Chapter 1 — How to open my DEGIRO account?

If you are ready to open your DEGIRO account, simply click on this link : DEGIRO account opening

If you use it, it allows the blog to earn a small commission and I thank you in advance!

I would also like to point out that investing involves a risk of loss (as a regular reader, you already know this, but DEGIRO requires me to note it if I want to talk about their service #regulation).

Finally, you’ll need to have these documents and information at hand:

The IBAN of the bank account with which you want to fund your DEGIRO account (caution: 1/ you need both your accounts to be in the name of the same owner, and 2/ you cannot fund your account with Revolut or Wise, formerly TransferWise)
Your passport or identity card (to check your identity)
Your AHV number (to prove your tax residence)
Have decided if you want to take a Basic account (your securities can be lent by DEGIRO) or Custody ¹ (your securities are not lent - that’s what I chose)
A Swiss telephone number to verify your account
A cup of good coffee because some legal aspects are soporific…

Step 1: Opening your DEGIRO account

Once you click on my DEGIRO link to go to their site, you must follow the following steps:

Click on the 'Open an account' link

Enter your email address, then choose a username and password

Click on the link to see the confirmation email in your mailbox

Click on the link in the email you received to continue opening your DEGIRO brokerage account

It's okay, your email address is verified

You can login with your credentials now

Step 2: Enter your personal information

Then you have to indicate some personal information

Personal information (suite)

Indicate the bank account with which you wish to fund your DEGIRO account (be careful, the name of the holder must be the same for both accounts)

Checking the personal information you have just entered

Step 3: Verify your identity

Then you must indicate your citizenship so that DEGIRO can verify your identity

And you have to upload your passport as proof of identity

Verify that your passport scan has correctly pre-filled the identity verification fields

Verify that your passport scan has correctly pre-filled the identity verification fields (bis)

Automatic final check of DEGIRO concerning all the information you have just entered (this page only remains displayed for a few seconds, so be patient:))

Step 4: Indicate your tax information

Our friends in the US still have questions about taxes :D (via the FATCA/CRS form)

Fortunately, DEGIRO manages all this automatically. You just need to indicate your country of tax residence and your AHV number

DEGIRO even tells you where to find your AHV number

And then all you have to do is check that you certify what you have indicated

Step 5: Choice of your DEGIRO account type

Here it is important that you be careful because once you have chosen your account type, you can no longer change afterwards.

As I was discussing with some of you, I prefer to choose the “Custody” ¹ account so that my securities are not lent. It involves some extra costs in addition to dividend distribution but as my strategy is to grow my shares (vs. a strategy where I would like to maximize dividends), it doesn’t cause me too many problems.

The choice of MP: 'Custody' profile

For your information, I have asked them about custodian banks of DEGIRO accounts and the two main ones are ABN Amro (Dutch bank) and Morgan Stanley (US bank).

Step 6: You’ll take some more legal blabla, won’t you?!

As usual, who says opening a trading account says a lot of legal stuff to accept.
Honestly, compared to other banks, DEGIRO has made a major effort to popularize and simplify it — especially in terms of length!

I leave it to you to read everything so that it will be your own decision in the end.

We start with the acceptance form of DEGIRO’s investment service:

Investment service acceptance form

Investment service acceptance form (suite)

And then we move on to the DEGIRO software license agreement:

DEGIRO software license agreement

DEGIRO software license agreement (suite)

Step 7: Signing contracts, digitally please!

Contracts are signed via an SMS that DEGIRO sends you

DEGIRO verification code to sign your contract

Email confirmation of the verification of your new DEGIRO account

You can then download your contracts (but as they are also sent by email, I didn't do it)

Step 8: We did the biggest part, coffee break!

There you go, the opening of your DEGIRO account is done :) Well done, you’re on the right track to make your cash grow!
There is still one more step to activate it, but just take the time to make yourself a cup of coffee or tea.

You did the hardest part, congratulations!

Step 9: Fund your account

In order to activate your DEGIRO account, you must fund it with cash. Be careful because the identity of the holder of the funding account must be exactly the same as the one of the DEGIRO account you just created.

Click on 'Continue'

Indicate your IBAN (make sure that the identity of the two accounts is the same)

I chose the funding via standard bank wire transfer (because I did not know nor already used the SOFORT instant transfer)

All you have to do now is send a minimum of 0.01 CHF to activate your DEGIRO account (be careful, any transfer from Revolut, Wise, formerly Wise, formerly TransferWise, or Monese will be automatically rejected)

So we then go to my 100% free Swiss online banking Zak :)
To start I decided to send CHF 10 (sorry for the screenshot that shows CHF 50, I did it afterwards because I had forgotten about it and I entered the wrong amount…) :

Transfer of funds from Zak

Recipient of the transfer

Indication of the amount to be transferred to DEGIRO

Summary of the transfer from Zak

Confirmation of the transfer via SMS code mTAN

Then, you have to wait one or two days before receiving these two emails from DEGIRO:

Email of activation of the DEGIRO account (just click on the link)

Email confirmation of receipt of your bank transfer from your Zak account

Step 10: W-8BEN form to avoid double taxation on your US securities

When you invest in U.S. securities, you must fill the W-8BEN form to request a reduction in the withholding tax rate applied by the U.S. tax authorities on any dividends you receive.

Once again, DEGIRO makes your life quite simple by automating everything:

W-8BEN form

Filling of the W-8BEN form — nothing very complicated

And finally you have to certify that you have told the whole truth and that you are not evading taxes :)

There you go, form W-8BEN successfully filled!

Step 12: Test of adequacy on your knowledge of the financial instruments offered by DEGIRO

Test of adequacy on your knowledge of the financial instruments

A little more explanation of what this test is about

Indicate your highest degree or level of education (because it is well known that you learn personal finance at school...)

Indicate if you have already invested in financial instruments in your job

Indicate if you already have investment knowledge in financial instruments

This becomes interesting because you have to indicate if you have any investment knowledge about funds/ETFs

Same thing but for shares

Same thing but for bonds

Same thing, but for structured products. It's the only one I said I didn't have any knowledge about. And since I don't want to buy it, it shouldn't be a problem

Warning that my mom will scold me if I invest in things I don't understand ^^

Statement that yes I know how to invest independently and that I will not file a complaint against DEGIRO because they are only executing my buy and sell orders

Indicate how often you have invested in ETFs over the last 10 years

Same thing for shares

Same thing for bonds

Same thing for structured products

You got that right! Mom will get angry if you play with things you shouldn't :D

Finally, indicate that you understand that investing involves risks of loss

And it's over! Finally!

Step 13: Access to the dashboard of your DEGIRO investment account

Congratulations! You have completed the entire registration process. It was long but not so complex, I think.

You now have access to your account dashboard where you can also see your balance in the “Account” tab:

Dashboard view when you arrive on your DEGIRO account the first time

And by clicking on the 'Account' tab, you can see the CHF 10 I transferred from my Zak account

As a reminder, you can use my link (the blog will earn a commission but nothing will change on your side — I thank you for that!) to open your DEGIRO account.

In the next chapter, we will see how to buy your first ETF with extremely low commissions via DEGIRO.

The DEGIRO “Custody” account still exists for customers who chose it at the time.
Nowadays, DEGIRO no longer offers the Custody option to new customers in order to optimize their costs as much as possible.
This means that your assets (ETFs or other equities) can be lent out.

But that’s not so bad, because DEGIRO covers these share loans in the event of borrower default. The risk is therefore in the event that DEGIRO and the defaulter go bankrupt at the same time. I consider this risk to be minimal.

As proof, I myself use this securities lending system with Interactive Brokers (see my feedback after one year on this link).
And I use it deliberately, because IBKR offers the option of a “custody” account (i.e. no securities lending by default).

Nevertheless, I think it’s a shame that DEGIRO has stopped offering a “Custody” account. Even if I understand their strategy of wanting to optimize their fees as much as possible, knowing that they (compared with other banks) pass on most of these savings to their end customers in the form of a very competitive offer. ↩︎ ↩︎