You've narrowed it down to two brokers: Saxo Bank and Interactive Brokers. Both promise low fees and professional trading platforms.
The problem? They're both built for active traders, not long-term investors. You'll face complex interfaces, manual tax calculations, and the constant temptation to trade too much.
Here's how they actually compare for Belgian investors, plus a simpler alternative that handles everything automatically.
The overview
The table shows an overview of how Saxo compares to Interactive Brokers for different criteria. Read on to get the full details!
Saxo Bank
Story of Saxo 🇩🇰
The story of Saxo begins with its founding in Copenhagen in 1992. The company was established with a vision to make global financial markets more accessible to a wide audience. By 1998, Saxo Group had launched one of the first online trading platforms in Europe, offering professional-grade tools and easy access to global financial markets for anyone interested in investing. They serve over 1m customers and have over €100bn under management. In 2018, they purchased the popular online broker BinckBank for €428m. All BinckBank customers were automatically switched over to the Saxo platform for trading.
Fees for ETFs
Saxo is one of the cheapest brokers in Europe. To buy €1,000 worth of IWDA, the cost is €2 for the transaction fee.
Convenience
Saxo Bank, catering to experienced traders, supports a wide array of complex order types. Unfortunately it doesn't handle fractional shares making regular investing less practical although they have recently introduced saving plans. Depending on where you're registered in Europe, Saxo Bank assists investors. For example, in Belgium, it helps with transaction taxes, dividend taxes, and the Reynders tax on ETF profits, and due to its direct presence in Belgium, customers don't need to declare their accounts to the Belgian National Bank.
Setting up an account
Setting up an account with Saxo is streamlined though approval may take a few days. While Saxo does not provide children accounts, it does offer the option to set up joint and business accounts.
Safety
Saxo, with its primary regulator being the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (DFSA), continues to operate under a Dutch banking license after acquiring BinckBank. Saxo participates in securities lending with an opt-in policy for transparency, and does not engage in payment for order flow (PFOF).
The full review
Learn more about the pros and cons of investing through Saxo in our review.
Interactive Brokers
Story of Interactive Brokers 🇺🇸
Interactive Brokers is an American brokerage firm established in 1978 by Thomas Peterffy, who still serves as its chairman. It's grown to be one of the largest in the world with over 2 million customers. It employs just under 3,000 staff across 15 countries, and is publicly traded on the stock exchange under the ticker symbol IBKR. The brokerage offers a comprehensive trading platform, providing investors access to a diverse range of financial instruments across 150 exchanges in 33 countries.
Interactive Brokers is renowned for its low transaction costs, making it one of the cheapest options out there but let's take a look at their offer in more detail.
Fees for ETFs
Interactive Brokers is one of the cheapest brokers on the market. For instance, it costs €3.00 when buying €1,000 of the popular ETF IWDA by iShares.
Convenience
Interactive Brokers does not provide automated savings plans, requiring manual account funding and trade execution, but it does offer fractional shares for strategies like euro-cost averaging. Their customer service is via email but note that they do not speak Dutch so you'll have to communicate in English or French. Unfortunately Interactive Brokers does not help with declaring any of the taxes. This makes it a cumbersome broker to use as you'll have to handle everything yourself.
Setting up an account
Opening an account with Interactive Brokers is better done via computer. They don't have an itsme integration. The account verification takes usually 3 business days. Interactive Brokers supports business and joint accounts.
Safety
Interactive Brokers is regulated entity in the US. However, in Europe, it has two main regulators: by the Central Bank of Ireland and the Central Bank of Hungary. Unfortunately, they have had issues with regulators and had to pay a $38m fine for it's lack of anti-money laundering processes. While Interactive Brokers participates in securities lending through its opt-in "Stock Yield Enhancement Programme," they do not engage in payment for order flow (PFOF), a practice common among many brokers like Trade Republic.
The full review
Read our review to get a full breakdown of Interactive Broker's pros and cons.
Curvo: easier than a broker
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.
Rather than having to pick the right stocks or ETFs among the thousands available through Saxo or Interactive Brokers, you invest in a portfolio that is tailored to you and your goals. These portfolios are 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. And they're secure as they're under supervision of the regulator in the Netherlands (AFM).
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, by making good investing easy and accessible to all:
- Diversified portfolio set up for you: The best portfolio for you is built based on your time horizon and financial goals. Simply answer a short questionnaire and you’ll get everything set up for you.
- Automated savings plans: Through Curvo’s app you can set up a monthly contribution from €50. That means that money is automatically invested for you in your portfolio. Put your savings on autopilot!
- Fractional shares: All the money you send towards your portfolio is fully invested. No cash is left on the side.
- No TOB 🇧🇪 : Significant savings as the portfolios aren’t liable for the Belgian transaction tax (or "TOB"). This saves you between 0.12% and 1.32% for every time you buy or sell!
- Sustainable investments: Your investments focus on one guiding principle: don’t invest in companies that are considered destructive to the planet. This means that sectors like non-renewable energy, vice products, weapons and controversial companies are all excluded.
- Project yourself into the future: Through Curvo you can see how much your portfolio is expected to be worth in the future. You can answer questions like “how will increasing my monthly contribution by €50, €100 or €200 affect my long-term savings?” to give a concrete idea for the “future you”.
Summary
When comparing Saxo and Interactive Brokers, the winner depends on what you value most. Saxo handles Belgian taxes automatically but costs slightly more. Interactive Brokers offers rock-bottom fees but leaves you to figure out the paperwork yourself.
Both brokers are built for traders rather than long-term investors. If you're looking to invest regularly without the complexity of picking individual ETFs or managing tax obligations, you might want to consider whether a simplified approach like Curvo's automated portfolios better fits your needs.