Degiro Review: An Online Discount Broker from the Netherlands [2020]

Degiro is an Online Brokerage Company from the Netherlands that provides its services to customers throughout Europe.

If you are looking for a Safe & Low-Cost Broker to invest in Stocks, ETFs, Bonds and other Financial Products, please, continue reading!

Due to Degiro’s remarkably low commission, it is, perhaps, considered the best choice when it comes to:

• Investors who love to follow Long-term Investing Strategies (Buy & Hold Investors).
• Traders who are just looking for a platform to execute orders (Buy & Sell).

Since Degiro is the platform I, personally, choose for my investments, I have long wanted to compose a review and present it to you while analyzing its pros and cons.

The time has come, follow me!

Degiro Review Index:

• What is Degiro?
• How Safe is Degiro?
• Financial Products you can Invest with Degiro
• Degiro Fees
• How to Open an Account in Degiro
• How to Deposit & Withdraw Money
• Customer Service
• To Sum it Up

What is Degiro?

Degiro is a Dutch Online Discount Broker with its headquarters in Amsterdam.

It was founded in 2008 by 5 employees of Binck Bank (another brokerage company) with its primary target group being that of the professional investment market.

Since 2013, Degiros focus has shifted to the retail market, offering thousands of European individuals the opportunity to access financial products from different stock markets in dozens of countries.

It currently offers its services to customers in the following 18 European countries:

Greece, Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and the United Kingdom.

The company seems to be very fond of “going after” awards as it has won several (more than 57 brokerage awards) in different European countries.

Some of the most notable ones:

I have nothing against awards (believe me), but, after a few years working in marketing, they fail to amaze me just by themselves.

It can be a good indicator, but that’s about it!

Continue reading and find out if Degiro can live up to its name!

Is Degiro Safe?

You can clearly see that Degiro offers groundbreakingly low fees.

So groundbreaking that, according to a broker comparison for the U.K. you can find on their website, they prove to be up-to 80% cheaper than local competition when it comes to buying stocks from the London Stock Exchange. *You can see this local competition comparison for every country that Degiro operates in.

Those are some damn low fees, right?

As a human being, you tend to be suspicious and that’s something good!

People tend to say

“When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!”

Wise words.

Many people will, cautiously, think that, in order for the company to achieve such low fees there might be a catch somewhere.

Maybe it’s not as safe as it is advertised.

Maybe, Degiro will even prove to be a scam?

Fortunately, in Degiro’s case, those wise words above are wrong.

Degiro is regulated

To start with, Degiro is under the supervision of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and is also regulated by The Netherlands Financial Markets Authority (AFM).

In addition to that, in the United Kingdom, it is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Capital protection up to 20.000€

Degiro is part of the Depositogarantiestelsel (the Dutch Investor Protection Plan).

This means that your capital (up to €20.000) is insured.

If you are brave enough, you can read more about the Dutch Investor Protection Plan.

Client Investment Funds are kept in a Separate Portfolio

Degiro uses different accounts to maintain their investors funds.

This means that it keeps its own assets separate from its clients assets, so, it cannot use investor funds to pay its own corporate liabilities.

Degiro is a relatively new company with just 10 years of operation, which can be considered as a “downside”.

The more years a company has been operating, the better, since that can prove that it has been able to face and overcome tough times or financial crisis.

Financial Products you can Invest in with Degiro

Degiro offers you access to a wide variety of financial products from markets around the world.

It gives you access to more than 50 Exchanges either directly or through a third party (Morgan Stanley) with Smart Order Routing (SOR).

Apart from the usual suspects, the US and UK Stock Exchange, you gain access to many more stock exchanges in Europe, North America, Asia and, Oceania.

After seeing which markets you can invest in, let’s take a look at the financial products offered through the platform:

Stocks

Stocks are one of the most well-known investment products in the world and represent ownership shares in a company.

If you are a shareholder of a company, you are, in essence, an owner of a part of this company. You have a corporate share of this company and rights to its dividends.

Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs

ETFs are, essentially, a collection of securities (such as stocks) that often track an underlying index.

The most well-known example is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 Index.
An index of the 500 largest U.S. publicly traded companies.

ETFs tend to behave exactly like stocks do.

Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds are common investment portfolios involving investors who share the same investment philosophy and goals.

Instead of investing their money independently, they combine it to create a larger and more powerful capital, which is divided into equal value shares.

Mutual Funds are managed by Asset Management Companies and do not provide interest as well as predetermined returns.

Their performance is measured by the difference between the starting investment fund and its valuation over a given period of time.

Bonds

A Bond is a fixed income instrument that represents a loan made by an investor to the lender. The issuer of the loan is required to pay interest on the borrowers at specified times and repay the par value at the end of the contract.

To make it simpler, you can think of a bond as a loan that comes from the capital markets and not from a bank.

Bonds can be issued by countries or companies, as well.

Last but not least, you can also invest in Options and Futures but I will not go into more detail here as they are considered more advanced investment products.

On the other hand, Degiro does provide the opportunity to invest in ForEx (Global Foreign Exchange Market) as well as, in Cryptocurrencies.

Degiro Fees

Now we are getting to the good part!

The thing that differentiates the company from its competitors and it’s not afriad to “show it off,” is their low fees!

Continue reading, we will discuss it further below.

Before we go on with analyzing Degiro’s fees, let’s discover the two different categories of fees you may find yourself paying:

• Trading fees
• Non-trading fees

What are Degiro’s Trading Fees?

Some brokers charge fees for every transaction you make; those fees are called Trading Fees.

Degiro’s Trading Fees are among the lowest on the market!

In a nutshell:

US Stock Exchange: € 0.50 + USD 0.004 per stock

Greek Stock Exchange: € 0.50 + 0.118%

You can find a more thorough list of Degiro’s fees on their website:

What are Degiro’s non-Trading Fees?

Non-Trading Fees are fees withheld by the brokerage company without you making any transaction.

Some of them might be the following:

Inactivity Fees – An Inactivity Fee is a fee you pay if you are not an active investor. You pay that fee if you don ‘t make any transactions in a set amount of time.

Withdrawal Fees –  A Withdrawal Fee is a fee you pay when you withdraw money from your brokerage account to your bank account.

New Account Fees – It’s a fee you pay when you open a new account.

Good news for you!

Degiro doesn ‘t charge any of those fees!

How do I create a New account in Degiro?

Opening a new investment account in Degiro is a fast and pretty simple process.

It is an exclusively online procedure (that doesn’t require your physical presence at any point) and is completed in 2 to 3 business days.

Step 1: Basic Info & E-mail Verification

Start here:

Open Degiro’s registration page in a 2nd tab and follow the step by step guide below.

After filling in your details you will receive a verification email from Degiro.

Step 2: Personal information

After verifying your email address, the process of setting up your account begins.

You will need to fill in some of your personal information, such as your full name (as written in your National ID or Passport).

You will then be asked to verify your mobile number.

Then, you’ll need to fill in the address of your current home.

Next, fill in your date of birth and the location of your birth.

… are you a U.S. citizen? (Probably not…)

Step 3: Connect your Bank Account

Now, it’s time to connect your bank account.

Attention:
The connected bank account should have the same beneficiary name as your Degiro account.

Personal Experience:
When I had to do the first money transfer to my Degiro account, I did it from a different IBAN than the one I had stated during the registration phase. (Note: the IBAN had my name as beneficiary name as well)

The company had to manually contact me via phone and confirm that it was me who did the transfer.
After a brief delay, my money was available in my brokerage account.

Step 4: ID Verification

Now, you should verify the personal information you filled in earlier.

You can do that by uploading a photo of your national ID or your Passport.

Then, you will see a form with all your personal details filled in.

If everything is correct, just click “Submit”!

How to Deposit & Withdraw Money in Degiro

After successfully creating and verifying your brokerage account, the next step is depositing money in it.

This will be the capital you will use to buy your first investment products.

The only way you can “fuel” your brokerage account in Degiro with money is via wire transfer, directly from the bank account you have stated during your registration.

How to Send Money to Degiro?

Connect to your Degiro account and click “Deposit/Withdraw Money” from the menu.

That’s the place you will find you need to complete the wire transfer (IBAN, Bank Name, Beneficiaty Name, BIC, etc).

Next step: Log in to your bank’s e-banking platform and choose to send a remittance to your brokerage account in Degiro using the information above.

Once you send the remittance, the money will be available for investments in 2 to 3 business days.

While Degiro doesn’t charge any fees for receiving money, your bank may charge you for sending money.

For example, Greek banks charge a small fee (~1€ per remittance) for transferring money to any account abroad.

Unfortunately, you can’t “top up” with a credit or debit card. That’s something I’d love because, when it’s available, the money are instantly transferred and ready to be invested.

I guess you can’t have it all…

Attention:
Degiro does not work with digital banks such as Revolut and Monese or with third party services such as Transferwise.
If you try to send money via one the above mentioned services, the money will be returned back to you.
This doesn’t apply for N26, you can use it without any problems.

How to Withdraw Money from Degiro?

Withdrawing money from your Degiro account is much simpler.

Select the same button, as before, from the menu.

Then, select the bank account where the money will be sent, the amount of money you want to withdraw, and hit “Transfer”.

Withdrawing money from Degiro doesn’t have any extra fees and it usually takes 3 – 5 business days for the money to be available in your bank account.

My Personal Experience:
I have withdrawn money from Degiro a couple of times. It was a smooth process and it took 2 business days for the money to reach my bank account.

Degiro’s Customer Support

My experience with Degiro’s customer service, though not vast, is pretty good.

One of its best features is that it maintains local customer support teams in many European countries.

This means that you can contact customer support and speak with someone on your native language.

You can contact them via:

• Email
• Phone

Just check Degiro’s website in your language to find the phone number and the email address you can contact.

Just in case someone from Degiro’s team reads this article:
I believe adding a live chat feature for Customer Service would do wonders!

Note:
There is also the possibility of making a buy/sell order via e-mail or phone which comes with an extra charge. Good old times, right?

To Sum Up

Is Degiro the Right Brokerage Company for You?

If you are a long-term investor (you buy assets, hold them, and sell them after years or you never sell them at all) or a trader who is looking for a low-fee platform to trade in then Degiro is an ideal online broker for you.

The low commissions, its simple and easy-to-use platform (both on desktop and the mobile app version), and the fact that it can provide access to markets and financial products from all over the world make Degiro one of the best choices you have available.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a platform that provides research and educational features, or you want to get involved with ForEx then you should probably look elsewhere.

* First Disclaimer:
I am not, by any means, a professional investment consultant and the following are just personal “experiments”.
Keep in mind that, investment = risk!

* Second Disclaimer:
This article contains referral and affiliate links.
By using them, you support MoneyMinority, never at the user’s expense.