Best Brokerage Account Interest Rates on Uninvested EUR Cash

The competition is heating up among investment brokerages, who now offer high-interest-paying brokerage accounts as a marketing tool to entice new retail investors to their investing platforms.

In this blog post, we will highlight the brokerages offering the highest interest-earning brokerage accounts for investors looking to earn interest on their uninvested Euros.

If your bank is currently offering you little to no interest on your savings account, or looking for the best place to temporarily hold your uninvested cash until an opportunity materialises, then make sure to keep reading to find out more.

It is not just about choosing the broker with the highest interest rate available to you, another important consideration is how your funds are protected, and for this reason, we consider that the best mix of the highest interest rate and protection is the 4.00% offered by Trade Republic.

Rates were last updated on 26/01/2024.

*Saxo Bank currently offers a tiered interest rate that varies depending on the deposit amount held on the account and the account type.

Trading 212 EUR interest rate

• Interest rate on offer: 4.20% on Euro balances 
• Paid daily (accrued daily)
• Any amount (no minimum or maximum amount)
• Your uninvested cash is held with multiple major EU/UK banks (including JP Morgan and Barclays), which are covered by a deposit guarantee scheme up to £85k/€100k

Founded in 2004, Trading 212 is a brokerage firm based in the UK that offers commission-free stock and ETF investments plus CFDs on stocks, indices, commodities, and forex.

It offers a variable interest rate of 4.20% on the uninvested/parked EUR cash in your account and is paid daily. Trading 212 earns interest on the cash it holds on behalf of its clients in institutional bank accounts and pays half of this interest forward to you. All accounts are eligible for this new feature, including Invest and ISA accounts. 

Interested in knowing more about Trading 212? Read our Trading 212 Review.

Trade Republic EUR interest rate

• Interest rate on offer: 4.00% on Euro balances 
• Paid monthly
• Only balances up to €50,000 will be eligible for earning interest
• Your uninvested cash is held with either Solaris SE, Citibank Europe plc, Deutsche Bank AG, or  J.P. Morgan SE, which are covered by a deposit guarantee scheme up to €100k

Founded in 2015, Trade Republic is a discount broker based in Germany. It focuses on four types of financial assets: stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives.

While Trade Republic offers a slightly lower interest rate than some of its competitors, you could earn up to €1,000 interest per annum if you fully use Trade Republic’s €50k deposit balance limit for interest income.

Trade Republic remains one of the best brokers around, and you have the added benefit of being protected by a deposit guarantee scheme as your uninvested cash, which is held with either Solaris SE, Citibank Europe plc, Deutsche Bank AG, or  J.P. Morgan SE are covered by a deposit guarantee scheme up to €100k. 

Interested in knowing more about Trade Republic? Read our Trade Republic Review.

Wise EUR interest rate

• Interest rate on offer: 3.62% on Euro balances 
• There are no restrictions or limits on the interest you can earn with Wise
• Not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme, but safeguarding is in place for customer funds

Launched in 2011, Wise is foremost an eMoney business that is aimed at people who want to reduce the cost of making international money transfers.

One of Wise’s features is the ability to hold your funds in Cash, Stocks, or Interest. When you choose to hold your money in stocks, Wise will select an appropriate index fund for you and invest on your behalf.

If you decide to switch your money to ‘interest,’ these funds will be invested in government-backed short-term loans and bank deposits. The interest earned is then passed on to you.

Even though Wise offers a decent interest rate, its services are very limited from an investment perspective and, therefore, may not meet all your needs. 

As Wise declares on its website: “We are not a bank, which means we don’t lend out our customers’ money to people or businesses. This also means our payment services aren’t subject to the Belgian Deposit Guarantee Scheme.”

However, Wise does have some safeguards in place for customer funds on European accounts, which segregate customer funds into a mix of cash in leading commercial banks (JP Morgan Chase) and low-risk liquid assets (Money Market Funds with BlackRock and State Street).

These assets are held in segregated accounts that are separate from Wise’s own funds. In addition to this protection, each customer is eligible for protection under the Estonian Guarantee Fund (GF) up to a value of €20,000 in Europe, with respect to assets that have been invested.

Interactive Brokers EUR interest rate

• The maximum interest rates on offer: IBRK Pro 3.376% on Euro balances
• No interest paid on balances less than €10k
• The level of protection you will receive for your money on deposit will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Interactive Brokers is a renowned online brokerage firm that offers a wide range of investment and trading services to individuals and institutions.

One of the key features that sets Interactive Brokers apart is its advanced trading platform. Known as Trader Workstation (TWS), this platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools and analytics to assist traders in executing their strategies effectively.

In terms of the IBKR interest rates offering, IBRK offers different interest rates on each currency, from USD to ZAR. The highest interest rate you can earn on a Euro Balance will depend on how much you have on deposit with Interactive Brokers and whether you have an IBRK Pro or IBRK Lite account. The maximum interest rate on offer for each account type is 3.376% for the IBRK Pro account (for Euro balances).

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to earn any interest on your first €10k of your Euro cash balance with IBRK.

Accounts with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of USD 100,000 or more are paid interest at the full rate for which they are eligible. Accounts with NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or equivalent) receive interest at rates proportional to the size of the account.

This makes it a bit more difficult to determine the interest rate you will receive. Still, Interactive brokers do have a calculator you can use to try and estimate your interest earnings.

The level of protection you will receive on your cash deposited with Interactive Brokers will vary a lot from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, this is something we covered in detail in a separate blog post if you are interested in learning more about your protections with IBRK and we also have a full review IBRK’s services if you want to dig a little deeper.

Lightyear EUR interest rate

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• Interest rate on offer: 3.25% on Euro balances (as of November 2023)
• Interest is accrued daily and paid on the 1st of every month
• There are no restrictions or limits on the interest you can earn with Lightyear
• Not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme, but safeguarding is in place for customer funds

Co-founded by former Wise employees, Lightyear sets out to be a platform that allows you to invest your money globally without unnecessary barriers and with a simple, fair, and transparent pricing structure.

Lightyear currently has the joint best offering on the market among investment brokerages when it comes to cash interest rates on Euro balances.

While your funds are not covered by a conventional deposit guarantee scheme when you hold them with Lightyear, they do have safeguarding in place for customer funds. Uninvested customer funds are stored separately from Lightyear’s business funds with regulated EU credit institutions and money market funds. The primary institutions where Lightyear holds uninvested customer funds are ABN AMRO Bank in the Netherlands and AS LHV Bank in Estonia, and in BlackRock money market funds rated AAA/mmf by Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch.

Disclaimer: Capital at risk. The provider of investment services is Lightyear Financial Ltd for the UK and Lightyear Europe AS for the EU. Terms apply: lightyear.com/terms. Seek qualified advice if necessary.

BUX Zero EUR interest rate

• Interest rate on offer: 2.75% on Euro balances 
• Accrued daily and paid quarterly
• Only balances up to €25,000 will be eligible for interest
• Your uninvested cash is held with ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, which is covered by a deposit guarantee scheme of up to €100k

With over 700k users, BUX Zero is a popular mobile investing app, especially if you want to create monthly savings plans to automate your investing into stocks or ETFs.

The interest rate is valid for all uninvested cash balances in BUX Zero up to €25,000. All cash accounts with BUX are held with ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and are protected up to €100,000 under the conditions of the Dutch Central Bank’s Deposits Guarantee Scheme (DGS).

Check out our full review of BUX Zero here.

Scalable Capital EUR interest rate

• Interest rate on offer: 2.60% on Euro balances 
• To earn interest you must sign up for a PRIME+ account 
• Interest paid quarterly
• Only balances up to €100,000 will be eligible for interest
• Not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme, but safeguarding is in place for customer funds

Scalable Capital was founded in 2014 and allows investors to trade stocks, ETFs, funds, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives independently.

To avail of the 2.60% interest offer, you must sign up for a PRIME+ account, which will cost you €4.99 monthly. You do get reduced trading and commission costs for this subscription fee, but depending on your overall level of deposits, the fees may outweigh the interest you earn.

From reading through Scalable Capital’s policies there is no reference to them being a member of a deposit guarantee scheme. They do mention that some of the banks that they choose to place your funds on deposit with, in order to earn yield, which can then be returned to you, are members of a deposit guarantee scheme, but this will only offer limited protection to your funds in the event of a default.

SAXO Bank EUR interest rate

• The interest rates offered by Saxo Bank are tiered based on how much you have on deposit and also whether you have a Classic, Platinum, or VIP account.
• Paid monthly
• No interest will be paid on balances under €10k
• Your funds are covered by a deposit guarantee scheme up to €100k

The big downside of holding your uninvested Euro with Saxo Bank is that you will not earn any interest on your first €10k deposited to your account. This may end up ruling out a lot of smaller retail investors from earning anything whatsoever.

It can be quite difficult to know exactly how much interest you can earn with Saxo as they use a tiered structure depending on what account type you have and how much money you have on Deposit. SAXO bank has a calculator you can use to estimate your annual interest income based on deposit levels. For example, €30k on deposit would earn interest at a rate of 1.54% on a classic account, 1.65% on a Platinum account, and 2.65% on a VIP account.

Is it safe to leave uninvested cash in your brokerage account?

By far the biggest concern among investors or savers is the safety of their funds. Banks have long been seen as the best place to keep cash, as there are many protections in place across the EU countries, such as the Deposit Guarantee Scheme that protects customers’ deposits up to certain amounts (country dependent) in the event of a bank going bust resulting in customers not being able to access funds.

But did you know that many of the popular brokerages across the EU are also covered by the Deposit Guarantee Scheme as they have forged partnerships with banks to manage client funds? Essentially this means your cash is just as safe with a high-interest brokerage account as it would be on deposit with your bank (provided it is covered by a Deposit Guarantee Scheme). Similarly, many clients of US brokerages are covered by SIPC Insurance.

Before you put your money on deposit in any brokerage savings account to earn interest, it is prudent to check the broker’s policies and its terms and conditions to check if it is covered by a Deposit Guarantee Scheme.

What are the benefits of earning interest on uninvested cash with your broker versus on a regular savings account?

A common virtue among successful investors is having patience when waiting for an investment opportunity to arise, but when the opportunity does come, you need to be able to act fast to take advantage of it.

The problem with keeping the cash you have earmarked for investing in your regular savings account is that it can take a couple of working days to transfer Euro from your savings account to your brokerage account. In the meantime, the opportunity may have already slipped by.

By keeping these funds in your brokerage account, you can act much faster.

In summary, it is important that you focus not only on achieving the highest interest rate possible on your uninvested Euro but also making sure that the broker is doing everything possible to keep your funds safe.

Although people rarely spend time looking through a broker’s terms and conditions, it is prudent to assess any potential T&Cs that don’t fit in your own personal risk appetite before you take the step to sign up and deposit any funds.