DEGIRO Basic vs Custody:
what actually matters in 2026
Fees verified August 2026 against official pricing pages — see our methodology
For most new DEGIRO users, the old Basic vs Custody binary is largely gone. The real 2026 question is different: if you already hold a legacy Custody account, should you keep it? And if you’re on Basic in one of the four markets where lending is offered, what does the securities lending opt-in actually mean? This guide covers both angles.
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TL;DR
- You open a Basic profile by default.
- Securities lending is a separate opt-in, off by default, offered in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Italy only — verify your settings.
- Basic is right for most long-term ETF investors.
- Keeping Custody costs you nothing extra — the published schedule prices dividend and coupon processing at zero on both account types.
- The current published schedule states no Custody surcharge on income events. Corporate actions are priced at zero too. The one income-event charge is €7.50 on choice and stock dividends, and the schedule does not qualify it by account type.
- Switching away may not be reversible — verify with DEGIRO before changing anything.
What actually changes between the two accounts
The accounts look the same from the outside, and on the current published schedule they cost the same. The one documented difference is lending treatment.
| Feature | Basic | Custody |
|---|---|---|
| Securities lending | Opt-in, off by default, and offered in NL, ES, CH and IT only — DEGIRO may lend your holdings only if you enable it | Not used |
| Dividend and coupon processing | Free | Free — the schedule states one rate, not one per account type |
| Corporate actions | Free | Free — the schedule states one rate, not one per account type |
| Choice and stock dividends | €7.50 per dividend, best-effort basis | €7.50 per dividend — the schedule states one rate, not one per account type |
| Core Selection products | €1.00 all-in — €0.00 commission plus the €1.00 handling fee. ETFs outside the Core Selection cost €3.00 — €2.00 commission plus the €1.00 handling fee. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply. | Same — Core Selection works on both account types |
| Trading commissions | Same as Custody | Same as Basic |
| Suits | Most long-term ETF investors | Legacy holders — no cost reason to leave, and lending is structurally unavailable |
Source: DEGIRO Tarievenoverzicht (Netherlands), rates from 01-01-2026. Figures shown in euro; on Swiss and UK exchanges the handling fee is charged in CHF and GBP respectively, and some service lines differ by DEGIRO entity — check the schedule for your own country. Verified August 2026 and subject to change. Currency or external product and spread costs may apply.
How securities are held is the same on both account types
A common assumption is that Custody changes how your securities are held. It does not — the difference between the two is lending treatment, not asset separation.
DEGIRO is the trading name of flatexDEGIRO Bank Dutch Branch, the Dutch branch of flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, primarily supervised by the German financial regulator (BaFin); the Dutch Branch is registered with DNB and supervised by AFM and DNB.
The same entity and supervisory arrangements apply whether you hold a Basic or Custody account — the choice between the two does not change them. Supervision is a regulatory fact, not a form of protection for your investments: investing involves risk of loss.
- Changes: whether your securities can be lent out.
- Doesn’t change: how securities are held, broker insolvency protections, market risk, ETF issuer risk, currency risk, or trading costs.
- Investor compensation: both account types fall under the same German deposit guarantee and investor compensation schemes, because flatexDEGIRO Bank SE is a German bank. Any such scheme covers broker failure only — it does not cover investment losses. Check the arrangements that apply in your own country on DEGIRO’s official site.
Does Custody cost more when a dividend is paid?
No Custody surcharge on dividends appears in DEGIRO’s current published fee schedule, which prices dividend and coupon processing and corporate actions at zero and gives a single rate for each service rather than one rate per account type. Here is what the schedule does charge on income events — the same on Basic and Custody.
- Dividend and coupon processing — priced at zero, with no account-type qualification.
- Corporate actions — priced at zero.
- Incoming portfolio transfers, transaction notifications, IPO subscriptions, and closing the account.
- Choice and stock dividends — €7.50 per dividend, handled on a best-effort basis. This is the only income-event charge in the schedule, and it applies where you are offered shares instead of cash, not to ordinary cash dividends.
- Voting at a shareholder meeting — €10.00 to vote, €10.00 to attend a Dutch meeting, €100.00 plus costs for a foreign one.
- Oversubscription and warrant exercise — €2.00 plus 0.02%, minimum €50.00.
- None of these lines is qualified by account type.
Source: DEGIRO Tarievenoverzicht (Netherlands), rates from 01-01-2026. Other DEGIRO entities publish their own schedules and some service lines differ — check the schedule for your own country. Verified August 2026 and subject to change.
On the published schedule, holding distributing ETFs or dividend stocks does not cost more on Custody than on Basic. If you hold a legacy Custody account and were weighing whether to keep or leave it because of a dividend surcharge, that reasoning does not survive the current document.
Legacy accounts can carry terms agreed when they were opened, so if your own statements show a charge the schedule does not list, ask DEGIRO which terms apply to your account. Otherwise the choice reduces to one question: whether you want lending available as an option at all. On Basic you can leave it switched off — and in markets where DEGIRO does not offer lending, it is not available in the first place — reaching the same outcome either way.
How DEGIRO securities lending actually works
For new DEGIRO users, lending is no longer baked into the account type — it’s a separate opt-in, off by default. Here’s what you’re actually opting into.
- Lending is opt-in and off by default — you enable it under Settings, Product settings, Securities Lending, accept the Appendix Securities Lending and pass DEGIRO’s appropriateness test (Securities Lending Conditions, Art. 2.1–2.2).
- If opted in, all eligible shares, ETFs and bonds in your portfolio may be lent — you cannot exclude specific holdings, and opting in does not guarantee anything is actually lent.
- DEGIRO is your counterparty. It transfers legal title to itself and then lends on to a borrower, so your claim is on DEGIRO, not on the borrower.
- You are compensated for it. DEGIRO receives borrowing fees, deducts the fees payable to its service providers, and pays 50% of the remaining borrowing fees to you as a Compensation Payment, credited in the month following accrual (Securities Lending Conditions, Art. 6.1).
- The split is on net, not gross. In DEGIRO’s own cost illustrations, operational costs absorb roughly a fifth to a quarter of the gross fee before the 50/50 split, leaving the client under 40% of gross. DEGIRO states those illustrations are not a guarantee of revenues, and publishes no lending rate — rates are set per security by demand and change continuously.
- Collateral is a minimum of 105% of the loan value, adjusted daily, and is transferred to Stichting Collateral. You have no access to it — it can only be liquidated if DEGIRO cannot meet its redelivery obligation.
- You can opt out at any time by the same route. Securities already on loan can take up to three business days to return, and there is a 14-day cooling-off period before you can opt back in.
- DEGIRO states that no inducements and no spread costs apply to this service.
- Counterparty risk: DEGIRO is your counterparty — you rely on DEGIRO returning equivalent securities or their cash value, including if the borrower defaults.
- Collateral risk: if DEGIRO became insolvent, the proceeds of selling the collateral could be worth less than the lent securities, leaving you with a claim on DEGIRO.
- Market risk: you remain the economic owner throughout and stay fully exposed to price falls.
- Selling while on loan: you can still sell, but the recall may be delayed if the borrower does not return the securities on time. DEGIRO will try to supply equivalent securities from its own accounts; market conditions or collateral processes can delay it further, exposing you to additional market risk.
- Voting rights: legal ownership, and therefore voting rights, transfers to the borrower for the loan period. To vote you must instruct a recall five trading days before the record date, and the securities are then unavailable for new loans until at least three trading days after it.
- Substitute Payments: if securities are on loan on the record date, the distribution arrives as a Substitute Payment under that label, and may arrive later than the original would have.
- Tax implications: Substitute Payments may be taxed differently from dividends in your country, and lending may affect reporting and holding periods. DEGIRO gives no tax advice and accepts no liability for tax consequences.
- Operational risk: third-party providers handle transactions, collateral and custody. Their problems can delay the return of securities and the management of collateral.
Sources: DEGIRO Securities Lending Conditions (version 20250807), DEGIRO’s Ex-Ante Cost Information disclosure on securities lending (15.08.2025), and DEGIRO’s securities lending help pages, read August 2026. The help pages read were the Swiss ones — check your own country’s DEGIRO site before acting. Subject to change.
Decision table by investor type
The right framing depends on whether you’re a new user or already hold a legacy Custody account.
| Your situation | What matters | Suggested path |
|---|---|---|
| New DEGIRO user | Basic is the default. Lending is a separate opt-in decision, off by default. | Basic — decide on lending separately |
| Legacy Custody + accumulating ETFs | Income events rarely arise at all, and dividend processing is priced at zero on both account types | Keeping Custody is reasonable |
| Legacy Custody + distributing ETFs / dividend stocks | The published schedule shows no Custody surcharge on distributions — cost is not a reason to move | Keeping Custody is reasonable |
| Any investor who values no lending | Lending is opt-in on Basic, off by default, and offered in four markets only — you can simply not enable it | Basic with lending disabled is a clean option |
| Governance-focused shareholder | Lending transfers voting rights during loan period | Do not opt into lending |
| Tax-sensitive cross-border EU investor | Substitute Payments may be taxed differently from dividends | Verify local tax treatment before enabling lending |
Editorial framework, not a fee table. Underlying DEGIRO terms verified August 2026 and subject to change.
The Basic vs Custody question is specific to DEGIRO’s own account structure. Other brokers organise accounts differently, so if you are still choosing a broker, this particular decision should not be the thing that settles it — trading costs, currency conversion, and whether the funds you want are available will matter more over a long holding period.
Our DEGIRO vs Interactive Brokers comparison sets those out side by side, verified August 2026 and subject to change. Investing involves risk of loss regardless of broker.
Which account type fits your situation
Either account works. Accumulating ETFs don’t push cash dividends to you, so income-event charges rarely arise at all — and dividend processing is free on both account types regardless. If you already have a legacy Custody account and hold accumulating ETFs, keeping it costs you nothing extra. For new accounts: lending is off unless you opt in, and is not offered at all outside the four markets listed above, so the same outcome is the default either way. New user default: Basic.
Basic is the starting point for a new account, since it is the only one available. If you already hold legacy Custody, dividend processing is free on both account types in the current schedule, so there is no cost argument for moving. Budget instead for the €7.50 charge on choice and stock dividends, which applies either way. Default: Basic.
The Basic vs Custody question does not exist at other brokers, so if you have not opened an account yet, weigh the things that persist over a long holding period instead: trading costs, currency conversion, and whether the funds you want are available. Our comparison pages set these out, verified August 2026 and subject to change. Compare on cost, not account labels.
Ready to open your account?
For new DEGIRO accounts in 2026: you open Basic, securities lending is off unless you opt in, and it is worth checking whether the ETF Core Selection covers the funds you want before you fund the account. Transaction fees, currency conversion, connectivity fees, and external product and spread costs may apply. Investing involves risk of loss.
Go deeper
Frequently asked questions
Is DEGIRO Custody still available for new users?
No. Custody is no longer offered to new clients, and every new account opens as Basic — DEGIRO’s current published fee schedule covers only the Basic, Active and Trader profiles and contains no Custody line. Securities lending is a separate opt-in product setting, off by default, and is offered in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Italy only. Custody matters only to legacy holders who opened one while it was still available, and they keep their original terms. Always verify the current position on your country-specific DEGIRO site before acting.
Is securities lending automatic on a DEGIRO Basic account?
No. DEGIRO describes securities lending as opt-in and off by default, and it is offered in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Italy only. Verify your own product settings inside the DEGIRO platform to confirm your current status. If you have not explicitly opted in, your securities should not be lent.
Can I choose which securities DEGIRO lends?
No. DEGIRO states that if you opt into securities lending, all eligible shares, ETFs, and bonds in your portfolio may be lent. You cannot select only specific holdings to exclude. This is worth understanding before enabling lending — it applies to your entire eligible portfolio, not just positions you’d be comfortable lending.
Do I lose voting rights if my securities are lent?
Usually yes, for the duration of the loan. DEGIRO states that legal ownership and voting rights generally transfer to the borrower while securities are on loan, unless they are recalled before the relevant record date. To vote, you must instruct a recall five trading days before the record date, after which the securities are unavailable for new loans until at least three trading days past it. If shareholder voting matters to you, lending is not just a yield and risk trade-off — it also affects control.
Can securities lending affect dividends or taxes?
Yes. If securities are lent on the dividend record date, the distribution arrives as a Substitute Payment, shown under that label in your account, and it may arrive later than a standard dividend. DEGIRO also warns that lending may affect tax treatment, reporting obligations, and holding periods depending on your tax residency and the product involved. For EU investors in high-withholding-tax countries or those using accumulating ETFs for tax efficiency, this is worth verifying with a local tax adviser before opting in.
Does Custody eliminate all risk on DEGIRO?
No. It removes the securities lending dimension, but you still face normal broker and market risks, and it is not a structural safety upgrade. It is not a different cost profile either — on the current published schedule, dividend and coupon processing and corporate actions are priced at zero on both.
Is Custody worth it for accumulating ETFs?
Often yes, for existing legacy Custody holders. Accumulating ETFs don’t distribute cash dividends directly — the fund reinvests them internally — so income-event charges rarely arise at all. For new accounts, Basic with lending disabled achieves a similar “no lending” outcome without the structural constraints of Custody. There is no cost penalty either way: DEGIRO’s current published schedule prices dividend and coupon processing at zero and states no separate Custody rate.
Can I switch between Basic and Custody on DEGIRO?
Switching is possible in some cases but not always seamless. Moving to a Custody structure may no longer be available for existing Basic accounts in many markets, since Custody is no longer offered to new clients. Verify your country-specific choices directly with DEGIRO before making any changes — the process and availability vary by country and account history.
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QuantRoutine provides educational content only. Nothing on this page is an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or to open an account with any specific broker. Investments can lose value, and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own investment, tax, and legal decisions. Always review DEGIRO’s current terms, fees, and eligibility on their official website before opening or funding an account. Fee structures are subject to change; verify the current schedule at DEGIRO’s official fee page.