Traiding 212

Trading 212 review: How good is it for DIY investors and how does it compare to rivals?

Trading 212: Who does this investment platform suit?

Good for investors who want low fees

  • No account fees, plus zero commission trades.
  • Competitive interest rate on uninvested cash.
  • Social trading features allow you to follow other investors.
  • More limited choice of investments when compared with other platforms.
  • You can’t speak to customer service on the phone.
  • You can’t open a pension at the moment, although it’s reportedly on the way.

This is Money’s view: Trading 212 is a low-cost platform that has useful features for investors, whether they are beginners or those with some experience already. But it doesn’t currently offer a Sipp and its app takes time to get used to.

You can open these accounts with Trading 212:

  • Stocks and shares Isa
  • Cash Isa
  • General investment account
  • CFD trading account

Trading 212 doesn’t currently offer a pension. Read our round-up of the best self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) if you’d like to open a DIY Sipp through an investment platform.

Why you can trust us

About our writer: As This is Money’s Money and Consumer Guides writer, Sam is dedicated to helping people find the best financial products for their needs. He’s written for organisations including Evelyn Partners, Simply Business, NerdWallet and the Financial Ombudsman Service. Sam has worked closely with investment managers and analysts, financial planners and consumer finance experts, building his own knowledge about all things money over more than 12 years.

How we tested Trading 212

I opened both a cash and stocks and shares Isa with Trading 212 and have spent several hours testing its features.

I’ve searched for and bought investments, created my own investment pie, delved into Trading 212’s social features and been in touch with its customer service team.

My final review takes all the above into account, along with the platform’s fees, to give my view of who the platform is good for.

You can trade CFDs on Trading 212, but this doesn’t form part of our review. A CFD is a contract for difference – this form of trading allows investors to speculate on a stock’s price movements without owning the underlying asset. At This is Money, we believe CFD trading is highly risky and should be avoided unless you’re experienced and have carried out thorough research.

For this reason, our Trading 212 review focuses solely on the platform as a low-cost way of investing in stocks and shares.

Trading 212’s fees

Trading 212 doesn’t charge an account fee or a fee for holding your investments.

It also doesn’t charge trading commission, making the platform very cost effective.

An overview of Trading 212’s fees

Type of fee Cost
Account and custody fees Free
Trading fee Free
Foreign exchange fee 0.15%
Deposits by bank transfer Free
Deposits by card, Google Pay, Apple Pay Free up to £2,000 cumulative 0.7% after £2,000 cumulative
Withdrawals Free

This is Money’s view of Trading 212’s fees

Trading 212 can bring the cost of investing in stocks and shares close to zero. For UK investments, you’ll generally only need to pay underlying costs rather than fees charged by the platform itself – for example, ongoing charges within ETFs or stamp duty.

You can keep costs low by making sure you only deposit funds by bank transfer rather than using your card. Trading 212’s foreign exchange fee is lower than eToro’s, which is 0.75 per cent.

Another way Trading 212 helps you keep costs low is by letting you hold money in multiple currencies, which limits the number of times you need to convert your cash.

Essentially it means you don’t need to pay Trading 212’s 0.15 per cent fee for every trade. Conversion is at the interbank rate, which is the rate at which banks buy and sell currencies. 13 currencies are supported, including GBP, EUR, USD and CAD.

Keep in mind this feature’s only available in Trading 212’s Invest account, because an Isa is a UK-specific scheme.

Trading 212 is low cost. But if you’re keen to cut fees even further, Prosper can potentially offer zero-cost investing because it refunds ongoing fees from a select group of index funds.

What is Trading 212’s investment choice like?

Trading 212 offers a good range of investments for DIY investors including more than 13,000 stocks and ETFs from all over the world. You can build a portfolio with:

  • Stocks and shares
  • Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
  • Investment trusts
  • Model investment pies – your choice of a diversified ready-made portfolio based on your attitude to risk, comprised of ETFs

You can buy fractional shares with Trading 212, which means you don’t have to buy the whole share – you can purchase less than one.

This is useful if you’re looking for an entry point into an investment that has a high share price, such as Alphabet, Apple, or Microsoft.

Trading 212 doesn’t give you the option of investing in funds (open ended investment companies) or individual bonds and gilts.

What is Trading 212’s customer service like?

You can contact Trading 212 by email at [email protected] and by using the chat function in the app. It’s not possible to speak to someone from Trading 212 over the phone.

Trading 212 is active online. Its team regularly answers customer questions on its community forum and social media, including Reddit.

Trading 212 claims to offer 24/7 support, but users are sometimes kept waiting for a response during busy periods.

I tested Trading 212’s chat functionality, although I didn’t ultimately ask to speak to a human.

My issue was that I knew I could set up automatic investments into pies using available cash in my account. But Trading 212 doesn’t make it clear how to set up recurring payments from a bank account, even though there’s a spot in the app where recurring payments should appear.

I used Trading 212’s chat function to see whether it could help.

How did Trading 212’s customer service perform?

After you message Trading 212, a chatbot attempts to reply, directing you to content it thinks can help. It suggested I have to set up recurring payments through my bank’s app, rather than on Trading 212 itself.

The link directed me to a page that no longer existed, but the chatbot had done a fairly good job of answering my question.

However, my next issue involved finding Trading 212’s bank details – this is far from obvious within the app.

This time I turned to Google and found a post in Trading 212’s community forum, which seems active. Somebody had already asked about setting up recurring payments, so after a bit of digging I’d solved my problem.

In my view, it’s positive that Trading 212 has an active community and members of its team reply to people on its forum and on social media. This is fine for finding answers to common issues.

But if you prefer to speak to a someone that can answer your questions in real time and help with a specific problem, it’s likely you’ll be better off with a service that offers phone-based support.

Chatbot: You can message Trading 212, but you aren

Chatbot: You can message Trading 212, but you aren’t immediately put through to a human

What is Trading 212’s platform like to use?

Trading 212’s platform is fiddly and takes some getting used to. If you choose the provider, it’s worth playing around with the various menus and icons to get a feel for how to access everything.

As an example, I used the mobile app to transfer a cash Isa to Trading 212 from another provider. This process was painless and took 13 days.

However, it’s not always clear how to navigate to the different functions. I initially expected a transfer option to appear within a larger menu that includes options for managing funds and viewing your payment history.

Instead, the option has its own dedicated section in the navigation bar and is highlighted with an icon. There’s also a button for transfers at the bottom of the platform’s home screen, but this is easily missed.

The good news is it’s quick to open an account, and if you have both a cash Isa and a stocks and shares Isa, moving funds between them is straightforward.

After I’d moved money from my cash Isa to my stocks and shares Isa, I started investing. I tested:

  • On desktop: searching for and making a new investment
  • On mobile app: setting up a regular investment

Searching for and making a new investment on desktop

Trading 212’s desktop and mobile versions are pretty much the same.

Once you log in from your browser, Trading 212 shows you how key markets and stocks are currently performing, and there’s a navigation bar that places investments into categories such as winners, losers and most owned.

The available options can seem bewildering, so you should have researched investments and know where you want to put your money before logging in.

You can look for a specific investment in the search bar at the top of the screen. Once you’ve landed on one, you just click buy and choose whether to purchase based on the number of shares you want, or how much money you want to invest. You can also set up limit orders, stop orders and stop limit orders.

Setting up a regular investment on the mobile app

Trading 212 allows you to set up regular payments into an investment pie. A pie is Trading 212’s term for a portfolio of investments created on the platform. You can choose a ready-made model pie, create your own, or copy pies from other users.

As an example, I’ve created a simple pie made up of an all-world ETF and a physical gold Exchange Traded Commodity (ETC). The all-world ETF has a target weight of 90 per cent and the gold ETC has a target weight of 10 per cent.

You click AutoInvest within the pie to set up the regular investment.

You can choose whether it gets distributed by the targets you’ve set or whether it self-balances the pie, so that more goes to underweight investments.

Trading 212’s AutoInvest is flexible. You can choose the frequency – for example, daily, weekly or monthly – and the day you want the investment to be made.

There are some disadvantages to the feature, however. You can choose payments to be taken from your card, but this is only free up to £2,000 in total. After this you’re charged 0.7 per cent, so this payment method can become expensive.

There’s no charge when the investment is made from available cash in your account, so ideally, you’ll want to set up a regular payment from your bank. But this isn’t intuitive. You can’t do this from within Trading 212 itself and instead you have to set up a standing order from your bank.

It’s possible to invest regularly into a single investment, but you have to put it into a pie first. This is straightforward if you don’t already own the investment. Otherwise you have to import it into a new pie, which is quite a convoluted process.

Social trading features

I like Trading 212’s social features, which allow you to follow other investors, join communities, and copy and share investment pies. The platform is lively, with plenty of buzz around popular investments.

Communities have sprung up on the platform around popular investors and investment pies, which give you the opportunity to learn about different investment strategies.

Trading 212’s social trading features are more established than Interactive Investor’s, who we have also reviewed.

What is Trading 212’s research and educational content like?

Trading 212 gives DIY investors a range of tools to help them make informed decisions.

Charts from TradingView are integrated into the platform, giving you the ability to drill down into the performance of an investment. There’s a host of options for setting up your data, including different chart types and indicators.

You can explore detailed company statistics and financials within the platform.

Trading 212 provides an AI analysis for some stocks, but in our view this shouldn’t replace human research – a disclaimer even says that Trading 212 can’t guarantee its accuracy.

While Trading 212 is strong on tools and there’s a news feed that pulls through helpful updates, it doesn’t offer much in the way of dedicated research.

It’s best to use the detailed information that Trading 212 provides as a springboard for doing your own research.

This naturally makes Trading 212 an option for investors with some experience already, but there’s a suite of engaging educational content available, including a dedicated learn section of the website and popular YouTube videos.

Trading 212: This is Money’s overall review

Trading 212 is a great platform for investors with some experience already. It’s very low cost and it’s quick to buy and sell investments.

The detailed financial information available within the platform, along with the social trading features, can give users the ammunition to make informed decisions.

In terms of negatives, Trading 212 doesn’t offer phone-based support, so investors should be prepared to deal with them online, where responses aren’t always instant.

I also found the platform itself difficult to use at times and needed to do some digging to find certain features.

And a final word of warning on CFDs. Once you’ve got a Trading 212 account, the platform makes it easy for you to open a CFD account, but most people should avoid trading these complex instruments. Trading 212 itself says 77 per cent of investors lose money when trading CFDs on the platform.

Compare the best DIY investing platforms

Investing online is simple, cheap and can be done from your computer, tablet or phone at a time and place that suits you.

When it comes to choosing a DIY investing platform, stocks & shares Isa, self invested personal pension, or a general investing account, the range of options might seem overwhelming.

Every provider has a slightly different offering, charging more or less for trading or holding shares and giving access to a different range of stocks, funds and investment trusts.

When weighing up the right one for you, it’s important to to look at the service that it offers, along with administration charges and dealing fees, plus any other extra costs.

We highlight the main players in the table below but would advise doing your own research and considering the points in our full guide to the best investment accounts.

Platforms featured below are independently selected by This is Money’s specialist journalists. If you open an account using links which have an asterisk, This is Money will earn an affiliate commission. We do not allow this to affect our editorial independence.

DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS AND STOCKS & SHARES ISAS

Admin charge Charges notes Fund dealing Standard share, trust, ETF dealing Regular investing Dividend reinvestment
AJ Bell* 0.25% Max £3.50 per month for shares, trusts, ETFs. £1.50 £5 £1.50 £1.50 per deal More details
Bestinvest 0.40% (0.2% for ready made portfolios) Account fee cut to 0.2% for ready made investments Free £4.95 Free for funds Free for income funds More details
Charles Stanley Direct* 0.30% Min platform fee of £60, max of £600. £100 back in free trades per year £4 £10 Free for funds n/a More details
Etoro* Free Stocks, investment trusts and ETFs. Limited Isa, no Sipp. Not available Free n/a n/a More details
Fidelity* 0.35% on funds £7.50 per month up to £25,000 or 0.35% with regular savings plan. Free £7.50 Free funds £1.50 shares, trusts ETFs £1.50 Freetrade* Basic account free, Standard with Isa £5.99, Plus £11.99 Stocks, investment trusts and ETFs. No funds Free n/a n/a More details
Hargreaves Lansdown* 0.45% Capped at £45 for shares, trusts, ETFs Free £11.95 Free Free More details
Interactive Investor* £4.99 per month under £50k, £11.99 above, £10 extra for Sipp Free trade worth £3.99 per month (does not apply to £4.99 plan) £3.99 £3.99 Free £0.99 More details
InvestEngine* Free Only ETFs. Managed service is 0.25% Not available Free Free Free More details
iWeb Free £5 £5 n/a 2%, max £5 More details
Trading 212* Free Stocks, investment trusts and ETFs. Not available Free n/a Free More details
Vanguard Only Vanguard’s own products 0.15% Only Vanguard funds Free Free only Vanguard ETFs Free n/a More details
(Source: ThisisMoney.co.uk April 2025. Admin % charge may be levied monthly or quarterly

Trading 212 review: read this before you start

Choosing a broker is an important step when starting to invest. There are many different options available, so picking the right one for you is challenging. We take a closer look at Trading 212, a Cyprus-based broker. We’ll look at the pros and cons, the fees, convenience of setting up an account and safety. By the end, you’ll be able to decide if Trading 212 is a right broker for you to invest your savings, or if another broker suits you better.

Pros and cons of using Trading 212

✅ Pros of Trading 212 ❌ Cons of Trading 212
Low fees Targeted for traders
Good selection of financial securities Not easy for beginners
Good customer service You have to figure out taxes yourself
Can’t easily move to another broker

The story of Trading 212 🇨🇾

Trading 212 was founded in 2004 by Ivan Ashminov and Borislav Nedialkov. It has grown to be one of the leading brokers in Europe as it offers “commission free investing” which we’ll dig into the details later in the review.

They have grown to roughly 2.5m users around Europe and they grew significantly during COVID as they began to offer commission-free trading. They hold over €4bn in customer assets.

Essentially they offer two options for investors. Either you sign up to the “Invest Account” which offers commission-free investing in stocks and ETFs or the “CFD Account” which is targeted for more advanced traders. We’ll focus on the Trading 212 Invest account for this review.

Fees

Fee structure

It’s free to use Trading 212. There’s no commission when you’re buying or selling stocks. They also don’t charge any custody or inactivity fees.

Commission rate Minimum transaction
Stocks Free €1
ETFs Free €1
Bonds Free €1

It’s free to create an account and also, there’s no membership fee. If it’s all free, how do they make money?

Currency conversion fees

Even though you’re most likely going to use Trading 212 from the EU if you’re reading this, if you choose to buy an ETF or a stock in USD, you’ll pay a 0.15% fee. The conversions between € and USD seems to play an important role in their business model.

They encourage CFDs (which are very risky)

You can’t transfer your assets

You’re unable to transfer your assets from Trading 212 to another provider as they offer fractional shares which are managed through their system. Fractional shares are not transferable. If you close your account through the Trading 212, the fractional shares held in your account will need to be liquidated. You’ll then have to re-buy your positions with a new broker instead.

Fees for ETFs

Trading 212 is the cheapest broker on the market for European investors. For instance, it costs nothing to buy €1,000 of the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IE00B5BMR087).

Convenience of Trading 212

Savings plan ✅ Yes
Fractional shares ✅ Yes
Customer support ✅ Email, chat, FAQ
❌ Phone
🇮🇹 Taxes Declarative regime
🇧🇪 TOB ❌ Trading 212 doesn’t handle it
🇧🇪 Dividend tax ❌ Trading 212 doesn’t handle it
🇧🇪 Reynders tax ❌ Trading 212 doesn’t handle it
🇧🇪 Declare your account to the NBB ❌ You have to do it yourself

Targeted for traders

They offer all sorts of options for investors. Considering it’s been developed with traders in mind, it’s no surprise that it’s full of options for you to invest.

Automated savings plans

Yes. Trading 212 offers a feature they call “AutoInvest” which allows you to build a diversified portfolio and customise it to your unique circumstances.

Fractional shares

A popular investment strategy is euro-cost averaging, where you invest periodically instead of investing large lump sums in one go. You invest at fixed times, for instance every month, regardless of how the markets are performing. Most people are paid monthly, so it makes sense for their investments to follow the same pattern. Fortunately Trading 212 offers fractional shares. This gives you the flexibility of investing from €1.

Customer support

Trading 212 has a really solid customer support. They answer queries quickly through their chat and email support.

🇮🇹 Declarative regime

As an Italian investor, you’ll receive a yearly report from Trading 212. You’ll have to manually take that date and input it into your tax reports. You’ll have to declare your income, capital gains as well as the IVAFE (wealth tax).

Note that you’ll have to complete this manually as Trading 212 puts the burden on you as an investor and they have previously made errors in their tax reports.

🇧🇪 TOB (“beurstaks” / “taxe boursière”)

There’s a tax on the transaction every time you buy or sell a security in Belgium. The rules concerning the tax rate are complicated, also for ETFs. Depending on the characteristics of the ETF, the transaction tax varies between 0.12% and 1.32%.

Unfortunately Trading 212 provides no support for this.

🇧🇪 Dividend tax

Trading 212 doesn’t help you with the dividend tax. In Belgium, any dividend you perceive is taxed at 30%. Accumulating funds, which directly reinvest dividends, are a way around this tax. On the other hand, distributing funds distribute their dividends, which means they’re taxable.

🇧🇪 Reynders Tax

For ETFs that consist of at least 10% bonds, there is a 30% tax on the profits made when selling. For example, if you bought a bond ETF at €100 and end up selling it later for €130, your net profit will only be €21. The other €9 will go to the Belgian state through this tax.

Unfortunately Trading 212 doesn’t withhold this tax for you. You will have to calculate and declare it yourself.

🇧🇪 Does Trading 212 require declaring the account to the NBB?

Yes, as Trading 212 is a foreign account so you have to declare to the National Bank of Belgium as well as on your tax returns every year.

Setting up an account

🕰️ Time to open an account ✅ 1 day
🇧🇪 Open an account in Belgium? ❌ Blocked
🙋 itsme ❌ No
📱 Mobile app ✅ Yes
💻 Web app ✅ Yes
🙂 Ease of use ⭐ 3/5
🧒 Children accounts ❌ No
💑 Joint accounts ❌ No
💼 Business accounts ❌ No

Let’s dig into the details of setting up your Trading 212 account for the first-time.

You can’t create an account if you’re resident in Belgium

The reasons aren’t particularly clear but you’re not able to sign up to a Trading 212 account if you’re a resident in Belgium. This seems to be the only country which is blocked in the EU to register an account.

Time to open an account

Setting up an account through the app is possible. As you need to run through a series of questions concerning security, profile, education, experience, product knowledge, etc… which are easier to answer from a computer rather than on your mobile phone. The opening time of an account on Trading 212 is usually one business day.

Create an account on the web and mobile

It’s quite easy to register an account using Trading 212. Do make sure you choose the right account type when registering for the first time. You fill in your details, upload your documents stating who you are and then you’re account will be reviewed and checked. To open an account, you’ll need your a copy of our passport or ID.

The minimum deposit required is between €1 and €10 depending on your country of registration so it’s one of the most accessible apps for European investors.

Ease of use: 3/5

As it’s purely a trading app, Trading 212 shows too many details that aren’t very relevant to most investors, especially for buy-and-hold index investors. The app is quite nicely designed though and easy to use. On the web version, there are a lot of options investors don’t need to see. It remains complicated for beginner investors. That’s why we’ve rated it a 3 out of 5!

Children accounts and joint accounts

No, you’re unable to open children accounts or joint accounts on Trading 212.

Business accounts

You’re unable to open an account for your company either.

Moving assets is not easy with Trading 212

Unfortunately you’re unable to move your assets from Trading 212 to another broker. You’re limited to withdrawing all your assets before you can start investing elsewhere through another broker.

Is Trading 212 safe?

Regulator CySEC (Cyprus)
Past issues with the regulator ✅ No
Protection of financial assets €20,000 EU protection scheme
Cash safeguarded by deposit guarantee ❌ No
Securities lending ❌ Yes (optional)
Payment for order flow ✅ No

Who is the regulator?

Trading 212 is a regulated entity in the European Union and is authorised by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySEC).

Have they had any issues with the regulator?

No, it doesn’t seem like they had any known issues with the regulator.

How much of your assets are protected by the investor protection scheme?

Your assets are protected by the standard €20,000 European investor protection scheme as they are based in Cyprus.

Is your cash protected by the deposit guarantee scheme?

Interestingly enough and quite rare for European brokers, your cash isn’t protected by the European Bank deposit scheme (up to €100,000).

Does Trading 212 do securities lending?

Yes, they do but it’s optional. They lend your shares to “reputable” borrowers. In return, you receive daily interest and collateral. Note that you receive 50% of the interest earned each day that your shares are lent out. Do watch out as this option is enabled by default. They have plans to allow you the choice directly but this has not been implemented yet by Trading 212. This is how Trading 212 makes the bulk of their revenues: through CFDs and the interest rates. Learn more abut the process here.

Does Trading 212 do payment for order flow?

No, Trading 212 does not do payment for order flow (PFOF). It is an important source of revenue for many new brokers, including another German provider Trade Republic. This practice involves routing your orders to certain market makers, who then pay the broker for the right of executing these orders. PFOF can work at your detriment, as brokers may prioritise payment over executing the best possible trade for you.

Specifically for Belgians, we also compared Trading 212 with other brokers if you want to dig deeper.

Trading 212 vs other brokers

We have compared Trading 212 vs other brokers:

  • Trading 212 vs DEGIRO
  • Best broker in Belgium guide 🇧🇪

The easier way: Curvo

Brokers push you to trade and to pick individual companies to invest in. Rather than picking individual stocks such as Amazon or Tesla, index funds are a way to buy the whole market, across all sectors and regions of the world. Essentially, you own a small portion of thousands of companies throughout the world. Instead of betting on a particular company, you are placing a bet on the global economy.

Rather than having to pick the right stocks or ETFs among the thousands available through a broker like Trading 212, you invest in a portfolio that is tailored to you and your goals. These portfolios are composed of globally diversified index funds, meaning you earn a piece of the growth of the global economy, and they’re best suited to make the most of your savings long term. And they’re secure, as they’re under the supervision of the regulator in the Netherlands (AFM).

We believe that investing is an important tool for our generation to improve our financial well-being and to prepare for our future. We are building Curvo to fulfil that vision, by making good investing easy and accessible to all:

  • Diversified portfolio set up for you: The best portfolio for you is built based on your time horizon and financial goals. Simply answer a short questionnaire and you’ll get everything set up for you.
  • Automated savings plans: Through Curvo’s app you can set up a monthly contribution from €50. That means that money is automatically invested for you in your portfolio. Put your savings on autopilot!
  • Fractional shares: All the money you send towards your portfolio is fully invested. No cash is left on the side.
  • No TOB 🇧🇪 : Significant savings as the portfolios aren’t liable for the Belgian transaction tax (or “TOB”). This saves you between 0.12% and 1.32% for every time you buy or sell!
  • Sustainable investments: Your investments focus on one guiding principle: don’t invest in companies that are considered destructive to the planet. This means that sectors like non-renewable energy, vice products, weapons and controversial companies are all excluded.
  • Project yourself into the future: Through Curvo you can see how much your portfolio is expected to be worth in the future. You can answer questions like “how will increasing my monthly contribution by €50, €100 or €200 affect my long-term savings?” to give a concrete idea for the “future you”.

Summary

Looking to invest for the long-term the right way?

Questions you may have

How does Trading 212 make money?

It makes money through currency conversion and CFDs. A CFD, or contract for difference, is a risky type of derivative that allows you to speculate on the price movements of underlying stocks or currencies, without actually owning the underlying asset. Instead, a CFD is a contract between you and Trading 212, in which you agree to exchange the difference in the price of the underlying asset between the opening and closing of the contract.

Do I need to declare my Trading 212 account to the Belgian authorities?

Yes. Since your Trading 212 account is foreign, you need to declare it to the Belgian National Bank and the tax authorities. Read our guide on declaring your foreign account.

Is Trading 212 trustworthy?

Yes. It hasn’t had any issues with the regulators as far as we know.

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