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. Trading 212 is an online broker that I discovered back in 2021, and that offers a lot of exciting features that I really like - which is why I chose it as a broker that I use for my own investment portfolio.

In this article, 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 Trading 212?

Trading 212 is an online stock market brokerage platform that was founded in 2004, so it has already been around for a while now, which is something I really like. 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 easy to use mobile app, which I will tell you more about in the rest of this article.

They are mostly targeting the European market, and they are registered and regulated in the UK (for UK customers) and in Bulgaria and Cyprus (for EU customers). It is a very large platform with over 1.5 million clients, and 3.5 billion in managed assets.

Main Features of Trading 212

Let's now go over the main features that you will find on Trading 212. Of course, as an online broker, you will have access to over 7,000 stocks and ETFs on most of the largest exchanges in the world:

This is not the largest selection of stocks that I ever saw, but it is more than enough for most of the stock market investors.

One feature that I really like on Trading 212 is the ability to invest in fractional shares:

This means that even if you don't have enough money to buy a a whole share, you can actually only buy fractions of each share on the market (for example, 0.1 shares of Tesla). This is perfect for smaller investments, but also for diversification as you can invest exactly the amount you want in each stock.

The last feature I wanted to mention here is the AutoInvest feature:

This is a feature that I only saw on a limited amount of platforms, and that allows the user to set a distribution of stocks that you want for your portfolio, and then let the platform invest for you. Thanks to fractional shares, it is also possible even with a low amount of money to invest.

On top of that, Trading 212 also comes with a really convenient mobile app, that I actually now use all the time I need to access the platform as it's so easy to use.

Is it safe to invest with Trading 212?

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 and got regulated in 2021 as an official brokerage platform, which I was easily able to verify on the official website of the Cyprus securities and exchange commission.

As a EU regulated broker they also are part of the Investor Compensation Fund, meaning your funds are guaranteed up to 20,000 Euros. On top of that - and I rarely saw that on an online broker - funds are additionally insured up to 1 Million Euros by the Lloyd's bank.

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 Trading 212

Fees on Trading 212 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:

There are actually no fees for trading as well on the platform, with simply a 0.15% fee on currency conversion if you for example deposit Euros and then invest in stocks that are in USD. If you compare that to what a bank usually charges for trading and opening an account, you have virtually no fees at all on Trading 212.

Opening an account on Trading 212

Opening an account on Trading 212 is also very easy. It's completely online which is something I really like, and they don't require any initial deposit on the account to open it. 

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. It can even be all done with the mobile application, which is what I did actually, and the whole process was really quick (less than 5 minutes) and straightforward.

Depositing & withdrawing money

Depositing money on Trading 212 is really easy as well, and it can be done with a bank transfer but also using a credit or debit card, which allows you to have money immediately deposited on your account.

Note that a 0.7% fees will apply above 2000 Euros deposited via credit card, however that's perfect to get started and then you can use the free bank transfers.

Withdrawing money is also really simple, and it usually takes just a day to have the money on my account. Note that there is currently no fees at all to withdraw money, which is great to get back money generated by dividend distributions for example.

Using the Trading 212 platform

Compared to other platforms, Trading 212 is also very easy to use. The interface of their desktop website is really clean and responsive, and even for a complete beginner in the stock, 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 (especially long-term investors), it is perfect.

As I mentioned earlier, the mobile app which is also very well done and easy to use, and I even prefer myself to use the mobile app for my own investments on Trading 212 as the interface is even better than the desktop site.

Once you selected a stock you want to invest in, you can simply click on the invest button to buy shares (or fractions of shares) of this stock:

Once this is done, you can immediately see the stock in your portfolio:

Overall, the experience of trading on Trading 212 was really convenient, and is now one of the platform I enjoy using the most.

My opinion about Trading 212

After trying Trading 212 for over a year now, I can say that I am really happy with this online broker. The platform itself is very easy to use, with no commissions at all on trading stocks, and with no bad surprises at all in terms of other fees. I like the fact that they offer powerful features like fractional shares investment and auto investing. I also love their mobile app that makes it super easy to invest on the stock market, and also to discover new stocks. 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.