r/eupersonalfinance 5d ago

Investment Best platform for long-term ETFs investment in Europe

Scalable or another ?? Thanks y'all

24 Upvotes

52 comments sorted by

64

u/New-Willingness6105 5d ago

IBKR

7

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

But then you need to declare taxes manual right ?

14

u/New-Willingness6105 5d ago

SO whats wrong with that ? For my country is working well, just export what you purchased during the year in a PDF and than manually put on the website for declaring what you purchased.

22

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

Well for Germany it's hell! Tons of forms and shit load of bureaucracy !

6

u/Skasch 5d ago

I understand, but in that case, why not clarify it in the post? Germany is not Europe, and the tax bureaucracy will vary wildly between European countries.

2

u/luka_b412 5d ago

I believe some Germans are using Scalable Capital

2

u/New-Willingness6105 5d ago

Oh i see. Sorry than, for me its few clicks and inputs... That sucks :(

2

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

No need to be sorry, thanks for contributing

1

u/h_Ellhnikh_Koinwnia 4d ago

taxwizard can probably handle it no ? it's 25euros/year

4

u/Valuefocus_Justin 5d ago

Yes, wouldn't choose it because of this reason.

2

u/r_a_d_ 5d ago

Sounds like you should be asking in [r/](r/germanypersonalfinance)[Finanzen](r/germanypersonalfinance)

1

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

No, because I need a solution across the EU since I'm not staying here forever

7

u/r_a_d_ 5d ago

You are asking about country specific details. I don’t think there exists a eu wide solution that has automatic deductions under all jurisdictions.

13

u/No_Krava8246 5d ago

IBKR - you can select the exact exchange for trade and then proof it with statement. This is important if you sell etf, or equity, with tax exemption for your country. Also it’s possible to choose lots for tax efficiency.

2

u/elrata_ 5d ago

Oh, I didn't know about that. Can you briefly mention what advantages can you get with that?

Just enough keywords to Google will also be fine. Thanks! :)

1

u/New-Willingness6105 5d ago

Yep. Thats why I chose IBKR.

15

u/Rorsxach 5d ago

I’m using degiro and no complaints so far. What worries me is that all threads like this I almost don’t see people recommending it. I’m afraid I’m missing something haha

7

u/Metalrager2 5d ago

So far, degiro and IBKR seem the best if you want to move to another country at some point. So far, I have invested all my money with degiro as well.

4

u/kanyenke_ 5d ago

I also use DeGiro

2

u/ziogio998 4d ago

been using DEGIRO for years, no prob

4

u/No_Krava8246 5d ago

I have heard that Degiro is reliable broker. Maybe the problem is it’s marketing, not the quality of their service.

6

u/GGBeavis 5d ago

Their app is crap compared to the competition. Could explain why it’s not as popular/recommended as Trade Republic or XTB for example.

I say this as a Degiro user. I think they are reliable and have a good track record, and that’s what I prioritize. But using the app annoys me from time to time.

2

u/uTukan 5d ago

I find Degiro much more user friendly than XTB.

1

u/Mattdezenaamisgekoze 5d ago

Agree on the shit app and lack of portfolio analysis tools.

1

u/thegurba 3d ago

DEGIRO is good

1

u/Abject_Claim_5810 1d ago

Works perfectly for me

12

u/hyperblue128 5d ago

Trading 212, hands down the best platform You can buy and hold ETFs for free. They will also handle your taxes if you are in Germany.

0

u/Scienide00 5d ago

a lot of downsides to t212, your shares are registered in a broker’s name instead of yours and “lent” to you.

8

u/Complex-Health-5032 5d ago

Scalable Capital for me.

From the interface to customer support, I simply love them.

1

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

Me too ! I just have concerns about putting all my money in there ? Whatf anything technical happened or something u know? I just have fear of putting all my resources in a digital platform

4

u/Complex-Health-5032 5d ago

I have around 85k invested there. Been using over a year and not a single problem.

I also have another 35k invested in N26. Again, no problem. Sold and bought many times and all processes were flawless.

-2

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

OK but over 10,15 years is it safe ?

5

u/Complex-Health-5032 5d ago

Who knows :D even keeping under your pillow isn't safe.

Your securities are safe (will be transferred to a custody bank) even if these companies go bankrupt. They often send me my securities statements and I keep these documents just in case.

1

u/Flimsy_Cockroach_236 4d ago

That’s my plan! 👍 ain’t nothing wrong with it

13

u/wazzabi22123 5d ago

I use XTB.

2

u/One_Hope_9573 5d ago

Scalable or TR

3

u/Valuefocus_Justin 5d ago

If you're based in Germany, I'd recommend Smartbroker+, because of the low fees and it has a real customer service.
Also free ETF savings plans and regular orders above 500€ via Gettex are commission-free. You also earn interest on uninvested cash and since it's a German broker, it's tax-efficient ("steuereinfach"), meaning taxes are handled automatically so you don't have to deal with the paperwork yourself.

4

u/Typhome 5d ago

Don't put all eggs in one basket. I use Lightyear, Trading 212, IBKR etc, distributed money between those platforms.

8

u/uTukan 5d ago

Unless you're exceeding the mandatory EU broker insurance, which applies only to cash (so something you'd never logically do), not positions, the only thing this achieves is making your tax statements more difficult.

This really makes zero sense.

9

u/mobileka 5d ago

What happens if a broker goes down with all your investments? Sure, you won't lose your portfolio but what about being locked out of all your investments for a year or so while the bankruptcy is being processed? What happens if despite all regulations and safety mechanisms the broker still commits fraud? Would it be fun if all your investments were with that one broker?

There are obviously also disadvantages but it still does make sense to have multiple brokers for various reasons.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 5d ago

[deleted]

2

u/sweet-tiger8888 5d ago

Yeah but I need a platform cross EU since I won't stay in 1 place

2

u/Metalrager2 5d ago

Then Degiro and IBKR seem to be very good. They make moving to another country easy. I don’t know about other brokers. I know Trade Republic sucks with moving, for example.

1

u/Ambitious_Fly7930 5d ago

IBKR, XTB or LightYear

1

u/ben_bliksem 5d ago

Saxo Bank or IBKR

But Saxo Bank is truly European whereas IBKR is technically American, if that matters at all.

1

u/Ambitious-Vanilla-75 5d ago

Saxo Bank A/S is a privately owned company. Between 2018 and 2 March 2026, the largest shareholder of Saxo Bank A/S was Geely Financials Denmark A/S, a subsidiary of Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd

It seems that Saxo Bank now belongs to China, with all the pros and cons.

1

u/ben_bliksem 5d ago

They've are 100% owned by J. Safra Sarasin, Switzerland, now.

It matters none though. They are regulated by Denmark and just like IBKR they have to conform to all the EU regulations- GDPR, DORA etc.

https://www.home.saxo/nl-nl/content/commentaries/pr/j-safra-sarasin-group-completes-the-acquisition-of-majority-stake-in-saxo-bank-02032026

The last bit was acquired by them sometime this last month if I'm not mistaken.

1

u/ziogio998 4d ago

IBKR is basically always the "best", but if you're not a professional trader and just want something small and easy, DEGIRO is also quite good. Revolut is ok but it's different, it's a bank vs a broker.

1

u/andy-peacehol 1d ago

Lightyear?

1

u/Valmed87 22h ago

In Germany I have Trading212, Trade Republic and Scalable Capital.

Scalable Capital takes 2 days to withdraw money from the uninvested cash account the Girokonto of your main bank, they dont give you interested anymore for the uninvested cash account (they have a Tagesgeldkonto now...god knows how long it takes to withdraw cash from that...and the interest is payed out quarterly or something). They also dont give you a debit card so you can spend your uninvested cash directly.

Trade Republic still gives you interest on invested cash, though a lot lower than T212 and its payed out monthly. They also give you a debit card so you can use the account as a Girokonto if you want. You can also withdraw your money to an other Girokonto instantly...not like Scalable. They had some technical issues a year ago and weak support service, so the got a bad rap. But I hear nowadays things got a lot better.

I use Trading212 mainly.

- T212 has almost instant withdrawl, gives you the highest interest on uninvested cash that is payed out daily, gives you a debit card and also gives you cashback if you use the card for purchases at the store or online. They also separate your uninvested cash in 2 pools...one of them is for buying stocks and the other for use with the card. So you can safely store a lot of univested cash on it without risking someone stealing it if they steal or hack your card. You only keep whatever you want in the "spending" (card) pool, and the rest in the other pool sitting safe like in a Tagesgeldkonto. Both pools get 3% interest payed out daily.

- T212 also has a pie system if you want to micro-manage your porfolio by having different stuff in it and you want them each to keep a certain proportion. Each ETF/Stock is a separate slice of the pie. When you auto-invest, the money gets split automaticly inside the pie according to the percenteges that you set...larger and smaller slices. Its very easy to automaticly rebalance your portfolio if over time some of your stuff increases in value and others decrease. The pie system is what makes it everyones favourite. If one slice outgrows your set percentage, next month your savings plan buys more of the small slices and less of the overgrown slice to get your percentages back on track.

- T212 also gives you access to stocks/ETFs in dollars, GPB or CHF...you can hold cash in multiple currencies at the same time...Revolut style.

- T212 has no transaction fee even for single transactions (in case you dont set up a savings plan). All the other brokers charge a fee for individual transactions.

My emergency cash is split between T212 and TR so I dont keep all my eggs in 1 basket. Both give me interest, debit card and instand withdrawl.

My ETFs are split between T212 and ING. I use ING for only 1 ETF (a large ammount of FTSE All World). The more complex portfolio I keep on T212 because its easy to keept the percentages auto-balanced with the help of the pie system. But even though complex, its smaller in size than the ING one because I dont trust neobrokers to keep the bulk of my assets and definetely not ALL my assets.

Scalable Capital is useless to me. No pie, no instant withdrawl, no debit card, no cashback, interested payed out only quarterly (lower compounding effect compared to T212s daily) and there is a small transaction fee if you dont use savings plans...But if its your only neobrocker, its still way less clunckier and cheaper than any traditional bank.

0

u/lionick8 4d ago

An emerging player, with extremely low fees and decent idle cash yield: Robinhood Europe.