Yes, there is a catch, but it is not where most people look. uSMART lists US$0 commission on US stocks, and the platform fee that replaces it is small: about US$0.88 per order for a US stock priced at US$40 or more on the Trader tier, going by a July 2025 third-party fee table.

The bigger costs can sit in the Singapore dollar to US dollar conversion, in which account tier you land in, and in where your shares are held.

I ran the arithmetic on a few typical US trades, checked what uSMART says about custody and client money, and lined the answers up against moomoo. Where I could not confirm a figure against uSMART itself, I have said so. The fee pages I found do not all agree with each other, and that is part of the story.

Disclosure: this is an affiliate feature. If you open an account through a link in this post, InvestKaki may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Nothing here is financial advice. Fees and promotions change, so confirm them in the app before you fund an account. Figures are as of 13 November 2026.

uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is a Monetary Authority of Singapore licensed broker. Its own website says US stock commissions are "as low as USD $0", and that fees vary by account type. The detail sits in a per-order platform fee, which is why I treat "commission-free" as a starting point rather than an answer.

One caution on that platform fee row. A SingSaver page I read lists the US$0.88 as per share in one place and per order in another, and the uSMART page itself did not give a tier table. The other sources, and the arithmetic that follows, only make sense per order. Check the live rate card in the app before your first trade.

Here is my own arithmetic on the Trader tier, using the per-order fee above. It excludes exchange and regulatory fees that apply on US sales, because I could not confirm the amounts uSMART passes on.

In plain terms, the platform fee is close to a rounding error on most trades. It only bites on very small orders of cheap shares, where the US$1 minimum takes a bigger slice.

Probably, and it is the part most fee comparisons skim past. To trade US stocks from a Singapore dollar bank account, you convert S$ to US$ first. Beansprout's 2025 review listed a 0.5% conversion fee on all tiers. uSMART's own site now says in-app currency exchange carries no fee, which would be an improvement. A zero fee can still hide a spread, though. Beansprout compared uSMART's rate of 0.76 on 21 April 2025 with a mid-market rate of 0.7629, a gap of about 0.38%.

Here is what that means in dollars, on a S$5,000 conversion (my arithmetic, using Beansprout's April 2025 spread, which I could not refresh):

On a single S$5,000 conversion, a 0.38% spread costs more than fifteen times the platform fee on a typical order. Converting back to Singapore dollars later pays a spread again. So the question to ask is not what the commission is. It is what rate the app gives you against the mid-market rate on the day. Check it against a mid-market rate before you convert a large sum.

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uSMART's help centre says client assets are kept in client segregated accounts, separate from its own. It adds that under Section 104A of the Securities and Futures Act, customer monies and assets are not available for the firm's debts. Client funds are held in a trust account with regulated intermediaries such as DBS Singapore and HSBC Singapore. For US holdings, it says its US sub-custodian is a broker-dealer registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and that SIPC protects customers of its members up to US$500,000, including US$250,000 for cash claims.

Three things I would keep in mind. SIPC is about a broker-dealer failing, not about your shares falling in price. uSMART's home page uses the word "insured" without naming a scheme or amount, so I would read it as segregation, not insurance. And a DL Curation review notes that broker accounts like this are not covered by SDIC, the deposit insurance scheme for bank deposits.

The other point is custody for Singapore shares. Beansprout's July 2025 review says SGX shares sit in a uSMART-managed custodian account, not your own CDP account. You remain the owner, but dividends and corporate actions come through uSMART, and attending an AGM needs a proxy request.

If that matters to you, my guide to buying Singapore stocks through CDP explains the difference.

This is a quieter catch. The tier that looks cheapest is not always the one that gets the welcome rewards. DL Curation's November 2026 review says the Trader tier gets no welcome package or referral rewards, and that moving up from Trader is one-way. Standard is the tier eligible for welcome rewards and referral promotions. Intel needs a minimum asset level (the review says S$2,000 to S$3,000, varying by source) and is subscription-based.

Fees are Beansprout's 8 July 2025 table before GST and exchange charges. Tier perks come from DL Curation. In practice, if you plan to claim a welcome offer, Standard is the tier to look at, and it costs about the same as Trader on US trades. I could not confirm any current offer amount from uSMART itself, so I have not quoted one. Our earlier posts on uSMART's fees and features and on its idle cash interest and fee tiers cover those angles.

moomoo is the app most people weigh it against. The moomoo figures below come from our own earlier posts, so confirm them live too.

The gap on a US trade is about 11 US cents per order (my arithmetic), which only matters if you trade often. The custody row is the bigger difference for anyone holding SGX shares. See our moomoo update on CDP linking and the wider best online broker comparison for the full field.

Reviewer note: this section is a draft judgement and needs James or SuWei sign-off. Remove the tag and this note once approved.

Personally, I would say uSMART looks reasonable for someone who mainly trades US stocks in orders of a few hundred dollars or more, is comfortable with the platform fee, and checks the conversion rate before moving money. It looks less suited to anyone who wants SGX shares in their own CDP account, or who wants to use CPF or SRS money. I could not confirm either of those, so I have not assumed them.

What I would watch: whether uSMART publishes a clear tier table and a stated conversion rate on its own site, and whether it adds CDP linking.

uSMART's website says US commissions are as low as US$0. A per-order platform fee still applies, about US$0.88 on the Trader tier for a stock priced at US$40 or more, per Beansprout's July 2025 table.

On the Trader tier it is US$0.88 per order for stocks priced at US$40 or more, or US$0.005 per share below that, with a US$1 minimum. The Intel tier is US$1.88 or US$0.01 per share. Confirm in the app, since sources differ.

Its website says in-app currency exchange has no fee. Beansprout listed a 0.5% fee in 2025 and measured a spread of about 0.38% that April. Compare the in-app rate with the mid-market rate before converting a large sum.

Yes. uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. holds a Capital Markets Services licence from MAS, licence number CMS101161, per uSMART's website.

uSMART says client assets are segregated and held with custodians, and that US holdings go through an SIPC member sub-custodian. SIPC covers broker failure, not market losses. The accounts are not covered by SDIC.

I could not confirm this either way. None of the uSMART material I checked lists CPF or SRS funding. Ask uSMART directly before assuming.

No, according to Beansprout's review. They sit in a uSMART-managed custodian account, so dividends and corporate actions come through uSMART.

uSMART's website says no minimum deposit for stocks. One comparison page shows S$1,000 in a summary box and S$0 in its table, so check any promotion's own deposit terms.

Trader has the lowest fees but, per DL Curation, no welcome rewards. Standard is eligible for rewards at similar US fees. Intel needs a higher asset level and costs more per US order.

On the per-order platform fee, slightly: US$0.88 against moomoo's US$0.99 on the figures in our earlier posts. Currency conversion and custody may matter more than that gap.

What uSMART gives a Singapore investor is a very low per-trade cost on US stocks, a MAS licence, segregated client assets and no account fees or minimum deposit. On a typical order, the platform fee is small enough to ignore.

The open question is the conversion rate. The fee that matters most is the one the app does not label as a fee, and I could not confirm what uSMART's rate is today. The custody structure for SGX shares and the unconfirmed CPF and SRS position are the other things to weigh.

If you want to look at the app yourself, check the live rate card and your tier before you fund it. You can open an account here.

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