My TradeRepublic experiences in 2024: problems, innovations and review

Things are going haywire at TradeRepublic: thanks to a full banking licence, the company can now offer its customers their own current accounts, and the rapid growth of the company is impressive. At the same time, however, there are also problems caused by the expansion, and many customers are having negative experiences with Trade Republic for the first time.

But what is the situation really like, how good is the offer and what can you expect? Find out everything you need to know in my report ‘TradeRepublic Experience 2024’!

2.5 million Germans have gained experience with TradeRepublic!

Actually, no introduction is necessary: if you invest money in shares or ETFs, you have probably already had experience with TradeRepublic. Around 2.5 million Germans and four million customers worldwide use the popular platform. According to the company itself, it is now the largest broker in Europe!

If you are not yet one of our customers or simply need a little refresher: TR is an online broker based in Berlin that has completely transformed the market for share and ETF investments with its trading app. Since 2019, it has offered users the opportunity to invest in various exchange-traded products.

In 2024, the company received a full banking licence from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This means that the company is now a real bank and is allowed to offer current accounts, for example. However, its core business remains online securities accounts and stock market trading.

In contrast to the previously common method via a house bank, the money-multiplying process is simple, practical and extremely cost-effective: you can invest in shares and ETFs for a fee of just €1.00. In addition, you can also use riskier assets such as derivatives. However, this area of the product range receives little attention – only around two percent of customers use these offers.

The option to execute an ETF or shares through a savings plan free of charge has helped make the app extremely popular. These regular, automatic investments now form the core of many people’s wealth accumulation.

The broker can use the experience gained in more than five years of the company’s history – and the Berliners need to, because the market is highly competitive! They are always trying to poach customers from competitors with new offers and improvements. This seems to be working well, with around 100,000 new customers joining every month!

95/100

Points

Very good app

Shares and savings plans from just €1

3.25% interest on the settlement account

TO THE PROVIDER*

Basics: This is what you get at TradeRepublic

TR is particularly suitable for people who have little or no experience of the stock markets and now want to invest their money wisely. The simple handling and low costs are of great benefit to newcomers – but advanced traders also profit, of course.

This is because the depository is generally free of charge and costs are only incurred for the actual trading. The extremely favourable conditions are possible, among other things, because Trade Republic only offers a single trading venue: you have to conduct all transactions on the Lang & Schwarz exchange.

In my experience, a single trading centre is easily sufficient for investors who primarily want to achieve long-term asset growth. However, if you are looking for more exotic stocks or want to actively trade in derivatives, leverage, margin and the like, you should also open another securities account with a different provider. Since online brokers no longer charge securities account fees, this is easy to do at no extra cost.

I have had particularly good experiences with the combination of TradeRepublic and CapTrader. But brokers like Freedom24 are also a good match.

93/100

Points

Up to 20 free shares (July 1st - December 31st, 2024)

15 trading venues, 1,500+ ETFs, 40,000+ shares

Median of €79 - €529 of free shares (July 1st - December 31st, 2024)

TO THE PROVIDER*

You can then use TR for savings plans or investments in ETFs or large companies. Thanks to the favourable cost model, you can save a lot of money here! If you occasionally want to buy other, rather unknown stocks on different exchanges, CapTrader and Monefit come into play.

What you should not expect is outstanding customer service or personal attention. This is where Trade Republic and all neo-brokers have problems: they save on customer service and try to deal with problems, complaints, etc. through automated responses, chatbots and FAQs.

However, poor experiences with customer service are not limited to TradeRepublic; almost all online brokers have to deal with these problems.

Shares and ETFs

The range has grown from an original 7,500 to around 8,500 stocks at present. Added to this are 2,200 ETFs. Overall, the offering is therefore solid and, in my experience, you will find most stocks here without further ado. However, if you are looking for exotic stocks or special ETFs, there may be problems.

Of the 8,500 securities, around 2,700 are available as an equity savings plan available. It is also possible to buy fractions, which allows you to get in on expensive securities at a low cost. However, certain rights, such as attending a general meeting, are denied to you until you own at least one whole share.

Particularly interesting: among the available ETFs, around 1,500 include equities, 550 use bonds, 30 rely on commodities and another 30 on real estate. An exciting mix that offers you many strategic options! For example, if you have no experience with commodities but still want to benefit from this asset class, ETFs are a good place to start.

The available providers are also attractive! Almost all the big names, such as Vanguard, HSBC, Van Eck, Xtrackers and iShares, are represented in sufficient quantity. Many investors place less value on a wide selection of ETFs, but it can certainly bring advantages. For example, the issuers have different fee models that can help you save costs.

You can buy stocks and ETFs as a market order (immediate execution at the best available price – but may be more expensive than expected) or limit order (execution at the price you specify. If the price is not available, the execution will not take place).

With other brokers, you have significantly more choice here – there are dozens of special order forms! However, this should be enough for most private investors. Problems only arise here if you want to actively trade.

All 2,200 exchange traded funds are also available free of charge as an ETF savings plan. Even the already low fee of €1.00 is waived here! You can set the execution quite flexibly (weekly, biweekly, monthly or quarterly) and, of course, different savings rates are also available to you. You can get started with as little as €1.00 per purchase.

You can conveniently have the money for the execution debited by direct debit. Of course, TradeRepublic would prefer you to set up a current account with the company and handle your investments (and all other banking transactions) from here.

95/100

Points

Very good app

Shares and savings plans from just €1

3.25% interest on the settlement account

TO THE PROVIDER*

New bonds available!

Bonds are usually considered to be rather boring investments – wrongly so! In addition to the usually very safe, but also only minimally interest-bearing government bonds (for example from Germany), there are also much more exciting alternatives.

At TR, you currently have a little over 600 bonds at your disposal. This selection is not overwhelming, but it is solid. By way of comparison, over 5,000 government bonds and more than 10,000 corporate bonds are traded on the Xetra exchange in Frankfurt.

As is so often the case, TradeRepublic is ideal for gaining initial experience in a particular field. You can easily invest in bonds here and thus, for example, add an additional hedge to your portfolio. In any case, it is a nice extra that you won’t find with many other brokers.

Particularly in times of falling interest rates, you can hope for attractive price gains with this financial instrument. This is because bonds are traded on the stock exchange and have fluctuating prices. When the base rate falls, such securities with the older, higher interest rate suddenly become much more interesting – the price rises. In addition to the often measly interest rate, the prospect of capital gains is the main reason why many investors turn to this asset class.

With TradeRepublic, you can get started from as little as €1.00! A savings plan for purchases is also offered, creating a very flexible offering. This is a perfect way to gain your first experience with bonds.

But be careful: such small amounts are only possible because you are only buying fragments. So you don’t actually own the (whole) bond. If there are problems at TR and there is a threat of insolvency, this would have negative consequences. . Die Absicherung ist jedoch, dank der Erfahrungen aus der Finanzkrise 2008 und der 2024 erteilten Vollbank-Lizenz, heute generell so gut, dass eine Pleite äußerst unwahrscheinlich sein dürfte.

So it’s a deal with pros and cons: you can profit from bonds with the smallest amounts and don’t have to invest 1,000 euros or more first, you can use savings plans and save fees. In return, you have a slightly smaller selection and are not the actual owner of the bond.

Trade Republic Call Money: Interest on your capital

As early as 2023, TradeRepublic caused a stir with an exciting measure: as one of the first neo-brokers, it paid interest on uninvested capital. A proud 3.75% p.a. has since been paid on unused money! This amount is limited to €50,000 and, at the time, offered a very attractive return.

The problem is that the key interest rate and the financial environment have changed. 3.75 per cent is no longer really worth mentioning. On the other hand, it certainly doesn’t hurt to get extra interest on your unneeded capital.

My personal experience shows that there are always phases when you have some cash lying around in your account. For example, you may have money set aside for a purchase but you’re waiting for the ideal time to make the purchase. In such cases, an interest rate of 3.75 per cent is, of course, very attractive!

To start earning interest, you first have to activate the feature. Your money then goes to one of the partner banks, such as Solarisbank or Citigroup.

Since Citigroup is based in Ireland, the Irish deposit guarantee scheme applies to this interest offer. In the event of a bank bankruptcy, you can get 90 per cent of your capital back here, up to a maximum of €20,000 – significantly less than the German deposit guarantee of €100,000! The experiences during the banking crisis of 2008 have shown that, while such an insolvency is not likely, it is still possible.

Fortunately, this special regulation only applies to the interest rate offer. All other services are based in Germany, monitored by BaFin and protected by the German deposit insurance. It should also be noted that TradeRepublic reserves the right to lower, suspend or even charge negative interest rates at any time.

Since TradeRepublic recently obtained a full banking licence, it can be assumed that it will process the interest offers itself in the future. The problems with the Irish hedge and the manual registration would then probably no longer apply. Until then, you are handing over your money and should be aware of the risks.

If you don’t want to register your money for the 3.75 per cent, you will still receive a small amount of interest: 2 per cent is currently paid automatically on your non-invested capital. Again, this interest rate is hardly worth mentioning, but if you don’t have anything better to do with the amount anyway, you are welcome to take it.

You want to know who the best neobroker is? Our comparison of Scalable Capital vs TradeRepublic will tell you!

Problems and bad reviews at TradeRepublic

Let’s move on to what is probably the most interesting part at the moment: the problems of TradeRepublic. Since spring 2024, a series of difficulties began that have apparently not yet been overcome. There is not necessarily one specific cause, but rather many problems in different areas that add up. The rating on portals like TrustPilot has suffered extremely since then.

For months, we have been inundated with a flood of bad reviews. The reasons for this are:

• Customers report difficulties in transferring money and sometimes have to wait months for the capital to arrive somewhere.
• Dividend payments that used to be credited to securities accounts within hours now take several days.
• A securities account transfer (transferring shares or ETFs from one securities account to another) can take several months.
• Problems and uncertainties in crypto trading, as the company recently wanted to exclude three altcoins from trading within 24 hours, but then offered them again.

All these points would be bearable if it weren’t for the one central problem: TradeRepublic has terrible customer service! Contact is only possible via email – with astronomical response times. If you do get a reply, it usually contains only text modules that can also be found in the FAQ section.

This ultimately raises the question: how reputable is TradeRepublic? And would I really want to trust a bank that doesn’t offer accessible customer service with my money? Based on the current assessment, it can be said that many users tend to answer these questions with ‘no’.

To make matters worse, the company’s communications are characterised by an almost impertinent tone, which is reflected in the way the company deals with customers. For example, the company generally uses standard phrases to explain problems or points out that it has done nothing illegal (as happened with the delayed dividend payment). There is no sign of any admission of guilt or promise of improvement.

Those who have been using TradeRepublic for a while are probably not surprised: as early as 2021, the company decided to disable the purchase of shares during the GameStop short squeeze, angering many users. At the time, BaFin received over 4,000 complaints against TradeRepublic.

Even with the problems that persist today, there were again thousands of reports to the supervisory authority. The authority is finally reacting and has ordered an investigation of the company. In response to the abuses, fines could be imposed. However, it is more likely that the company will be forced to stop taking on new customers. a popular measure of the BaFin when a provider has grown too fast and cannot get its problems under control.

This is how I invest with TradeRepublic

I myself have been actively investing in TR for many years – in fact, I have been involved almost from the very beginning! Since then, my portfolio has grown steadily through further deposits and the profits and dividends I have earned. Today, it is worth more than 15,000 euros.

My use of it is fairly standard: I use the app to buy stocks and ETFs with a medium to long holding period. I do this through direct purchases via limit orders and through savings plans. So you could call me a typical standard user who is engaged in quite boring but successful wealth accumulation.

During my years with TR, I have had nothing but positive experiences. I have never had to deal with error messages, an unavailable app or any other problems. All transactions went as promised and even depositing and withdrawing money is easy and surprisingly fast.

Since I haven’t had any problems so far, I haven’t had to deal with the infamous customer service either. I think it’s important not to get your hopes up here: TradeRepublic is a broker that offers low-cost access to stock markets. However, if problems arise, you are largely on your own. and I have to accept very long waiting times before problems are solved.

95/100

Points

Very good app

Shares and savings plans from just €1

3.25% interest on the settlement account

TO THE PROVIDER*

Conclusion of my TradeRepublic experience: a low-cost broker with problems

TradeRepublic has been known for years as one of the top neo-brokers in the DACH region! TR is ideal especially for investors with little experience and those who only want to engage in long-term asset accumulation with savings plans.

The product catalogue is good with 8,500 shares, 2,200 ETFs, 600 bonds and numerous derivatives. Other providers can often offer more here, but usually fail due to the costs: with TradeRepublic, you only pay one euro for the trade! Without surcharges, special conditions or other hidden costs. In our opinion and experience, this is one of the most attractive offers on the German market.

ETF savings plans are completely free of charge, enabling you to build up your assets. In addition, you receive two per cent interest on unused capital. You can even increase this amount to 3.75 per cent if you entrust the money to the partner banks – however, a limit of €50,000 then applies.

The actually great offer suffers from numerous difficulties that have arisen since 2024: delayed or missing deposits and withdrawals, uncertainties in crypto trading, late dividend payments… These problems are exacerbated by poor customer service and have caused thousands of bad reviews.

But despite these problems, the offering remains attractive. For inexperienced investors, there is hardly a better option than TradeRepublic.

Since 2024, it has had a full banking licence from BaFin and has since started offering current accounts and debit cards. However, it is up to you to decide whether you want to trust a bank that is unavailable when you need it.

Based on my experience, I can say that TradeRepublic is an extremely affordable broker with a solid offering. For savings plans and investments in well-known securities, TR continues to be a good first port of call.

FAQ – Frequently asked questions about Trade Republic experiences