Trade Republic Review 2026
ETF Investing for Newcomers
Trade Republic went from a Berlin startup to Europe's largest savings platform in six years. Over 10 million customers across 18 EU countries use it to invest in ETFs, stocks, and crypto — while earning 2 % interest on uninvested cash and 1 % Saveback on card spending. For expats in Germany starting their investment journey, it is the most accessible entry point in the market. This review covers everything you actually need to know.
What is Trade Republic?
Trade Republic Bank GmbH is a Berlin-based digital bank and investment platform founded in 2015, licensed by BaFin since 2019 and holding a full German banking licence since 2023. It started as a mobile-only broker focused on low-cost ETF and stock trading, then expanded into cash savings (2 % interest on uninvested balance), a Visa Debit card with 1 % Saveback, and more recently access to private market investments via partnerships with Apollo and EQT.
The platform's central promise is straightforward: pay €1 per trade, run ETF savings plans for free, and earn interest on cash sitting in the account between investments. For expats in Germany who want to start building long-term wealth in ETFs alongside their everyday banking, Trade Republic is — by most metrics — the lowest-friction entry point in the German market.
Depot (Brokerage)
9.000+ stocks, 2.400+ ETFs, bonds, and crypto. ETF savings plans free from €1/month. Single trades: €1 flat regardless of order size. Fractional shares available.
Cash interest
2,00 % p. a. on all uninvested cash, no cap, no time limit. Calculated daily, paid monthly. Rate tracks ECB deposit facility rate. Both new and existing customers.
Visa Debit card
Free virtual card (€0), standard card (€5 issuance), Mirror card (€50). No FX fees. Free ATM withdrawals above €100. 1 % Saveback into your savings plan.
German bank account
Full German IBAN, SEPA transfers, standing orders, direct debits. Use as a secondary account alongside your main Girokonto or as a one-stop banking and investing hub.
ETF savings plans — the core feature
A savings plan (Sparplan) is an automated recurring investment: you set an amount (minimum €1), choose an ETF or stock, pick a frequency (weekly, biweekly, or monthly), and Trade Republic executes the buy automatically. No €1 fee applies — savings plan executions are free. This is the feature that drives the bulk of Trade Republic's user growth, because it turns investing from an active decision into an automatic habit.
For newcomers to Germany who have never invested before, the savings plan model is the right starting point: put your emergency fund in Tagesgeld (flexible savings), then automate a monthly ETF purchase for long-term wealth building. Even €50 per month into a broad-market ETF like the iShares Core MSCI World compounds meaningfully over 10 to 20 years.
How a savings plan works — step by step
Search for an ETF in the app. Broad-market options for beginners: iShares Core MSCI World (IWDA), Vanguard FTSE All-World (VWCE), or iShares Core MSCI EM IMI. Trade Republic offers 2.400+ ETFs.
Choose any amount from €1 upward. Select execution: weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Monthly is the most common for salary savers. The fixed euro amount buys fractional shares automatically.
On execution day, the amount is deducted from your cash balance and the ETF shares are credited to your depot. No €1 fee. No action required. You receive a push notification when the purchase is executed.
Activate 1 % Saveback on your Visa Debit card. This automatically adds 1 % of every purchase back into your savings plan (max €15/month), turning everyday spending into additional investment.
Recommended starter ETFs on Trade Republic
Past performance does not predict future results. This is not investment advice. ETF management fees (TER) are charged by the fund provider, not Trade Republic.
Accumulating ETFs (thesaurierend) automatically reinvest dividends and are generally more tax-efficient in Germany because you delay the tax event. They do trigger the annual Vorabpauschale advance tax (see the tax section below), but this is a modest and predictable amount. For most newcomers, an accumulating ETF is the better long-term choice. Distributing ETFs pay dividends to your account and trigger immediate tax on each distribution.
Fees — what you actually pay
Trade Republic's fee structure is one of the simplest in the German market. The €1 flat trading fee applies to manual stock and ETF trades — but not to savings plans, which are executed free. Most long-term investors who only run monthly savings plans pay exactly €0 in brokerage fees.
| Action | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ETF savings plan execution | €0 | Free regardless of amount |
| Stock savings plan execution | €0 | Free for all savings plan orders |
| Manual ETF / stock trade | €1 | Flat fee, any order size |
| Bond purchase | €1 | Flat fee |
| Crypto trade | €1 + 1 % spread | Spread on crypto buy/sell |
| Non-EUR currency conversion | 1 % spread | On USD/GBP-denominated instruments |
| Account opening | €0 | No charge |
| Account custody | €0 | No annual custody fee |
| Deposits and withdrawals | €0 | SEPA transfers free |
| Virtual Visa card | €0 | Free to issue |
| Standard physical Visa card | €5 | One-time issuance fee |
| Mirror (metal) Visa card | €50 | One-time issuance fee |
| ATM withdrawal above €100 | €0 | Free worldwide |
| ATM withdrawal below €100 | €1 | Per transaction |
| Foreign currency payments | €0 | No FX fees on card payments |
Trade Republic has historically earned revenue from payment for order flow — a practice the EU banned and phased out by June 2026. PFOF accounted for roughly one third of Trade Republic's revenue in 2024. The platform has been adjusting its model, but the €1 flat fee structure remains unchanged as of the writing of this review. The flat €1 fee is the clean, transparent cost to the investor.
The Visa Debit card and Saveback
Trade Republic's Visa Debit card is a free payment card connected to your cash balance. It carries no FX fees, works for contactless NFC payments, and supports Apple Pay and Google Pay. The card works wherever Visa is accepted — internationally, online, and for card-on-file subscriptions. It is not a Girocard, so it may be declined at terminals that only accept the German Girocard network (though this is increasingly rare at major chains).
How Saveback works
- 1 % on all card purchases with cash balance
- 2 % when using Pay with Crypto feature
- Works on foreign currency purchases
- Apple Pay / Google Pay included
- Must have active savings plan of min. €50/month
- Maximum Saveback: €15/month (on €1.500 spending)
- Not on ATM withdrawals, transfers, or investments
- Not on PayPal transactions or gambling
The Trade Republic Visa Debit card has no FX fees and free ATM withdrawals above €100 — making it a solid travel card. However, it cannot be used for car rental deposits at some companies (debit card restrictions apply) and does not include travel insurance. For a fully equipped travel card, a free charge card like the Hanseatic GenialCard or TF Bank Mastercard Gold is recommended alongside it.
2 % cash interest — what you need to know
Trade Republic pays 2,00 % p. a. on all uninvested cash balance — no cap, no time limit, same rate for new and existing customers. Interest is calculated daily and paid monthly, enabling compound interest. The rate tracks the ECB deposit facility rate, so it adjusts as the ECB moves. This is genuinely one of the better unlimited ongoing rates in Germany compared to Tagesgeld accounts.
One structural note: your cash at Trade Republic is held partly in a money market fund (QMMF) managed by partner institutions. This differs from a traditional bank deposit and has slightly different protection mechanics — the QMMF is Sondervermögen (segregated from Trade Republic's own balance sheet), so it is protected in the event of Trade Republic's insolvency. This structure is also why consumer watchdogs advise against using Trade Republic as a replacement for a traditional Tagesgeld account for your emergency fund. That said, Trade Republic holds a full BaFin banking licence, and cash held at the three partner banks (Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Citibank, Société Générale) is additionally protected under the German deposit guarantee scheme up to €100.000 per bank.
2 % vs. market alternatives
| Product | Rate | Time limit | Interest paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Republic (cash) | 2,00 % | None | Monthly |
| ING Tagesgeld (new customers) | 3,20 % | 4 months only | Annually |
| Consorsbank (new customers) | 3,40 % | 5 months only | Quarterly |
| DKB Tagesgeld (ongoing) | 1,00 % | None | Quarterly |
| C24 Bank Girokonto | 0,50 % | None | Monthly |
Rates as of June 2026. For pure Tagesgeld, promotional rates beat Trade Republic for the first few months. For an ongoing no-fuss rate, 2 % is competitive.
German taxes — what Trade Republic handles for you
One of Trade Republic's strongest advantages for expats is its tax automation. German tax law for investments is complex, and non-German brokers (eToro, Interactive Brokers, Trading 212) leave all calculations to the investor. Trade Republic, as a German bank, handles everything automatically.
When you sell ETFs or stocks at a profit, receive dividends, or earn cash interest, Trade Republic automatically deducts 25 % capital gains tax plus 5,5 % solidarity surcharge (total: 26,375 %) and forwards it to the Finanzamt. You do not need to calculate or report this yourself.
You submit a Freistellungsauftrag once in the Trade Republic app, allocating up to €1.000 of your annual Sparerpauschbetrag to this account. Trade Republic then applies it automatically — no withholding on your first €1.000 of investment income per year. Do this immediately after opening your account.
The Vorabpauschale is an annual advance tax on unrealised gains in accumulating ETFs. In January, Trade Republic automatically deducts this from your cash balance. For 2026 (Basiszins: 3,20 %), this amounts to approximately €59 per €10.000 of ETF portfolio value — reduced or eliminated if your Freistellungsauftrag covers it.
Every January, Trade Republic provides a Jahressteuerbescheinigung (annual tax certificate) in the app. This document summarises all capital gains, dividends, and taxes paid in the previous year. It is used when filing a voluntary tax return (Anlage KAP) to reclaim any over-withholding or report investment income to the Finanzamt.
If you hold US citizenship, you have FBAR and FATCA reporting obligations on all foreign financial accounts, including Trade Republic. These apply regardless of where you live. Trade Republic's German tax handling does not cover IRS obligations. Consult a tax advisor experienced in both German and US tax if this applies to you.
Safety, regulation, and deposit protection
Trade Republic Bank GmbH is supervised by BaFin (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht), Germany's financial regulator, and operates under EU MiFID II rules for investor protection. It received its full banking licence in 2023, which means it is regulated as a bank rather than just a brokerage.
Who Trade Republic is right for — and who it is not
- Newcomers to Germany who want to start investing for the first time
- Monthly ETF savers who want automated, low-cost investing
- People who want investing and daily banking in one app
- Those who want German tax handling done automatically
- Travellers who want a no-FX-fee card with Saveback
- Investors comfortable with a mobile-first platform
- Active traders needing advanced charting, margin, or options
- People who need a Girocard for cash-only German stores
- Those needing desktop trading platform (mobile only)
- Investors needing US-listed stocks (only EU-listed available)
- Those who need responsive, multilingual phone support
- People with complex cross-border tax situations (US, UK citizens)
Frequently asked questions
For an expat arriving in Germany and starting from zero with investing, Trade Republic is the right first stop. The combination of free ETF savings plans from €1, 2 % unlimited cash interest, automatic German tax handling, and an English app makes it more accessible than any traditional German bank or non-German broker. You set up a €100 monthly savings plan into a broad-market ETF, and the platform handles everything — execution, tax withholding, Vorabpauschale, annual certificate.
Where it falls short: no Girocard, basic customer support, mobile-only, and no advanced trading features. None of these matter for the savings-plan use case. What they do mean is that Trade Republic works best as part of a two-account setup: a free Girokonto at C24 Bank (which includes both a Girocard and a Debit Mastercard) for daily banking, and Trade Republic for savings and investing. Together, the two accounts are free and cover every financial need a newcomer in Germany is likely to have.