Scalable Capital interest rates: 2% savings account compared to competitors

Scalable Capital’s current interest rate of 2% is an attractive option for anyone looking for a good return on their instant access savings account. However, customers must sign up for the fee-based flat-rate trading plan in order to benefit from this. When and for whom is this investment worthwhile? We have the answers!

Scalable Capital interest rates: an overview of the offer

In this highly competitive market, Scalable Capital initially appears to be just another low-cost neobroker. Both the cost of €0.99 per transaction and the selection of shares and ETFs are very similar to its eternal competitor, Trade Republic. However, a direct comparison between Scalable Capital and Trade Republic quickly reveals that Scalable Capital has significantly more to offer!

The most important difference is the PRIME+ flat-rate trading. For €4.99 per month, trading fees are waived for all transactions. with a volume of at least €250. In addition, you will receive a better spread (0.69% mark-up instead of 0.99%) and access to some useful analysis tools when trading cryptocurrencies.

98/100

Points

1,300 ETFs suitable for savings plans

supervised by German regulator

2,5 % interest for new customers

REDEEM BONUS*

In addition, PRIME+ subscribers at Scalable Capital receive 2% interest on their uninvested capital.

How does Scalable Capital interest work?

The European Central Bank’s key interest rate determines the interest rate you can expect on various investment products. Currently, this rate is on a downward trend, which means that interest rates on instant access savings accounts and similar products are also falling. Now is the time to act quickly and secure a return!

Scalable Capital offers an attractive opportunity. Interest rates are currently an impressive 2%! This makes the German neobroker a lucrative investment compared to its competitors. You receive this percentage on capital that is not invested in shares, ETFs or other products.

This offer is permanently valid – a luxury that cannot be taken for granted! Most banks offer high returns for a short period of time and then reduce the interest rate. Scalable Capital’s interest rates, on the other hand, also apply to existing customers.

However, Scalable Capital’s instant access savings account also has disadvantages: you must take out a ‘PRIME+’ subscription. This flat-rate trading fee is a special feature of this broker that many customers appreciate. It allows you to execute trades with a volume of more than €250 free of charge and guarantees you an attractive 2% interest rate.

However, it also costs €4.99 per month. An investment is therefore only worthwhile for larger sums, so that these costs are offset by the returns achieved. In practice, it looks something like this:

It is therefore only worth investing your money here if you have at least €3,000. However, if you are already using the trading flat rate for other reasons, you can of course also store smaller amounts here and benefit from the interest.

This makes it an attractive overall package for anyone who regularly trades cryptocurrencies or wants to invest more than €500 per month. However, Scalable Capital is only suitable as a pure savings deposit for larger amounts.

Furthermore, the interest rate is not guaranteed. If, as expected, there are further cuts in the base rate in the future, the percentage rate for call money could also fall further. However, this risk is mitigated by two important factors:

1. An interest rate cut can also affect you with all other providers and is not a problem that only affects Scalable Capital’s instant access savings account.
2. You can invest or withdraw your money at any time. So, if the worst comes to the worst, you can switch to another provider in a flash.

A third disadvantage is the upper limit of €100,000. Amounts exceeding this limit do not earn interest. However, since deposit protection only applies up to €100,000 and such large sums could be invested much more profitably elsewhere anyway, this is unlikely to be a real problem in practice.

How Scalable Capital’s interest rates compare to the competition

2% is a good interest rate, with which Scalable Capital leaves many competitors in the dust. However, it does have to concede defeat to some other online brokers. In addition, the disadvantage of the flat trading rate in the form of monthly costs is quite noticeable.

Specifically, this means that compared to the most important banks and brokers, the results are as follows:

1. Freedom24

Freedom24 is an internationally successful online broker that has recently become available in Germany. It currently offers a very attractive 3.34% interest rate on instant access savings accounts!

This is not a promotional offer, meaning that the interest rate is not limited in time. However, the broker reserves the right to adjust the interest rate accordingly in the event of changes to the base rate. The return on US dollars is even more impressive: here, you can expect a full 4.84%!

93/100

Points

15 Trading platforms worldwide

1,500+ ETFs, 40,000+ stocks

Free shares often available to investors

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Of course, there are also disadvantages: as this is a foreign broker, the well-known deposit protection of €100,000 does not apply here. Instead, there is EU capital protection, which covers a maximum of €20,000. I have described more about this issue in the article on my Freedom24 review.

For larger amounts, you need to weigh up whether the high interest rates are worth the risk. My personal recommendation is to use Freedom24 as a secondary broker! Then you can benefit from the extremely wide range of products, the 15 possible trading venues and can invest unused capital of up to €20,000 lucratively.

2. Trade Republic

Trade Republic has grown from a small neobroker to a fully licensed bank with more than 2.5 million customers in Germany alone. It currently offers 3.5% on uninvested capital – with no minimum amount, term or other disadvantages.

This clearly surpasses its eternal competitor Scalable Capital. The disadvantage: the company passes on the European key interest rate more or less directly to its customers. Reductions are extremely likely in the near future and will also lead to lower interest rates at Trade Republic.

So you shouldn’t hope for a long-term investment – but in the meantime, you can earn good money here.

95/100

Points

Very good app

Shares and savings plans from just €1

2% interest on the settlement account

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Here is an overview of all the major instant access savings account providers:

When is Scalable Capital instant access savings worthwhile?

Scalable Capital offers attractive interest rates, but you have to take out a paid PRIME+ subscription to benefit from them. This raises the question of whether and when such an investment is worthwhile. I can only see two possible scenarios here:

1. You are investing a larger amount. From €3,000 onwards, the interest earned offsets the €4.99 monthly fee. Every additional euro you deposit generates a profit for you and increases your return.

With a sum of €5,000, you can already achieve a return of 1.4% per annum, which is more than you would receive with most direct banks such as Comdirect, Consorsbank or DiBa ING Tagesgeld. In my opinion, this is the amount at which Scalable Capital interest rates become worthwhile as a pure investment – even if you don’t want to invest in shares, ETFs and the like and only want to invest your money as a savings account.

With very large amounts of 50, 75 or even 100,000 euros, the running costs for the PRIME+ subscription are hardly significant. You will then receive almost the full 2% interest per annum.

However, investing amounts greater than €100,000 is ill-advised. For one thing, deposit protection only covers up to this amount. If the broker were to go bankrupt – for example, in the event of another severe financial crisis – you could lose part of your capital.

Furthermore, with such large sums of money, the question arises as to whether there are better ways to use your capital. You can find inspiration, for example, in my article on a model portfolio for every age group, index funds vs. ETFs, and safe stocks.

But the most important reason against such amounts is that Scalable Capital does not pay any interest on amounts over €100,000!

2. You actively use Scalable Capital as a broker and trade here regularly with order volumes of over €250. In this case, it makes sense to book the trading flat rate anyway – regardless of the daily interest rate.

In this scenario, the investment pays off from the very first euro, because you have to pay the €4.99 monthly fee anyway. The combination of free trading, better spreads for cryptocurrencies, useful analysis tools and high interest rates makes for an attractive overall package.

98/100

Points

1,300 ETFs suitable for savings plans

supervised by German regulator

2,5 % interest for new customers

REDEEM BONUS*

My experience with Scalable Capital instant access savings accounts

I have been using Scalable Capital regularly for around seven years now and have gained experience in a wide variety of areas: share and ETF trading, derivatives, savings plans and even interest rates.

However, the interest rate is not the main reason for me, i.e. I do not store extra capital with Scalable Capital just to earn interest. My goal is to invest in shares and ETFs. To do this, I use both savings plans and one-off investments.

However, I often pay the money for a savings plan well in advance and in the meantime benefit from the 2% I receive on the capital. This means that my account balance almost always remains above €3,000. The interest I receive on this is enough to cover the PRIME+ costs of €4.99.

In my opinion, the excellent portfolio analysis you receive with PRIME+ alone makes a subscription worthwhile. The fact that you can finance the costs with just a little capital in your account makes the premium membership even more attractive.

To provide even greater insight into my activities, I have written a review on Scalable Capital.

98/100

Points

1,300 ETFs suitable for savings plans

supervised by German regulator

2,5 % interest for new customers

REDEEM BONUS*

Conclusion: Scalable Capital interest rates are particularly worthwhile if you trade regularly.

The German neobroker Scalable Capital takes a different approach when it comes to interest rates: it offers an attractive 2%, but only if you sign up for the paid trading flat rate ‘PRIME+’. In addition to interest, this also offers free stock market transactions, better spreads for crypto trading and extended financial analyses.

The question of whether Scalable Capital is worthwhile as a savings account depends largely on the subscription costs: you have to pay €4.99 per month or €59.88 per year. You can earn this amount back if you have €3,000 in your account. For every additional euro, you already make a profit.

With higher sums, your return also increases and can quickly outpace competitors such as Comdirect, Consorsbank or ING. However, you don’t stand a chance against Freedom24 or Trade Republic.

Scalable Capital interest rates are an attractive extra for anyone who already uses the flat-rate trading service. Hardly any investor would turn down the 2% interest rate offered here at no extra cost. However, if you are not interested in PRIME+ and only want to use the broker as an instant access savings account account, I would advise against it.

There are simply much better alternatives here: Freedom24 and Trade Republic offer you higher interest rates without the €4.99 monthly fee.

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