KBC wants you to invest your spare change. Round up every payment, watch the cents pile up, and let them handle the investing. It's frictionless and automatic.
But frictionless doesn't mean free. When you're paying a 2.5% entry fee plus nearly 2% in yearly costs, those rounded-up cents shrink fast. And you're locked into expensive, actively managed funds with limited transparency.
We reviewed KBC's spare change investing to see if the convenience justifies the cost, and what alternatives exist for Belgians who want to invest smarter.
Pros and cons
Before we dig into how the product works, let's take a quick look at the pros and cons of KBC's spare change investing:
What is KBC's spare change investing?
KBC rounds up your everyday payments to the nearest euro and sets the difference aside. It works on most types of payments: card purchases, transfers, direct debits, standing orders, even loan repayments. Once your spare change reaches €10, it’s automatically invested in an investment fund. If your account is overdrawn or the roundup would put you in the red, it skips the rounding.
Turn it on once and each card payment is rounded up to the next euro. Those cents drip into an investing pot and, every time it reaches €10, KBC buys fund units for you.
In practice, the average user ends up setting aside about €0.90 per day, roughly €20 a month. It’s slow, but it builds the habit without any effort.
You need to be a KBC customer with a personal or joint current account. The feature sits inside the KBC app, and your plan appears the next business day. You can pause or stop whenever you like.
If you want to move faster, there’s a Turbo toggle that doubles or triples each roundup. Same automation, just a bigger nudge. It won’t turn cents into a nest egg overnight, but it does push more money into markets, useful if you’re trying to build momentum.
KBC says a majority of their first-time investors start this way. That’s a marketing stat, so treat it cautiously, but it does show how heavily KBC promotes round-ups to beginners.
What you’re actually investing in
When you turn on KBC’s spare change investing, your cents don’t stay in cash. Once they add up to €10, they’re used to buy a KBC investment fund linked to your plan in the app.
Most beginners are funnelled into KBC’s own strategy funds. These are actively managed by KBC Asset Management and mix shares, bonds, and sometimes other types of investments. They’re not passive index funds. Instead, KBC’s managers decide how to allocate the money based on their own views of the market.
What funds do KBC offer?
The funds are grouped by risk level. You’ll see names like “Defensive,” “Balanced,” or “Dynamic.” Many also come in “Responsible Investing” (RI) versions, which apply ESG screens but still follow KBC’s investment approach. For example, a “Dynamic RI” fund typically invests about half in shares and half in bonds, though this can shift over time. Let's dig into this fund.
Example: KBC Dynamic Responsible Investing
KBC’s own info document for the KBC Dynamic Responsible Investing fund (ISIN BE6341934741) lays it all out. And honestly, the fees hit hard.
It starts with a high entry fee. KBC charges 2.50% just to get started. So if you invest €10 of your spare change, 25 cents goes directly to KBC first. Want to sell within a month? They may take another 5% off as an early exit fee.
Then there are the yearly costs. The fund charges 1.66% every year for managing your money, plus another 0.28% in transaction fees. That’s a total of 1.94% gone every year. It quickly adds up.
KBC’s own example makes it clear. In their “moderate” return scenario, a €10,000 investment leads to:
- €444 in total costs in the first year alone
- €1,254 in costs over five years
That means you're losing 4.4% in year one, and on average 2.5% each year just in fees.
And the returns? Before costs, they estimate about 4.3% per year. After costs, it drops to just 1.8%. That’s a huge bite, 2.5 percentage points lost every year to fees alone.
You can see below how KBC’s fund has performed compared to an MSCI World ETF. The MSCI World index invests in over 1,600 companies across developed countries like the US, Germany, the UK and Japan. ETFs tracking this index are much cheaper, with ongoing fees of around 0.20% per year instead of the 1.94% that KBC charges. The comparison isn’t perfect, as the KBC fund also invests in bonds, but the large difference in fees explains much of its weaker performance.
It’s a complicated investment strategy. The fund is actively managed, aims for a 55/45 split between stocks and bonds, may use derivatives, and invest in other KBC funds. You have little visibility over where your money actually goes.
Don’t confuse low risk with low cost. The fund is labelled 3 out of 7 on the risk scale (medium-low). But the fees are anything but low.
You choose your risk level
You pick your risk level in the KBC app, and they assign a fund that matches. After that, KBC handles the investing and rebalancing for you. If you want more detail, you can dig into their fund documents through their site.
It’s simple to use. You get one fund, and KBC takes care of the rest. That’s great for building the habit.
But you’re paying a lot for the convenience. A 2.5% fee on every €10 adds up fast, and the ongoing charges are steep compared to index funds. Over time, those costs eat into your returns. If you like the automation, this can be a helpful way to get started. But once you’re comfortable, consider switching to a low-cost index portfolio for your larger monthly investments. You’ll likely keep more of your money that way.
You can't change the fund
Once you set up your fund, you can't change it. This is frustrating as your risk profile changes over time. For instance, you may have a low tolerance to risk when you first start investing. But as you grow more comfortable, you want to switch to a more risky fund that can get you a higher return. This is unfortunately not possible with KBC's spare change investing.
No information about the fund you're investing in
One thing that struck us when using KBC's spare change investing, is the lack of information on what we're investing in. As you can see in the screenshot below, there is no information about the fund except the partial fund name. The "More info" button does not give more information about the fund. They also give no insights into the fees that you've paid. So it scores very low in terms of transparency.
Does investing your spare change have an impact?
As a behavioural nudge, yes. It gets you started without thinking too much about it, which is often the hardest part.
But as an actual investing strategy? Not really, unless you increase how much you invest over time. At KBC’s example pace of about €20 a month, that’s €240 a year. And you’re paying mutual fund pricing for it: a 2.5% fee each time money is invested, plus ongoing costs of around 1.86% a year.
If you stick with this for several years, the fee difference compared to low-cost index investing can add up to thousands of euros.
Who is it (actually) for?
Good fit: Total beginners who struggle to get started and want a simple, automatic habit inside their banking app.
Think twice: Cost-conscious long-term investors who want to build real wealth with efficient fees. You’ll likely outgrow this setup quickly.
Alternatives to grow your wealth
If you’re serious about growing your wealth, there are more cost-efficient ways to invest than spare change.
Set up a monthly investing plan with low-cost index funds or ETFs
Even small amounts like €25 or €100 a month can go a long way when invested consistently. By investing in globally diversified index funds or ETFs, you benefit from much lower fees, often just 0.07% to 0.25% per year. That’s a huge difference compared to the ~1.86% you might pay with actively managed funds. And over the long term, those lower fees can add up to thousands more in your pocket.
Look at the long run and the gap is stark between active and passive. Since 2005, the equivalent world index fund compounded at 8.6% a year, while one of the most popular funds, the KBC Equity Fund World, managed only 4.9%. That’s classic active fund drag, and exactly what ESMA finds for roughly 75% of active funds that trail their benchmark over time.
Put euros to it: invest €10,000 in 2005 and the index fund grows to about €55,000. The KBC active fund? €28,000. You’re €27,000 worse off and you paid higher fees for the privilege.
Use Curvo for convenience of automation with the benefits of index investing
Curvo is built for Belgians who want to invest the smart way but without the hassle. You get:
- A globally diversified portfolio tailored to you
- No entry fees
- Start your investment plan from only €50 per month
- Fractional shares, so all your money is invested
- Built-in rebalancing and tax optimisation
- An all-in fee starting from just 0.6% per year
It’s ideal if you want a monthly investing habit but don’t want to deal with brokers or figure everything out yourself.
Summary
KBC’s spare change feature makes starting easy, and that’s genuinely valuable. It turns everyday spending into a simple investing habit. But under the hood, it’s costly. You pay a 2.5% fee every time money is invested, plus around 1.86% in yearly fund fees, and extra Belgian taxes when you sell.
For small, frequent investments, these fees take a big bite out of your returns.
If you decide to use it, think of it as a stepping stone. It’s a great way to build the habit, but once you’re comfortable, switch to a monthly plan with lower-cost index funds or something like Curvo, where your money goes further.