase. Stay Away!! They are not trustworthy!!

by Davidsphoto

I’ve been emailing this app time and time again about issue I am having over their app. It takes them over a week to respond, and when they do, it seems like they just pick a copy and paste response that matches my issue. On top of that, their basic in app support is so hard to get through when you just want to send a custom message. I’ve emailed them about multiple issues with their app that threatened my Portfolio and gave suggestions. They responded but only addressed one, and not the actual issues. On top of that, one of the companies I’m invested in, just went through a merger and made it final Friday the 30th of April. this app had 2 days to finalize the merger and follow the merger requirements. Yet they took their time, and I lost money because of it.
I do not feel safe with keeping my money with a company that is so hard to get ahold of and is failing to support their customers. On top of that, there are so many other apps that have a way better social community than Pubic like Webull. So I will at some point, be transferring all my holdings and cash, over to Webull. They have so many more trading options and you can even open an IRA there.

PS:
I see other reviews like this one and this app responds to it. So this app, if you do respond, you best be ready to make a phone call and appropriately address all issues on your app.

by Magast91

The interface is good, but I can’t abide an app constantly sending me useless and incessant notifications. Even if you have all notifications turned off within Public ’s own settings menu, you will still be bombarded daily with alerts that have zero relation to your portfolio or interests. this app lacks an honest notifications interface and merely has the appearance of granularity. The reality is far from it. I had to take the nuclear option and turn off all notifications at the iOS-level setting, meaning that I have to sacrifice the few notifications I actually do want: important notices about my account. And it’s all because all of these spam notifications that this app won’t let users filter out. Public itself is great, but I don’t need more spam in my life and the way they handle notifications feels downright gross. It’s a low-brow way to demand attention from their users and up their “engagement.” I expect this kind of bottom-feeding dark UX pattern from apps like Facebook, but not from a supposedly social-conscious app like this app. For people who don’t want to spend every day being reminded or spammed into messing with their investment portfolio, it becomes a huge turnoff and has led me to stop using this app. I recommend you avoid Public and use another service like Robinhood instead.

by Tyoesm

This was a great app, but lately they seem too focused on growth tactics that make Public UX really annoying. 1) I can’t clear my notifications badge, looks like it’s stuck permanently to ask me to search the community and connect with other people. I’m guessing it will turn off it I connect with other people? Who knows, I’m not going to do that. 2) lots of pop up banners every time I log into Public to invite people, gets in the way of me doing what I want to do. Basic UX rules are to show pop ups like this after a user takes an action of value, not as you’re coming into Public . That’s is so annoying. Also, if I’m not taking the action on the pop up, stop showing it to me after the 3rd time. 3) this app created a url with my trade information that shows up in a google search. This is probably the most annoying of them all, because I never opted in to have my user account searchable in Google. I tried to turn it off my this app profile in the this app app and it’s still up 5 days later. I don’t remember Robinhood making my profile searchable in Google. I’d still like to keep using Public if some of these items improve. The rest of Public is great.

by MrTimmy1969

This is not written in anger though it may seem so. I have many investing apps that work great. However this particular app is very difficult to access any type of support. They have an automated system which attempts to answer your questions, but falls short and does not offer a way to explain the issue to an AI or person that can help. In my circumstance I continue to get an insufficient funds error when I try to deposit. Of course, this is not the case, I have adequate funding in my bank account. I tried to access support, and followed the bot’s instructions on how to remedy this situation. It did not work. I returned to support to attempt to access an AI or person who could remedy the situation. Instead of being able to access any type of reasonable support it simply repeats the previous instructions. My advice is to move to a better investing platform such as WeBull or Robinhood. Once this app has addressed this issue it might be much better, but until then steer clear of Public.

Please disregard the reviews that say they are WeBull and Robinhood users that now like Public. Those two apps are by far superior to Public.

by Previous Public User

this app may act like it has no fees but that is wrong. They will sell you stocks and coins at an inflated margin to where you need several points to even even out on the get go. They will also take a percentage when you sell to where you will lose money from on every single investment period.
They do not allow money withdrawal for a minimum of 90 days. I know many people on here who are having to wait way longer than that.
The crypto market is not filled with as much variety as 90% of all other apps that allow crypto exchange.
The social platform is ok however many offer a degree of communication platform to where it’s really not a huge plus. It’s more of yeah we have that too.
The tipping is useless and doesn’t inspire better buys or sells its more yet another way for publics to pull extra money from you than they already take from your coins and stocks. There are sooooo many better platforms out there. DO NOT USE THIS ONE! It borders on scamming you. None of this is above board until you realize half way through and have to wait 90+ days to back out or get your funds.

by Hope This Helps!?!

Overall that app looks nice and it’s easy to navigate, but be careful if you’re purchasing at market price on Public the spread is pretty BIG. - the selection of stocks and ETFs is quite good -the first thing I noticed is that there’s no individual history for buying and selling as well as dividends for individual stocks -second the chart is OK but doesn’t really accurately portray pricing movements -I think my rating could’ve been somewhere between three and four stars except for this one fact when you sell stock and try to withdraw back to your account there is literally a glacial pace- example recently sold several stocks and ETFs had to wait SEVEN business days for it to change status from ‘unsettled cash’ to ‘available to withdraw’ status and only after I emailed the service desk did it magically shift so I could withdraw; once withdraw via ach was selected it just sits there under ‘pending’ status without posting-I guess I’m supposed to email again to remind this app to take care of processing my withdraw. As a user of several different stock, ETF, real estate, and crypto investing apps this is by far the absolute slowest in getting your own money back. /note -i’ve been using Public since last February and have made several withdrawals and have experienced issues on five out of six withdrawals not a very good track record.

by Iphone Photos

I signed up for this app because after reviewing Public and it’s features I liked what saw. After depositing money I noticed that it kept saying that it was pending. I then noticed that they were reviewing my account. After several days I inquired about the status of my account and was told that they were waiting for additional documentation and provided a list of acceptable documents. I took screen shot of my car insurance statement and uploaded it. I received a response that stated that screen shots were unacceptable and that I need to upload via PDF. I uploaded the PDF. I then got a message stating that because I opened my account more than 30 days ago and didn’t send them the required documents within that time frame, then I would have start over with a new a different e-mail address. I never received a request for additional documentation or I would have sent it. There are plenty of other investment apps out there, so I will choose one them instead.

by Low Falutin

First off, i like this app. I’ve had it for about 3 months. They explain cash account violations to you, which may be why my account is frozen. But every time you sell a stock, you are immediately given an equal amount of “buying power” even though the cash from the transaction clears two days later. That would seem to encourage fast trading that would lead to cash account violations. Furthermore, in your account details there’s a meter that’s supposed to track your violations to let you know if you’re on thin ice. This feature either does not work, or my account it frozen for some unknown reason and it is taking more than 24 hours to hear back from support.

I think this app is better than the other app brokers. But buying power seems to encourage what they want to prevent, which is “day trading” and if you’re gonna freeze my account you better have a clear communication system in place

by Katedgrate

I downloaded Public because of Graham Stephen. I enjoy the interactivity of Public as well as getting live updates and having all the stock news streamlined and easily available. I made the error of transferring my original brokerage to this app. I had emailed customer support to cancel the transfer but they replied saying it was too late and that the transfer had already cleared. I submitted a recall of my positions at least 2-3 times and all I got were replies that they would be contacting their clearing firm. Unfortunately it seems like they do not have clear communication with their clearing firm which is Apex. They kept telling me to contact my own brokerage to see if “my account was clear to receive the recall.” This kept up for at least 3-4 weeks and emailing them and only getting a reply it will be back in my account from 7-10 business days. My brokerage had not received any transfer request whatsoever. I ended up having to manually request a transfer from my original brokerage account as the this app team was no help and kept me in a loop around. I do not recommend you transfer all your accounts to this platform as customer service doesn’t have any idea of what goes on with their clearing firm. Use it with some money you have to play around but not your whole entire portfolio. They will keep your money hostage like other previous reviewers have said.

by Nikmdi07

I want be on app where they treat me as a customer not a selling product. this app has pledged not to get involved in PFOP (Payment for order flow) and I was sold right there. I was skeptical about the interactive part of it where you can connect other retail investors and see what they have in their portfolio and watch list, i felt invasive in beginning but now i think I kinda like it.

Not giving 5 stars because i do see there’s lot of room of improvement, timing is a crucial factor in investing fast moving stocks, not making cash deposits available instantly can be deal breaker for me and mane, i m currently forced to simultaneously using other exchange just because of that reason. But I believe they would consider this and ready to give them some time to work on this. also as a bitcoin enthusiast giving option to buy bitcoin could be a good addition.

by Gooood Appppppp

I love Public! It’s really fantastic and easy to use for anyone, even beginners. I started out with Robinhood but quickly made this app my priority app for stocks. Now they even offer Crypto. I was a little leery at first, my brother as well, as far as the social media aspect goes but it actually works. You can get advice from investors that know what their talking about or just read and see what others are investing in. Some people even mimic top investors moves (on a smaller scale) and make money. The only drawback for me is linking your bank account should be easier. The first time wasn’t that difficult but after my bank changed from Simple to BBVA, I still haven’t been able to verify my new account so I’m stuck not being able to withdrawal money from stock that I’ve sold. I know it’s for security but it would be nice if they had a better process. All in all though, a solid app and I highly recommend.

by Benjamin Kipphorn

I don’t write reviews for apps ever but when reading through the reviews for Public I see a lot of frustrated beginner investors that rate based off of their gains or losses experienced while using this app, rather than Public itself. I love this app so much so far. So much, that I transferred my old portfolio over to this app! this app has given me access to a network of likeminded investors, and also exposed me to crypto currencies (which I am now currently heavily invested in).

Here’s a few things I’d like to see from this app-
•wallet feature-
It’s nice that you can buy crypto- but you can’t do anything with it besides buy/sell. I would love to see a wallet feature of some kind to transfer/spend currencies.
•More crypto currencies
Obviously, that’s a lot to ask for- and I know this app is more geared towards beginner investors who aren’t necessarily willing to invest into the volatility which is the crypto market.(however, the currencies listed are still extremely volatile, so I wouldn’t see it being much of an issue).

that’s really all I can think of as far as big updates for this app. Public functions great, and I am currently participating as a bug tester to help find glitches. Keep working on Public this app! You guys are doing great.

by OGFriarTuck

You’ll ask yourself why you didn’t download Public sooner. Mostly because you were using an application which you thought cared about a part-time, small investor and you felt confident that it was secure and wouldn’t let you down when you needed it most, right?

Yeah yeah, I know. You’ve had some good times and it was easy to use and even though you were literally stripped of accessibility to the “free-market” and you were left in the dark about why, you want to give it a second chance.

DONT, leave that abusive relationship and join this app NOW.

First of all, their staff obviously loves working there, believe in the product, and it shows. Their transparency and customer support is incredible. They were easy to get a hold of when I had a question. It is extremely easy to use so it will feel reminiscent of other platforms you may have used in that respect. The social feed tab is fantastic and gives you an insight to the current events happening as well as investing portfolios of friends and people you follow. You also have the ability to transfer your portfolio from anywhere else to this app for free.

You have wasted enough time reading my review so go and create your account now, you won’t regret it.

by TFFFF83

Great to have found an app that allows fractional share buying while also incorporating social media to the mix. It’s really neat to be able to follow fellow amateur investor friends, as well as actual investors! Really cool that this app has combined two things into one. Commenting allows for people to open conversations about their investment choices. I came from Robinhood, but after discovering the shadiness of their practices (Robinhood’s management ended up financing losses from another subsidiary that they also owned who was shorting GameStop)—it’s like, who is Robinhood really made for? ...The hedge funds is the answer. They sell your data to hedge funds so that the hedge funds know which stocks to short. So if you’re reading this, take those diamond hands to this app (or any other online brokerage really). Just remember to allow your stocks to settle for a few days on Robinhood before transferring out (every transfer is $75). If you don’t let your stocks settle, then you’ll have some stocks leftover even after the trade and you’ll end up having to transfer AGAIN and be out $150.

by TastetheRambo57

Hello reviewers, this is an app that has caught my eye since I’ve been investing. Robbin has a waiting list for fractional shares and as someone who doesn’t have 10k-100k to throw in the market. This is a great advantage for them, easy to use and my favorite you actually have to put in the WORK and TIME to find the stocks you want to invest in. It’s not like Robbinhood where you can copy others on Facebook, but they do have some themes for beginners to look into and not all of them penny stocks. My lesson for anyone getting in the market is that someone else anit gonna do it for you, put in that work and time specially now since everything is at a discount! Public it self could use a dark themed or more creative categories. Not have options isn’t that big of a deal. I’ll stick with the day trading and long term strategy and remember “if you anit losing, then your winning” stay humble, let’s get rich~ Theo

by JonathaaaaanP

I started investing this year and opened multiple brokerage accounts with Robinhood, WeBull, Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, but let me tell you.. I’m transferring all of my stocks over to this app because their user experience and design is so well done. If you’re using Robinhood, just because of the aesthetics then you have to switch over to this app.

Not only does it have great design, but great utility. WeBull also has a community forum, but this app’s takes on a more modern approach because it looks just like Twitter. This makes it easier to hop into discussions and also follow the steps of your favorite investors. While we get value from the community, we also get value from the this app Team.

What really sold me was how passionate the this app Team is in delivering value to its users. Their weekly emails of Market news including upcoming IPO’s, Earnings Reports, current headlines/trends, and more makes investing that much easier to follow. Other brokerage apps are great, but this app is better..

by JordieRae129

Just want to say that I’ve had nothing but a positive experience with Public. I thoroughly enjoy the social community aspect which sets it apart from other apps out there. It helps to get an idea of which companies people are investing in. The community as a whole is very friendly and are willing to help others that are newer to trading/investing. You can buy fractional shares with as little as $1! Which means anyone can be an investor. Much better group than Facebook groups. They actually care to help.

Smooth interface to navigate through, and simple for any beginner. They have themes that group stocks together in case you want to peruse through their collection. The this app Team is very responsive if you have any issues with your account. The longest I’ve waited for a response was 1 day. They have excellent customer service and keep updating Public to keep those pesky bugs away. I would HIGHLY recommend Public to my family, friends, and friends friends. I would give them 10 stars if I could. Keep up the great work!!!!

by Hermboy101

Not only is there a referral for free stock (which is great) but Public lets you invest in certain cryptos and most stock, as well as being almost like a twitter for finance! ALSO it’s like super easy to use, (hint) when an application has an easy user base it’s trajectory for success is much higher than a complicated user base (obviously) …. So props to this app for that! Also the reason why it’s a 5 star and not a 4 is becuase I actually DID have one problem…. I didn’t receive my free stock at first even though my reference made an account and bought $1 worth, BUT I simply ASKED the support team on app and they noticed and gave me my free stock ! I was prepared to just sit and wait for ever like Robinhood 😂😂but they answered right away ! So nice 👍🏼 also this is not a bot typing this out, I just was really happy when I got my stock I deserved so they deserve some A1 feedback 🤣😭🅿️

by RichinLV

Initially Public was amazing. The process to invest was seamless and pretty enjoyable. I especially liked the user interface and social aspect. For a while there, I was a customer for life.

However, in early August, Public inexplicably stopped allowing me the ability to deposit funds from my bank. After several attempts of unlinking and linking my account and it still not working, I reached out to customer support. Unfortunately, Public updates which I was told would address this problem haven’t.

After several frustrating weeks, I’ve decided to close my account, but even that is a challenge because I can’t withdraw funds from the this app app. I’m still waiting for customer support to assist me with getting my money back and my account closed.

I wish Public worked for me because for a time it was really amazing but due to these issues, I can not recommend it. They’ve lost me as a customer, but for the sake of others, I hope this problem gets fixed.

by CovertGaming (Youtube)

Public clearly wasn’t tested or they just threw it together like some last minute school project. I go to set up my account, 1st screen, type in my date of birth, won’t let you go any further, the numpad to enter it is transparent so when I enter it I can see a blue bar behind it as if it’s the button to continue but there’s no way to get rid of that keyboard. Anyways my conclusion, don’t waste your time downloading, the developers didn’t take the time to test it properly before releasing it and probably in it for the money or recognition.

by W4rp3dL0g1c

It started out good, I was purchasing stock and everything was working as advertised. One day I log into the account and all my stocks were gone, when I contacted support I didn’t get a response for 48 hours to which I was finally told that apparently my bank account was deleted from the account for some unexplainable reason and to pay some fee or something they sold all of my stocks. When I reconnected my bank I asked if I could get my stocks back, support said yes. Another 3 days passed before seeing any changes to my account so I contacted support again and was told I had to repurchase the stocks I had. I guess I’m done with Matador.

by Arronhunt

Overall Public is beautiful and enjoyable to use. However the number of times I’ve needed to reach out to support is kind of amazing. Form issues, login issues, password issues, you name it. Currently unable to login due to an SSL error. I’m honestly worried I may not be able to withdraw my money one day.

Hopefully they fix these issues sooner than later or I’ll have to bring my $ somewhere else.

by Kalv777

But I have stick with Public because I do like the platform better then Robinhood, or Webull which I still have account but use them less because of this app. But Public does have few more bugs to fix. At first had hard time linking my bank account and couldn’t deposit or withdraw for a month but they fix this issue. Then after selling stocks had minus holding and they rebalance my account but took them few weeks. Now it seem things are getting to normal but won’t put large amounts into this because I don’t know how much reliable they are with my fund total. But starting to feel little confident they may have fix all the bugs they had issues. So now it’s between this app and M1 as my favorite with Webull just below. Robinhood is just getting old and stop trading but still deposit funds into this and have stop using stockpile.

by Whosthisdoodray

The interface is neat, easy to navigate and gives a lot of great tools. The thing I can’t get around is the lack of communication from the support team. I’ve asked questions on multiple occasions early in the morning only to wait on a response for the whole day, the last instance I waited nearly two days to get an answer as to why not all funds are showing available though they’ve cleared the sending institution nearly 5 business days ago.

by Robert Grayson

Long story short, I love how Public operates versus competition... but Public says that the turnaround for support is usually one day...I’ve been waiting more than a few..

I’ll change my review when I finally see progress but compared to Robinhood, Wealthsimple, and the rest...support is slow. You’d like to think that moving your assets to this app would be faster.

by Loftonmas

I’ve been using matador for about a year now, and in that time I’ve come to love Public! Super easy to use and invest with. They recently updated the interface and it looks amazing!! Absolutely thrilled to see Public grow, as my trading account along with it. Lastly I prefer Public over the other commission free platforms because of how friendly the people who run this are when you need to communicate with them in the support chat.

by Hman291

I have used a few investing apps now and a lot of apps and this is the first app that I wanted to take some time to write a review about, the customer service is great and everyone that I have talked to have been very friendly and helpful, I highly recommend it has everything that the average investor should need and maybe more!

by Cathrk

In the age of technology, social media and constant contact Matador simplifies the process of buying and trading stocks. The social aspect of Public is crucial in today’s world with the ability following friends and influencers. For seasoned traders and otherwise timid “first timers” on the trading desk, Matador is making strides to make trading more accessible for all. As a first timer myself, I have found that it is a great tool to get your feet wet and learn about the market! A+ to the Matador team, keep up the hard work!!

by Dirk McPherson

The UI is fluid and easy to use and it's pretty wonderful to be able to make trades without paying a brokers fee. I didn't expect to care about the social feeds but its actually really interesting to see what kind of trades people are doing. I check social feeds even more often than I trade. Excellent app. Can't wait to see where it goes from here.

by LoveNora44

Honest review here. Matador is an amazing app. So glad I found it, it's the stock trading app I have been looking for. Way better than Robinhood because of the social aspects. I love that it's a live feed with comments. It's very informative and I feel like I'm trading with my peers. Great app for millennials. This is just the beginning for Matador.

by 7 K

Matador won me over right away and my endorsement has only grown. With their unparalleled combination of beautiful UI and best customer service in the industry, this investment app is a no-brainer for someone who’s looking to get their feet wet in the stock market. Most importantly, I TRUST them. They are truly good people. Thank you Matador!

by AndreaJeanCooks

Loving the simple and user-friendly interface on Public ! The pre-built categories for investment areas under “explore” are also quite refreshing and helpful – lots of options for investment in specialized companies I hadn’t known of before!!

by Holics

Very nice. Super clean and easy interface and love how you can buy stocks with any dollar amount. Obviously helps it’s free :) and the 2.5% interest is basically free money.

Would be great to see some more social features in the future.