DEGIRO pays 0% interest on cash: Why? Other alternatives!

Unlike other brokers, DEGIRO does not pay interest on uninvested cash. Whether you hold EUR, GBP, or any other currency in your account, you won’t earn any interest on your parked funds.

In this article, we will explain DEGIRO’s current business strategy and suggest alternatives that can earn you up to 3.00% in euros.

Why doesn’t DEGIRO pay interest on cash?

DEGIRO hasn’t explicitly addressed this, but an analysis of its financial statements shows that it doesn’t pass any interest to its clients and doesn’t plan to.

Let’s first understand why you might expect to receive interest on your cash, whether in EUR, GBP, or another currency. We’ll use EUR as an example since it’s the currency DEGIRO reports in its financial statements.

The European Central Bank (ECB) aims to maintain price stability within the European Union (EU) through its monetary policy, which includes setting interest rates. One such rate is the “deposit facility” rate, which banks earn when they deposit money with the ECB. As of June 2025, that rate was 2.00%.

DEGIRO deposits clients’ money in banks that, in turn, deposit it with the ECB, earning 2.00%. By offering a 0% interest rate to clients, DEGIRO keeps all that interest for itself. In DEGIRO’s financial statements, this gain is recorded as “interest income.”

The interim management report for Q1 2026 (found here) shows that “interest income” amounted to 49.3 million euros, making up ~28.4% of the total “Revenues” (173.6 million euros):

As indicated in their report: “Due to the large proportion of customer deposits held directly with the German Federal Bank, flatexDEGIRO benefits directly from the positive interest rate environment and the on average higher deposit facilities of the European Central Bank (ECB) in 2024.

In addition, flatexDEGIRO increased interest rates for collateralized margin loans to the respective interest rate environment at the beginning of 2024, which, paired with higher utilization of margin loans by flatexDEGIRO customers, also had a positive effect on net Interest Income.” (emphasis added).

The “Interest income” comes from the interest on the majority of cash under custody (5.1 billion) – clients’ money parked in their accounts:

Will DEGIRO start paying interest on cash?

There is no indication that they will. In fact, the opposite can be implied. The Q1 2026 interim management statement shows that Interest Income totaled EUR 49.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 13.6 percent compared with the first three months of 2025 (EUR 43.5 million), despite a generally lower interest rate environment. The company explicitly attributes this growth to significantly higher customer deposits, which were on average 41 percent above the prior-year quarter, an average 18 percent increase in the utilization of margin loans, and more intensive treasury activities.

In other words, flatexDEGIRO is earning more interest income precisely because it holds large, growing balances of customer cash on which it pays nothing – customer Cash under Custody reached EUR 6.40 billion as of the end of March 2026, up 38.1 percent year over year. Interest income still represents a significant share of total revenues (roughly EUR 49M of EUR 174M), so the commercial incentive to retain that spread rather than share it with customers remains firmly intact.

It is also worth noting the rate backdrop is no longer falling sharply. The European Central Bank’s deposit rate remained constant at 2.00 percent during the first three months of 2026, whereas a year earlier it had been cut in two steps down to 2.50 percent. Even with rates stabilising at a still-positive level, DEGIRO shows no sign of changing its model. If DEGIRO did not pay interest when rates were higher, there is little reason to expect it to start now that holding customer cash has become an even more important earnings driver.

Alternatives to earn interest on cash

If you’re looking for alternative brokers that pay interest on your cash, check our articles, where we filter the best brokers and digital banks for getting interest on your cash in EUR. Summary:

Bottom line

All in all, DEGIRO is suitable for investing in stocks, ETFs, bonds and other financial instruments. Unfortunately, there are better options to consider when it comes to getting a risk-free return (or very close to it) on your uninvested money.

FlatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch, trading under the name DEGIRO, is subject to integrity oversight by the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and by the AFM (Dutch Authority for the Financial Market).

Do you have any feedback or doubts about this broker? Consider reading our review, then contact us and share your experiences.