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To know about Investing in Germany there are 2 aspects one has to be aware of. The Broker and the Deposit account. The Broker links the Investor and the Exchange (Buyer/Seller) and the deposit account in which or through which the funds are stored or transferred.
Introduction - DEPOT Account
If you are new to investments then you need a broker to help you invest in Stocks, Mutual Funds or ETFs (Exchange Transfer Funds) This might require to open a Depotkonto that suits your investments. If you want to do investments in regular basis, you can opt for Savingsplan meaning Sparplän in German.
A term Depotkonto refers to an account into which the funds for investment are deposited. The funds deposited into this account is withdrawn at the time of buying a Stock or ETF.
Maintaining a Depotkonto: A Depotkonto can be opened by a bank or also by a discount broker. Maintaining a Depotkonto acquires fees, commission, load charge during buying funds, or other commission depending upon the type of order. Larger orders scale up to larger commission.
Attention to Broker and Brokerage Account: The Brokerage account is mostly not linked to your Bank account. This is subject to maintain a minimum amount in the Brokerage Account. Fund transfers to your bank account after acquiring or selling requires transfer time which may take 1 or 2 Business days.
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To invest in Germany it is always better to have a German Broker as they would know the German regulations better than a foreign Broker.
Choosing a Depot account
Depot Account with a BANK: Opening a Depotkonto with a bank may be a part of banking services. This means that it is no chaos to open or maintain a minimum amount as balance in your Depotkonto separately as it will be linked to your bank account. By the way the Balance that is required to be maintained in a Depotkonto with automatically be Debited from your Bank account. Some Banks that provide Depotkonto service are Comdirect,Commerzbank
Depot Account with NEO BROKER: The NEO broker depots that offer Depotkonto are Scalable capital, Traderepublic, Smartbroker. The boon of having a Depotkonto with a discount broker is that the transaction charge is lesser than the Bank’s and the tradeoff is a minimum Balance that has to be maintained as they are not linked to the Bank account.
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The Downside to have a Depotkonto linked with a bank is having a higher transaction share for Buying and Selling, alternatively you can choose NEO BROKERS like scalable capital, smart broker, just trade, traderepublic.
Step by Step -Opening a Depot Account
Depotkonto can be opened online with ease. Everything one must do is
- Browse to a Trading Platform site.
- Sign up (Prompts information regarding Tax Number, Contact details etc..)
- Identity Verification.
- Deposit funds in your Trading account.
- Start Trading
Identity verification process
VideoIdent: This verification is done by a Video contact of yourself with your customer advisor. you will be verified using your Valid German Identity or Austrian Passport (issued from 05.09.2014)
E-Ident: To verify using E_ident all you must have is a German Identity card(Aufenthaltstitel) that has an E Identity liked to it. This has been issued later than 01.11.2010. All you must do to get verified is to scan your E-Identity card using the NFC feature available on your phone when prompted. Check out this video to know more about the ways to do the video identification
Post-Ident: This is the traditional way where you receive a document during the sign-up process which you have to take to the Post Office along with your Passport and German Identity card. The Post office scans and sends the acknowledgment directly to the respective Bank.
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INDIAN PASSPORT are not accepted for VIDEO IDENT, Don't waste your time in trying Video Identification, rather opt for POST IDENT
