Part of my investment strategy is to invest in dividend growth stocks on the stock market, as they provide a growing flow of passive income as well as nice potential capital growth. And for that, I need a good broker that allows me to support my investment strategy. Freedom24 is a European stock broker that I discovered in 2021 and that offers really interesting features. In this article, I will share with you my experience with the platform.

I will tell you what I think are the biggest strengths of this broker, and why I chose it to invest in the stock market. I’ll also share how to get started on the platform and what are the different fees with this broker.

What is Freedom24?

Freedom24 is an online broker based in Cyprus and was founded in 2013, and received their license to operate as a broker in 2015. Their goal is to create an online brokerage platform that is affordable for the users and making trading stocks accessible to everyone. They also have a really convenient to use mobile app, that makes the platform easy to use even from your phone.

They are mostly targeting the EU market, and they have offices in Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Greece, Poland and France. They provide access to over 1 million stocks and ETFs, over 15 major US, European and Asian exchanges.

Exclusive features of Freedom24

On top of being an online broker that allows users to invest in stocks and ETFs, what is really nice with Freedom24 is that they offer several exclusive features that I honestly never saw on other platforms.

The first one is the possibility to buy stocks at IPO (Initial Public Offering) prices.

Investing in IPOs allow you to potentially make huge gains once a stock is initially listed on the stock market, and Freedom24 is one of the only platform that I know of that allows you to easily do that.

The next exclusive feature is their savings account in USD (what they call the D-account), that gives you a fixed 2.5% return per year when you hold USD on their platform, the highest in USD that you can find in Europe.

This can be nice if you have money sitting there while you are waiting for the right investment opportunity.

On top of that, Freedom24 also provides investment ideas that you will right inside the app, which will give you ideas on what to invest in depending on what you want to achieve with your portfolio (high potential growth, dividend distributions, etc). They worked great for investors so far, and they are completely free for users of the platform.

Is it safe to invest with Freedom24?

The question I always l ask when selecting a broker is: will my money be safe? For that, I always check the license of the company that is operating the platform.

Here, they got their license in 2015, which I was easily able to verify on the official website of the Cyprus securities and exchange commission: 

It's also important to note that Freedom Finance Europe (the company that runs Freedom24) is a subsidiary of the international investment group Freedom Holding Corp. The holding's stocks are traded on Nasdaq, and its activities are regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

They also comply with MiFID II, an EU regulation that provide protection for the investors, and as a EU regulated broker they also are part of the Investor Compensation Fund, meaning your funds are guaranteed up to 20,000 Euros. They also are regularly audited by well-known auditing companies like KPMG. They are also BaFin and CySec reported.

Note that they also have two-step authentication available on their platform, which I really recommend activating to keep your account safe in case your password gets compromised.

About the fees on Freedom24

Fees on Freedom24 are very low, as this is one of the main goals of the company to make investing in the stock market as affordable as possible. First, there is no account opening fee, no inactivity fee (in case you don't trade). That makes it, for example, a perfect platform for long-term value investing (like I do) as you don't make trades that often.

They actually have a very clear pricing table, with plans you can also choose if you want to lower those fees even more:

If you compare that to the fees a bank would charge for example, it's really low and it will save you a lot of money to chose an online broker like Freedom24 over a traditional bank. Overall, it is really cheap to invest with Freedom24, and in most cases, those fees won't impact your investments at all on the contrary to most other brokers or banks.

Opening an account on Freedom24

Opening an account on Freedom24 is also very easy. It's completely online which I love, and they don't require any initial deposit on the account. The account is opened right away, which is really nice compared to other brokers that still require you to wait some days for data to be processed manually. You will just need to fill their forms, and then upload a copy of your ID card or passport.

I did it all via the mobile application actually, and the whole process was really quick (less than 5 minutes) and straightforward.

Depositing & withdrawing money

Depositing money on Freedom24 is quite easy as well, as you simply need to send them a bank transfer to your account. You can also deposit money with a credit card with a 2.5% fee, which is a nice option if you want to get started right away with the platform.

Withdrawing money is also quite straightforward, and it usually takes just a day to have the money on my account. Note that there is currently a fixed fee to withdraw money, which is due to the payment provider they are using.

Using the trading platform

Compared to other platforms, Freedom24 is also very easy to use. The interface of their desktop website is really clean and responsive, and even for a beginner, it is really easy to start buying and selling stocks on the platform. It's also really easy to see when you received dividends on your account and from which company. It might be too basic for some advanced stock traders, but for most users, it will just be perfect.

They also have a mobile app which is also very neatly done and easy to use, and I even prefer myself using the mobile app for my own investments on Freedom24 as the interface is more minimalistic than the desktop site.

Once you selected a stock you want to invest in, it is very easy to buy the amount of shares you want and it will be instantly in your account:

Overall, the experience of trading on Freedom24 is really easy and especially with the mobile app, it is a really nice platform to use to invest on the stock market. I haven't personally tried yet the feature related to the IPOs, but I will of course update this article once I do.

My opinion about Freedom24

After trying Freedom24, I can say that I am really happy with this online broker. The platform very easy to use, with very small fees, and with no bad surprises at all. I like the fact that they are completely transparent about their fees, and also that they offer some nice features compared to other brokers like investing in IPOs or the savings account in USD. I also love their mobile app that makes it super easy to invest on the stock market, and also to get investment ideas. Overall, definitely a broker I recommend for any stock market investor.

Investing involves risk of loss. This article only represents my own personal experience with the platform, and make sure to do your own research before investing.