DEGIRO review: low fees, a German bank and the catches

DEGIRO is a cheap way to buy ETFs and shares on around 50 exchanges, as long as you’re happy to place every order yourself. The catch: we found no automatic savings plan, it doesn’t withhold German tax, and the bank behind it has been fined several times by Dutch and German regulators.

This DEGIRO review is for investors in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the rest of the EU. We checked DEGIRO’s Dutch tariff sheet, German price list and regulator notices on 23 October 2026; we haven’t traded with a DEGIRO account ourselves.

What a DEGIRO account is and who it suits

A DEGIRO account is an investment account at flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, a German bank, run by its Dutch branch in Amsterdam. DEGIRO began in Amsterdam in 2013 and built its name on low fees for self-directed investors who don’t need investment advice. Its stated mission is to help people become “the smartest self-directed investors they can be”.

By its own figures, the flatexDEGIRO group has more than 3 million clients and about €90 billion in client assets, making it one of the largest brokers in Europe. DEGIRO says it became the largest online broker in the Netherlands by transactions in 2016, and it promotes “100+ international awards”. Awards don’t count in our scores; low fees do, and for many orders they hold up: €1 for an ETF on Tradegate and €3 for a share on Euronext Amsterdam.

DEGIRO suits retail investors who:

• buy ETFs or shares a few times a year, or every month by hand;
• want global trading in one investment account, from Euronext to the US;
• live in the Netherlands or Belgium, where the tax paperwork is easiest.

It suits you less if you want a savings plan that runs by itself, or if you live in Germany and expect your broker to withhold tax. Investing involves risks: shares and ETFs can fall in value and you can lose money.

Is DEGIRO licensed? Banking licence and legal structure

Yes. DEGIRO is part of flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, which holds a German banking licence and is primarily supervised by BaFin, the German financial regulator. The bank was called flatexDEGIRO Bank AG until it became a European company (SE) on 30 December 2025.

The original Dutch company, DeGiro B.V., merged into the German flatex bank in May 2021. Since then DEGIRO has been the flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch (KvK 82510245). The Dutch branch is registered with DNB and the AFM, which watch its conduct in the Dutch market, but it relies on the German bank’s licence rather than its own banking licence. DEGIRO also serves retail clients in Belgium, Ireland and other European countries:

Where you live	Can you open a DEGIRO account?
Netherlands	Yes
Germany	Yes
Belgium	Yes, via degiro.nl or degiro.fr (there’s no Belgian site)
Ireland	Yes
United Kingdom	No: new onboarding was “temporarily unavailable” in October 2026

Is DEGIRO safe? Deposit guarantee scheme and investor protection

DEGIRO is a licensed German bank, and it protects your cash and your securities in different ways. Cash in your DEGIRO cash account at flatexDEGIRO Bank SE falls under the German deposit guarantee scheme, up to €100,000 per client. That cash sits in a separate personal account with its own IBAN, linked to your investment account.

Your shares and ETFs are not bank deposits. DEGIRO says client securities are held by a separate special purpose vehicle, outside the reach of DEGIRO’s creditors. In the unlikely event that securities can’t be returned, the German investor compensation scheme pays 90% of the claim, up to €20,000. DEGIRO only calls both schemes “German”, and we couldn’t confirm the exact operator on a regulator page. No scheme covers price falls.

We didn’t verify DEGIRO’s securities lending or order routing, so read the client agreement if they matter to you.

Regulatory record

DEGIRO’s track record is why its protection score is lower than its licence alone suggests. Since 2018 the AFM and BaFin took these measures against DEGIRO or its parent:

Year	Regulator	What happened
2018	AFM	Order subject to penalty on DeGiro B.V. over its policy for sound business conduct; final after a 2020 court ruling
2021	AFM	€700,000 fine over faulty 2019 transaction reports; a court later cut it to €85,000
2021	AFM	€2 million fine for late and incorrect reports of unusual transactions; set at €797,500 on appeal on 30 June 2025
2023	BaFin	€1.05 million fine, an order to fix internal control and anti-money-laundering shortcomings, and a special commissioner
2025	BaFin	€560,000 fine because 2022 website ads presented services as free without clearly stating a recurring fee
2026	BaFin	€1 million fine on flatexDEGIRO SE for late disclosure, in 2022, of inside information about special audit findings

Most of these cases concern reporting, internal controls and anti-money-laundering checks, which BaFin ordered the bank to fix.

DEGIRO fees: how low are “incredibly low fees”?

DEGIRO’s fees are low per order, but extra costs appear on foreign exchanges and in other currencies. DEGIRO markets them as “incredibly low fees”; these are the main charges on the Dutch tariff sheet, checked on 23 October 2026:

Cost	DEGIRO (Dutch tariff sheet)
Account and custody fee	€0 (except Xetra-Gold: 0.025% a month plus VAT)
ETF core selection (all ETPs on Tradegate)	€0 + €1 handling fee
ETFs on other exchanges	€2 + €1
Shares on Euronext Amsterdam or Brussels	€2 + €1
Shares on Xetra, Paris and most other EU exchanges	€3.90 + €1
US shares (NYSE, Nasdaq)	€1 + €1
Currency conversion	0.25% via AutoFX; €10 + 0.25% if you convert manually
Connectivity fee	€2.50 per exchange per calendar year (max 0.25% of account value); free for Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Brussels, Tradias OTC and the ETF core selection
Crypto	0.29% per transaction (NL); 0.50% on the German price list
Inactivity and withdrawal fees	€0
Interest on cash	None listed in the tariff sheet

DEGIRO Germany: the German price list (1 January 2026) shows the same €3.90 + €1 on Xetra and 0.50% for crypto. Outside the Netherlands, check your own country’s price list.

Worked example: €100 a month into an ETF

We found no automatic savings plan on degiro.nl, so this assumes you place a €100 order each month for an ETF in the core selection on Tradegate.

• 12 orders × €1 handling fee = €12 a year
• On €1,200 invested, that’s 1.00% in transaction costs in year one.
• No connectivity fee, because the ETF core selection is exempt.

The ETF’s own running costs come on top, as with any broker, and so do spread costs: the gap between the buy and sell price. Independent reviews say DEGIRO has no fractional shares (we couldn’t confirm this on a DEGIRO page); if so, each €100 buys whole units only.

Worked example: €1,000 of a US stock

A €1,000 buy of a share on Nasdaq or NYSE, paid from euros with AutoFX:

• Commission: €1 + €1 handling fee = €2.00
• AutoFX: 0.25% × €1,000 = €2.50
• Total for the order: €4.50 (0.45%)
• Connectivity fee for that US exchange: €2.50 for the calendar year (with a €1,000 account, the 0.25% cap is also €2.50)

So the first US trade of the year can cost up to €7.00. Selling later costs another €2 plus 0.25% of the proceeds.

Worked example: €2,000 on Euronext or Xetra

• Euronext Amsterdam: €2 + €1 = €3.00 (0.15%), with no currency cost and no connectivity fee.
• Xetra, common for German investors: €3.90 + €1 = €4.90, plus €2.50 connectivity for the year = €7.40 for the first trade (0.37%).

Dutch and Belgian investors get the biggest cost savings on Euronext and the ETF core selection. On Xetra or in dollars, flat-fee brokers in Europe such as Trade Republic or Scalable Capital usually charge less.

What you can buy: markets and products

DEGIRO says it connects you to the world’s markets, and with around 50 stock exchanges that’s a wide range for a low-cost broker. You can buy:

• Stocks on European, US and other stock exchanges.
• ETFs (mostly index funds), including the core selection: all of the more than 1,000 ETFs, ETCs and ETNs on Tradegate, with no fair use policy.
• Bonds, options and futures.
• Crypto: about 20 coins with a €1 minimum order, launched in the Netherlands, France and Spain on 8 September 2025, after Germany earlier that year. Tradias, supervised by BaFin, sets prices and executes orders; Tangany, also BaFin-supervised, holds the coins.

DEGIRO doesn’t offer CFDs. Investing involves risks, and options and futures add leverage: most retail traders lose money with leveraged products, and losses can build up fast. Crypto prices swing hard, and you can lose most or all of what you put in.

We couldn’t confirm whether flatexDEGIRO Bank holds its own MiCA authorisation for crypto (its partners are BaFin-supervised), or whether crypto is open to Belgian and Irish residents.

DEGIRO Netherlands, Germany and Belgium: how tax works

DEGIRO handles tax differently in each country, and German residents should pay most attention here.

Netherlands: box 3 annual statement

DEGIRO doesn’t withhold Dutch tax, but it sends an annual statement (jaaropgave) in late February or early March with the start and end values you need for box 3. For 2026, box 3 taxes a fixed notional return of 6.00% on investments held on 1 January at 36%, after a tax-free allowance of €59,357 per person. One snag: the German flatex cash account isn’t pre-filled in your Dutch return, so add it yourself.

Germany: no Abgeltungsteuer withholding

DEGIRO does not withhold Kapitalertragsteuer and can’t issue a German Steuerbescheinigung. You get an annual overview and declare gains and dividends in your tax return. The rate is the same as at a German bank, 26.375% including Soli (plus church tax where it applies), but you do the paperwork. There’s no Freistellungsauftrag to set; the €1,000 Sparer-Pauschbetrag is applied when you file.

Belgium: TOB handled, capital gains tax not

For Belgian residents, DEGIRO withholds, pays and files the stock exchange tax (TOB), with an opt-out if you’d rather do it yourself. It does not pay the Belgian capital gains tax that applies from 2026, so that part is up to you.

We haven’t checked Irish tax handling for this review.

How to open an account at DEGIRO

You open a DEGIRO account online, and there’s no real minimum deposit: the smallest amount is €0.01.

Support runs through a help centre, phone and email per country: +31 20 261 3072 for the Netherlands and Ireland, +49 69 96 755 001 for Germany. DEGIRO also offers guidance from investment lessons to financial news. The pages we checked don’t name support languages, and we haven’t tested the app or support. Use two-factor authentication if it’s offered.

Who DEGIRO is for, and who should look elsewhere

DEGIRO fits Dutch and Belgian investors who place their own orders and want low fees on Euronext and Tradegate. It’s also one of the few low-cost brokers in our reviews with options and futures. Early in your investment journey, it can be your only broker if you’re happy placing each order yourself.

Look elsewhere if:

• you live in Germany and want tax withheld automatically: Trade Republic and Scalable Capital both withhold;
• you want a monthly plan that runs by itself, ideally buying fractions of ETFs;
• you trade often in dollars, because the 0.25% AutoFX fee adds up;
• you want interest on cash, which the tariff sheet doesn’t list.

DEGIRO alternatives

If DEGIRO doesn’t fit, these brokers cover its gaps for European investors. Our ETF broker ranking compares them for a €100–500 monthly plan.

• Trade Republic: €0 savings plans, €1 per order, local branches and German tax withholding.
• Scalable Capital: €0 savings plans and €0.99 orders on German venues; not available in Belgium or Ireland.
• Interactive Brokers: more markets and 0.03% automatic conversion, but a €3 minimum on EU exchanges.
• Saxo: Dutch and Belgian branches; €0 monthly AutoInvest buys for selected ETFs.
• eToro: stocks and crypto in one app, but mostly dollar balances and 0.75% to convert.
• Bitpanda: mainly crypto, under MiCA licences in Austria and Germany.

By country, see the best brokers in the Netherlands and the best brokers in Germany.

Verdict: is DEGIRO cost effective?

Yes, for the right investor. DEGIRO is cost effective for Dutch and Belgian investors buying ETFs on Tradegate for €1 or shares on Euronext for €3, and it reaches more markets than Trade Republic or Scalable Capital. The downside sits right beside that: no automatic savings plan, no German tax withholding and repeated fines. Hence “turn here”, not “this way”; our methodology explains the scores.