DEGIRO costs for ETFs clearly explained

The different costs with DEGIRO

Summary

In a nutshell, you pay a €1.00 transaction fee for ETFs in the DEGIRO core selection. For all other ETFs, you pay €3.00 per transaction. For ETFs that are not in the core selection, there's a connectivity fee of €2.50 per stock exchange per year.

€1 for ETFs in the core selection on Tradegate

You only pay a €1.00 fee for ETFs in the core selection. There's a caveat though: you must to buy the ETF on the Tradegate exchange. Tradegate Exchange offers long trading hours and access to thousands of stocks and ETFs.

But before placing your next order there, it’s important to understand a few risks that could cost you money.

Wider spreads outside business hours

Tradegate is open from 07:30 to 22:00, longer than most European exchanges. However, spreads, which is the difference between the buy and sell price, are much wider outside regular market hours. This means you might pay more when buying or receive less when selling. If you want to trade on Tradegate, do it during regular European business hours, typically 09:00–17:30. That’s when liquidity is higher and prices are usually fairer.

Avoid market orders without a limit

On Tradegate, prices can move quickly, especially if trading volumes are low. If you place a market order without a limit, your trade might execute at a worse price than expected. Always set a limit order so you know the maximum price you’ll pay when buying or the minimum price you’ll accept when selling. It gives you control and protects you from unexpected price jumps.

Be cautious with larger trades above €2,000

Research by BaFin, the German financial regulator, found that small trades (under €500) can be slightly cheaper on Tradegate compared to reference exchanges like Xetra. But for larger trades (above €2,000), Tradegate often becomes more expensive, even after factoring in DEGIRO’s lower transaction costs through the core selection. So if you’re investing larger amounts, it might be worth comparing prices with other exchanges before executing your trade.

Other ETFs: €3 fee and connectivity costs

If you don't want to trade on Tradegate, you can buy ETFs on regular exchanges like Euronext or XETRA. Even the ETFs in the core selection. But in that case, you pay:

• €3.00 per trade: a €2.00 transaction fee and a €1.00 handling fee.
• Connectivity costs of €2.50 per stock exchange per year. This means that you need to pay €2.50 in a given year for each stock exchange where you've purchased or sold an ETF.

DEGIRO waives the connectivity cost for the home exchanges though:

• 🇳🇱 DEGIRO.nl: no fee for Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels.
• 🇫🇷 DEGIRO.fr: no fee for Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels.
• 🇮🇹 DEGIRO.it: no fee for the MTA Italian exchange.

No incoming transfer costs

DEGIRO doesn't charge any fees if you wish to transfer your assets from another broker to DEGIRO.

Outgoing transfer costs

The country-specific DEGIROs charge different fees to transfer your assets to another broker:

• 🇳🇱 DEGIRO.nl: €20 per position and an unclear "external costs" fee.
• 🇫🇷 DEGIRO.fr: €20 per position and an unclear "external costs" fee.
• 🇮🇹 DEGIRO.it: free

Taxes

Taxes are local and specific to your country of residence.

For Italians 🇮🇹

DEGIRO operates under the declaratory regime. Essentially, this means they do not handle the taxes related to investing for you:

• Capital gains: equal to 26%, due if profitable positions were closed out during the year
• IVAFE: equal to 0.2% of the value of financial assets held

However, DEGIRO pays the Italian Financial Transaction Tax (also known as the FTT). DEGIRO automatically calculates, withholds, reports, and pays on behalf of clients the Italian FTT due.

We wrote a guide to help you with the relevant taxes when investing through DEGIRO.

For Belgians 🇧🇪

DEGIRO declares and pays the Belgian transaction tax. However, they do not handle the other taxes related to investing:

• Tax on dividends (“roerende voorheffing” or “précompte mobilier”). A 30% tax on the dividends you perceive through the stock ETFs that you hold. You need to make sure that you calculate and declare them in your yearly tax declaration.
• Tax on capital gains on bond funds (also known as the Reynders tax). There’s a 30% tax on the profits you make when you choose to sell the bonds in your portfolio. Again, DEGIRO pushes the responsibility to you for declaring the right amounts in your tax declaration.

You also need to declare your DEGIRO account to the National Bank of Belgium and on your yearly tax form.

Cost of DEGIRO for example ETFs

As an example, we calculate the cost of DEGIRO for buying €1,000 of two of the most popular ETFs in Europe:

• Vanguard FTSE All-World Accumulating (VWCE)
• iShares MSCI World Accumulating (IWDA)

You can also calculate the transaction cost for any ETF of your choosing below.

Vanguard FTSE All-World Accumulating (VWCE)

VWCE (ISIN: IE00BK5BQT80) is popular in the index investing community. The fund was launched by Vanguard in 2019 and currently holds more than €5 billion under management. Vanguard is one of the largest asset managers in the world, and its founder Jack Bogle is often credited as the inventor of the index fund.

VWCE tracks the FTSE All-World index, a combination of the FTSE Developed Markets index and the FTSE Emerging Markets index. The index consists of over 4,000 stocks. Because it's so diversified, investors can find in VWCE a great way to follow the global stock market by holding a significant portion of the world's stocks. Companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, etc… are represented in the index. The FTSE All-World index has delivered an average of 8.4% per year since 2005.

VWCE is part of DEGIRO's core selection. So you will pay €1.00 per transaction on Tradegate.

iShares MSCI World Accumulating (IWDA)

IWDA (ISIN: IE00B4L5Y983) is an ETF that tracks the MSCI World index, an index composed of about 1,500 stocks from 23 countries that economists qualify as "developed": United States, Germany, Japan… The fund is offered by iShares, a brand of BlackRock. BlackRock is an immense asset manager, just like Vanguard, with over $2 trillion invested.

The returns of IWDA have also been excellent throughout the years. Since 1979, the MSCI World index has delivered an average yearly return of 10.8%! If you had invested €10,000 in 1979, you would have had around €900,000 today.

This fund is also part of DEGIRO's core selection of ETFs!

Other ETFs

Use our calculator below to find the cost of any ETF on DEGIRO:

Price of DEGIRO vs other brokers

We mentioned earlier that DEGIRO is one of the cheapest brokers on the market. Let's see it by comparing DEGIRO to the transaction costs for other brokers.

Vanguard FTSE All-World Accumulating (VWCE)

The table below shows the transaction cost of buying €1,000 of VWCE for different brokers.

iShares MSCI World Accumulating (IWDA)

The table below shows the transaction cost of buying €1,000 of IWDA for different brokers. We can draw the same conclusion that DEGIRO has some of the cheapest transaction costs.

Other ETFs

Compare the transaction cost of DEGIRO to the other brokers for buying €1,000 of the ETF of your choosing.

Price is not the only criteria when selecting a broker

We tend to focus just on price when comparing brokers. But safety, ease of use or convenience are also important criteria. You can learn about these in our in-depth comparisons:

• DEGIRO vs Bolero
• DEGIRO vs MEXEM
• DEGIRO vs LYNX
• DEGIRO vs eToro
• DEGIRO vs Interactive Brokers
• DEGIRO vs Trade Republic
• DEGIRO vs BUX

How to pay less with DEGIRO

There are some guidelines you can follow to pay less when investing with DEGIRO:

• Selects ETFs in DEGIRO's core selection.
• If you are investing monthly, bundle the investments for several months in a single transaction. The relative cost of the broker fee goes down as the transaction amount is higher. Unfortunately you are unable to automate your investments using DEGIRO.

The challenges of investing in ETFs through a broker

When managing your own investments through a broker, you have to figure out what to buy, when to buy, understand the tax implications of your decisions, rebalance your investments and make sure they stay in line with your goals and risk tolerance. There are quite a few challenges:

• The allocation of your portfolio is in your hands: figure out how to build the right allocation that meets your long-term goals.
• You need to do your homework: figuring out how to start and understanding the intricacies of investing in ETFs takes an effort. Yet it's important, because in investing the details matter.
• It takes time: send money to your broker monthly and then make the purchases.
• Costly for monthly contributions: if you wish to invest on a monthly basis, you’ll have to pay a lot in broker fees. Also, as you buy units and can’t buy fractions, you’ll always be left with cash on your account.
• Learn how to rebalance your portfolio: if you have multiple funds in your portfolio, how will you rebalance? Quarterly or yearly? How do you decide?
• Keep track of your portfolio: you may have to set up a spreadsheet to stay on top of things!
• Understand taxes: this can be complicated and they also often change.
• Discipline: it requires self-confidence and discipline to stay the course.
• Brokers want you to trade: the majority of brokers make money on you trading so a “passive” approach isn’t in their best interest.

Curvo: the easier alternative to DEGIRO for ETF investing

We realised the difficulties of investing through brokers like DEGIRO. So our approach is different: the right investment decisions are made for you so you don't have to worry.

Rather than having to pick the right stocks or ETFs among the thousands available through these brokers, through Curvo you invest in a portfolio that is tailored to you and your goals. Each portfolio is composed of globally diversified index funds, meaning you earn a piece of the growth of the global economy, and they're best suited to make the most of your savings long term. Brokers push you to trade and to pick individual companies to invest in. Rather than picking individual stocks such as Amazon or Tesla, index funds are a way to buy the whole market, across all sectors and regions of the world. Essentially, you own a small portion of thousands of companies throughout the world. Instead of betting on a particular company, you are placing a bet on the global economy.

We believe that investing is an important tool for our generation to improve our financial well-being and to prepare for our future. We are building Curvo to fulfil that vision and make good investing easy and accessible to all. Find out more about Curvo.

Conclusion

DEGIRO offers some of the cheapest transaction fees in Europe, especially if you stick to their core selection ETFs on Tradegate. At €1 per trade, you can build a diversified portfolio without breaking the bank. Just remember that lower costs come with extra work: you'll need to manage your portfolio yourself, handle your taxes, and stay disciplined with your investment plan.

Before you decide on a broker, think about what matters most to you. Is it purely cost? Or do you also value convenience, automation, and guidance? The cheapest option isn't always the best fit for everyone. Take time to consider how much effort you want to put into managing your investments, and choose the approach that helps you stay consistent over the long term.