Trade Republic review: €1 trades, €0 savings plans and interest

Trade Republic is one of the cheapest ways we’ve found to invest a fixed amount every month: savings plans cost €0 and one-off orders €1. The catch is that its spreads and currency costs aren’t published on the website, and it’s built for buying and holding, not for active trading.

In this Trade Republic review we look at the licence, fees, interest, taxes and protection for investors in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. We checked Trade Republic’s fee and interest pages and the BaFin and ESMA registers on 23 October 2026. We haven’t opened a Trade Republic account ourselves; every fact comes from official sources.

Trade Republic review at a glance

Trade Republic is a German bank with an investing app, and it suits regular investors who want low fees. Here’s the short version:

	Trade Republic
Regulator	BaFin, with ECB supervision (bank licence)
Branches	Netherlands (DNB branch supervision), Belgium (NBB branch supervision)
Order fee	€1 (Best Price) or €2 (Direct Price), plus spreads
Savings plans	€0 per execution, from €1
Interest on cash	2.50% at the Dutch branch, 2.5% in Germany (variable)
Custody fees	€0
Countries	18 European markets
Last checked	23 October 2026

Investing involves risk. Past performance doesn’t predict future results, and the value of your investments can fall.

What is Trade Republic?

Trade Republic is a Berlin-based neo broker, founded in 2015, that became a full bank in December 2023. Trade Republic Bank GmbH now offers stocks and ETFs, bonds, crypto, savings plans and a current account that pays interest, all in one trading app.

In July 2026 Trade Republic reported more than 10 million customers, over €150 billion in assets and 18 European markets. It serves residents with local tax liability in those countries. Dutch customers are served by a Dutch branch with Dutch IBANs, Belgian customers by a Belgian branch, and Irish customers by the German head office. Your salary can be paid into the account, and you can pay bills from it.

Trade Republic fees

Trade Republic charges a flat fee per order and nothing for custody, but spreads and some third-party costs come on top. These are the fees on Trade Republic’s website, checked on 23 October 2026:

Cost	Trade Republic
Account and custody fees	€0
Stocks and ETFs, Best Price (Trade Republic as counterparty)	€1 per order, plus spreads
Stocks and ETFs, Direct Price (e.g. Xetra, Euronext, NYSE, Nasdaq)	€2 per order, plus third-party costs and spreads
Savings plans (stocks, ETFs, crypto)	€0 per execution, from €1
Crypto	€1 per order (€2 Direct Price) plus spread; savings plans €0
Currency conversion	Not published on the website (price list in the app only)
Bank transfer out	No fee listed
Card ATM withdrawals under €100	€1
Inactivity and connectivity fees	None listed

What changed in July 2026

On 2 July 2026 Trade Republic replaced its single-venue model with two choices. Best Price trades against Trade Republic itself for €1. Direct Price sends your order to one of 30 exchanges you choose for €2. The change followed the end of payment for order flow through LS Exchange, under the EU ban that applies from 30 June 2026. Trade Republic hasn’t published its spread levels under Best Price, and we found no independent data on execution quality.

Worked example: €100 a month into an ETF savings plan

• 12 executions × €0 = €0 in order fees a year
• On €1,200 invested, Trade Republic charges no fee; you still pay the spread on each purchase and the ETF’s own running costs.

Savings plans start from €1 and also work for single stocks and crypto, so you can split €100 over several ETFs without paying extra fees.

Worked example: €1,000 of a US stock

• Best Price: €1 + spread.
• Direct Price on NYSE or Nasdaq: €2 + spread + a currency conversion cost.

Trade Republic doesn’t publish that conversion cost on its website; it says the full price list is in the app. So the known cost is €1 or €2, and the rest is something you should check in the app before you buy.

Worked example: €2,000 on Euronext

• Best Price: €1 + spread (0.05% of €2,000 in order fees).
• Direct Price on Euronext: €2 + third-party costs and spread (0.10% in order fees).

For a one-off €2,000 order these are low fees compared with other brokers that charge a percentage, but you can’t see the spread in advance outside the app.

Trade Republic interest: earn interest on uninvested cash

Trade Republic pays variable interest on uninvested cash, with no cap. At the Dutch branch the interest rate follows the ECB deposit facility rate, 2.50% since 16 September 2026; new customers can instead get a 3% offer on up to €50,000. In Germany the rate is 2.5% with no cap.

A worked example, assuming the rate stays the same for a year:

• €10,000 at 2.50% = €250 a year before tax.
• German resident, allowance already used up: Trade Republic withholds 26.375% (Abgeltungsteuer plus Soli) = €65.94, leaving €184.06, before any church tax.
• Dutch branch customer: no Dutch tax is withheld on interest, but your cash still counts in box 3.

Rates change with the ECB rate, so check the current figure before you move money.

Is uninvested cash protected by the deposit guarantee scheme?

Mostly, yes. Trade Republic holds client cash in omnibus trust accounts at partner banks, and that cash is protected by the deposit guarantee scheme of each partner bank up to €100,000 per customer per partner bank. The partner banks are Deutsche Bank, Citibank Europe, HSBC Continental Europe, Crédit Agricole CIB, J.P. Morgan, Natixis, SEB and Société Générale.

There’s one catch for customers in Germany and Belgium: part of your cash may be placed in money market funds, which have no deposit guarantee. Trade Republic says those fund holdings sit in a separate custody account, segregated from its own assets. The Dutch pages only mention partner banks.

Is Trade Republic safe? Licence and investor protection

Trade Republic is a licensed German bank, supervised by BaFin, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, together with the ECB. BaFin granted its first authorisations in December 2018, and Trade Republic Bank GmbH became a credit institution with a deposit-taking licence on 5 December 2023.

For crypto, Trade Republic notified BaFin under MiCA (Article 60, as a credit institution) with effect from 24 April 2025, covering custody, execution, transmission and transfer of crypto-assets, and passported that to the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and other EEA states. A subsidiary, Trade Republic Business III GmbH, received BaFin authorisation to run a multilateral trading facility on 23 January 2026.

Deposit guarantee scheme and investor compensation

Cash and securities are protected in different ways. Cash is covered by deposit guarantee schemes, as explained above. Your shares and ETFs are client property, held in custody at domestic and international depositories, so they’re not bank deposits at all.

If a bank can’t return your securities, the German EdB (Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken) covers 90% of claims from securities business, up to €20,000. No scheme covers falls in market value.

Complaints and negative reviews on record

Trade Republic’s record isn’t spotless. On 28 January 2021 it halted purchases of GameStop and other meme stocks, and BaFin received thousands of complaints. On 7 February 2025 the consumer group Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg sued over its interest and deposit-protection advertising. The case ended in a court settlement: Trade Republic agreed to drop the disputed claims and paid a €5,500 contractual penalty.

We don’t quote individual app-store or forum reviews, because we can’t verify them. Support runs by phone and live chat in the app, 24 hours a day, and complaints go by email or post. Dutch customers can take an unresolved complaint to Kifid.

Stocks, ETFs, bonds and crypto

Trade Republic offers stocks, ETFs, bonds, crypto and savings plans, with fractional shares. That covers what most long-term investors need.

• Stocks and ETFs: via Best Price or Direct Price on 30 exchanges.
• Fractional shares: you can invest exact euro amounts, from €1 in a savings plan.
• Bonds: available in the app.
• Crypto: about 50 real coins, which you can transfer to an external wallet or use for staking; most are held in cold storage with BitGo Europe GmbH. Trade Republic charges nothing for custody or transfers, only network costs.
• Private Markets: ELTIFs from €1.
• Derivatives: securitised products from partner issuers, not exchange-traded options or futures. There are no CFDs.

Derivatives use leverage, and most retail traders lose money with leveraged products. Crypto can lose most or all of its value in a short time.

Taxes and capital gains in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium

Trade Republic handles tax locally in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, which is a real advantage over foreign brokers.

Country	What Trade Republic does
Netherlands	No Dutch tax withheld; Dutch branch customers get pre-filled data for their Dutch tax return
Germany	Withholds Abgeltungsteuer automatically: 26.375% including Soli, plus church tax where it applies
Belgium	Since 15 September 2026 the Belgian branch withholds TOB, roerende voorheffing and Reynders tax; before that, customers filed TOB themselves

Netherlands: you still pay box 3 on the value of your investments and cash on 1 January. For 2026 that’s a notional 6.00% return on investments and 1.28% (provisional) on bank balances, taxed at 36% above €59,357 per person.

Germany: capital gains, dividends and interest are taxed at source, like at any German bank. Set a Freistellungsauftrag so the €1,000 Sparer-Pauschbetrag (€2,000 for couples) is used first.

Ireland: we haven’t checked Irish tax handling, and there’s no Irish branch.

Opening an account and the trading app

Opening an account takes place in the app, and investing starts from €1 with no minimum deposit stated.

We couldn’t confirm other deposit methods, such as iDEAL, card top-ups or Apple Pay, from an official Trade Republic source, and we haven’t tested the app ourselves. The support languages aren’t confirmed either.

Who should use Trade Republic?

Trade Republic fits investors in the eurozone who put a fixed amount into ETFs every month and want local tax handling. It’s a good starting point at €25–500 a month, because there’s no order fee on savings plans and no minimum.

Look elsewhere if you:

• want to see every spread and currency cost before you place an order;
• trade exchange-listed options or futures;
• want one broker for dozens of exchanges worldwide.

Trade Republic vs other brokers

Trade Republic wins on monthly ETF investing, but other brokers fit better for some goals. Our ETF broker ranking compares them side by side.

• DEGIRO: around 50 exchanges, options and futures, but €1 per ETF order on Tradegate with no automatic savings plan found, and no German tax withholding.
• Scalable Capital: also €0 savings plans and German tax withholding; orders cost €0.99 on its main venue, but it isn’t available in Belgium or Ireland.
• Interactive Brokers: global markets and 0.03% automatic conversion for experienced investors, but no tax withholding and a €3 minimum on EU exchanges.
• Saxo: Dutch and Belgian branches, AutoInvest for selected ETFs at €0 per monthly buy, and a wider range of exchanges and bonds.
• eToro: stocks and crypto in one app, but mostly dollar balances and a 0.75% conversion fee.
• Bitpanda: for investors who mainly want crypto, under MiCA licences in Austria and Germany.

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

Final Trade Republic review verdict

Trade Republic is our “this way” pick for monthly ETF savings plans in the eurozone: €0 per execution, €1 orders, interest on cash and tax handled locally in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The main limitation sits right beside that strength: you can’t see spreads or currency costs on the website, and it isn’t built for active trading. See our methodology for how we score each broker.