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DEGIRO Overview
This review covers the pros and cons of the Dutch online brokerage firm called DEGIRO. The firm has been established in 2008, but has only been operating since
2013, hence one can classify this broker to be fairly young.
From the start, DEGIRO entered the field of online investing with low trading fees especially when it comes to equity trading. When DEGIRO
launched, they promised that their trading fees will “remain up to 99% below that of other brokers operating
in the Netherlands”. This led to huge media attention, which established a fairly good foundation for becoming one of the
most competitive discount brokers worldwide.
Opening a DEGIRO Account
DEGIRO operates in 18 European countries: United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France,
Italy, Switzerland, Belgium,Czech republic, Denmark, Sweden, inland, Spain, Norway, F Portugal,
Greece, Hungary, and Ireland. The opening of an account is fairly easy and
does
not require more than 15 minutes. To be fully able to trade, money needs to be transferred to the newly opened account, which might take some
time if the account is not local.
When signing up for DEGIRO as an investment group, a user has to undergo the procedures of the local legal system. In the Netherlands this includes signing an
acceptance form, as well as providing the statutes of the group. The following description of the account opening procedure is based on the Dutch version of DEGIRO
(‘DEGIRO.nl’) for the investment group ‘Phoenix Investment’.
The procedure of signing up was guided by an excellent customer service who are reachable via various channels, including live chat, email, and phone. The friendly
phone customer service representatives are prepared for a wide variety of difficult questions. It is important to mention that as an US citizen, one cannot use DEGIRO as an
online broker due to its policy that restricts Americans from opening an account. This is due to the complexity and inconvenience
of the U.S. tax system.
DEGIRO Pros
DEGIRO marketed itself from the beginning as a low-cost brokerage and maintained this image until now. DEGIRO’s costs for some financial products on different
exchanges are listed below:
| Investments | Commissions |
|---|
| UK Stocks | £1.75 + €1 |
| US Stocks | €0 + €1 |
| Global Stocks | €2 + €1 |
| ETFS (CORE SELECTION) | €0 |
| OPTIONS | €0.75 |
| FUTURES | €0.75 |
DEGIRO Cons
A huge downside of using DEGIRO as your brokerage, is that it does not allow to trade international (non-local) options
or turbos. For example, when using ‘DEGIRO-Netherlands’ only Dutch options and turbos will be listed for trading. One
needs to keep in mind that DEGIRO is still a rather young brokerage firm and this needs to be taken into account.
Another con of DEGIRO is the lack of Real-Time display of client positions. On their webpage,
DEGIRO clearly promotes that they provide Real-Time quotes at no additional charge. However, this
applies only for the CHI-X exchange. For other exchanges there is an extra charge, ranging from
€1.50 per month to €18.20 per month. The default setting on a Standard DEGIRO account is that the
displayed prices are delayed by about 15 minutes.
Usage, Interface and System Design
The structure of the web interface is good and one can effortlessly work with this broker. The menu and search bar make it easy to navigate through the various panels
of the website. Furthermore, the search function is impeccable and displays search results for different asset classes. For instance, searching for Tesla will have
the following search output as shown here (incl. Turbos, warrants, stocks):
Moreover, the wide variety of order types enable traders to pick their preferred option, most suitable for their
trading strategy.
A disadvantage of using DEGIRO is that there is no possibility to research on the brokerage website; however this is rather normal for a discount broker. DEGIRO offers an app (Android and iOS), which made great improvements over the past year in terms of display and design, as well as security due to an additional 5-digit code that is required to enter. Still, providing a desktop platform for trading can be useful and convenient; therefore can be seen as room for improvement.
DEGIRO Review Summary
Overall, DEGIRO is a below average brokerage firm due to its high costs.
Updated on 12/2/2025.
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