Alternatives Accounts
Trade Republic Card
The Trade Republic card is a way for you to save as you spend, earn interest and access unlimited fee-free ATM withdrawals.
Reading time: 11 min
Last updated: March 31, 2026
Table of Contents:
Written by:
Dan Malone
At A Glance:
- Allows Irish users to earn saveback, round up and spend abroad with no fees
- Competitive interest rate on cash deposits
- Features unauthorised withdrawal protection to keep your money safe
Trade Republic Card: Explained
Trade Republic is a German bank based in Berlin. Founded in 2015 by Christian Hecker, Thomas Pischke and Marco Cancellieri, the company has gone from being a humble German startup to one of the biggest neobanks and neobrokers in Europe. In late 2025, the company sold €1.2bn worth of shares to world renowned investors such as Peter Thiel and Sequoia Capital, which put a €12.5bn valuation on Trade Republic’s business.
Trade Republic offers a card service to its Irish customers. This card allows Irish users to earn cashback, spend abroad with no fees and withdraw from ATMs, all while earning a highly competitive interest rate on their money.
While Trade Republic does offer a current account in other markets, it’s not currently available to Irish customers. Therefore, Irish Trade Republic users will have a cash account that supports card transactions, not a fully operational current account.
Is Trade Republic Safe for Irish Customers in 2026?
Trade Republic is a fully regulated German bank making it perfectly safe for use. The company is supervised by BaFin, who are the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany as well as the Deutsche Bundesbank who are the German Central Bank.
This stamp of approval has allowed the company to expand its operations into 18 different countries across the Eurozone, serving over 10 million customers. Between those 10 million customers, over €150 billion is kept with Trade Republic.
Trade Republic holds customer cash with one of three globally recognised banks:
- Deutsche Bank
- J.P. Morgan SE
- Citibank Europe plc
All funds held in a cash account with Trade Republic are protected up to €100,000 per depositor under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme. Irish customers can expect to have their cash held with Citibank Europe plc, which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and protected under the Irish Deposit Guarantee Scheme. To confirm which partner bank holds your cash, simply navigate to the ‘Cash’ section of the app and click the “learn more about the allocation of available cash” prompt at the bottom of the page.
How Secure Is Trade Republic?
| Security Feature | Available on Trade Republic? |
|---|---|
| Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) | Yes |
| Biometric Login | Yes |
| Verified Bank Account | Yes |
| Freeze Card | Yes |
| Spending & Withdrawal Limits | Yes |
| Disable ATM Withdrawals | Yes |
| Disable Online Payments | Yes |
| Disable Contactless Payments | Yes |
| Disable Swipe Payments | Yes |
| Disable Gambling Payments | Yes |
| Disable Crypto Purchases | Yes |
Trade Republic requires customers to verify their mobile device via SMS and to set a 4-digit PIN. This becomes the primary device for the account. A login from a new device requires customer confirmation via in-app notification or SMS and their personalised PIN (i.e. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)).
The app supports biometric logins, via FaceID and TouchID, for extra security. If an unauthorised person accessed a Trade Republic account, they couldn't withdraw funds to their account. That’s because withdrawals can only be made to verified bank accounts that have been linked to the user’s Trade Republic cash account.
A verified account is a personal bank account in your name. It must have been used to send money to your Trade Republic account. You can’t receive money from accounts that you don’t own, with the exception of joint accounts. Receipt of funds is necessary to verify an account. This prevents anyone unauthorised from adding their own account to your profile. You can have more than one verified bank account for deposits and withdrawals.
Irish customers can also find many security options in the 'Card' section of the app. These include card freeze, card limits, and allowed transactions.
Customer Support
Like many digital alternatives, Trade Republic relies on detailed FAQs and chat support for customer help. The FAQs cover core queries relating to money transfers, interest, cards, benefits and deposit security. They are localised for Irish customers, searchable and highly comprehensive. If you can’t find an answer to your query, or wish to know more than what’s listed on the FAQs, you can request to be put into chat support with a Trade Republic agent.
How To Open A Trade Republic Account (Est. Time: 10 Minutes)
In order to open an account with Trade Republic you’ll need to:
- Verify your mobile number via SMS
- Confirm your identity (i.e. passport photo)
- Perform a biometric check (i.e. a selfie)
- Confirm you’re an Irish tax resident and provide your PPSN
- Link a SEPA bank account (Revolut, Bunq, AIB etc.)
Trade Republic Card Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | None |
| Top Up Fee - Bank Transfer | None |
| Top Up Fee - Apple Pay/Google Pay/Card | First deposit free, 1% of the deposited amount thereafter |
| Debit Card | Virtual card - free Standard card - €5 one-time Mirror card - €50 one-time |
| ATM Withdrawals | Unlimited and fee-free when withdrawing more than €100 Withdrawals below €100 cost €1 |
| Interest | 2% interest on cash balances up to €50,000 |
| Saveback | 1% back on up to €1,500 worth of monthly eligible card spending |
| Round Up | Round up card payments to the nearest euro and invest the excess |
| Foreign Exchange | Direct exchange rate from Visa with no added charges. Unlimited conversions. |
Getting a Trade Republic Card
To get a Trade Republic card, go to the ‘Cash’ section of the app and click ‘Card’ to select which one you want. There are three choices:
- Virtual: A free digital card that can be used for online transactions and added to your digital wallet for contactless transactions
- Classic: A physical card that can be used for ATM withdrawals and all card-related transactions. It costs €5 to have it delivered.
- Mirror: A unique physical card with a mirror glass finish. Does everything that the Classic card does with no extra benefits. It costs €50 to have it delivered.
- Card Limits
There are limits to the transactions that can be made using a Trade Republic card. Monthly limits reset at the beginning of each month:
- Daily Spending Limit: €10,000
- Monthly Spending Limit: €50,000
- Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: €1,500
- Monthly ATM Withdrawal Limit: €20,000
By default, your card limits will be set lower than what’s allowed. You can increase your spending and withdrawal limits to the maximum allowable amounts by clicking ‘Limits’ in the ‘Card’ section of the Trade Republic app.
To activate Saveback, go into the ‘Cash’ section of the Trade Republic app and click ‘Card’. Scroll down to ‘Saveback’ underneath the benefits section. You then need to select an asset that your saveback will be invested into. This could be an exchange-traded fund (ETF), company stock or other asset depending on your goals.
When you’ve selected your asset, you then need to specify how much you’ll invest, how often and at what time of the month. Finally, click ‘Create’ and then ‘Activate’.
Key Insight:In order for Saveback to activate, you must invest at least €50 per month into savings plans on Trade Republic. A savings plan on Trade Republic is an automated investment into one or more ETFs, stocks or other assets. There are no fees charged for setting up or using savings plans.
Saveback Limit
You can earn 1% Saveback on eligible card spending up to €1,500 per month. That means you can receive a maximum of €15 worth of Saveback each month. Trade Republic does not offer Saveback on:
- P2P payments and account top ups
- ATM withdrawals
- Manual cash withdrawals
- Payments with a staged wallet or card
- Gambling and lottery transactions
- Account funding transactions
- Cash-like transactions
- Securities/investment transactions
If you hold cryptocurrencies on Trade Republic, you can use them for payment and receive a higher Saveback rate of 2% up to €1,500 per month (i.e. a maximum of €30 per month). You can pause or edit your Saveback at any time.
There are no fees charged for purchasing investments via Saveback. Whenever you choose to sell, Trade Republic charges a flat fee of €1.
To activate Round Up, go into the ‘Cash’ section of the Trade Republic app and click ‘Card’. Scroll down to ‘Round Up’ underneath the benefits section. You then need to select an asset that your Round Up will be invested into. This could be an exchange-traded fund (ETF), company stock or other asset depending on your goals.
When you’ve selected your asset, you then need to select a multiplier from 1x to 10x. This is best explained with an example. Let’s say you spent €2.80. The difference between this amount and the nearest Euro (i.e. €3) is €0.20. If you had selected a multiplier of 1x, Round Up will invest €0.20 into your selected asset. If a multiplier of 2x was selected, €0.40 will be invested (i.e. twice the rounded up amount). A multiplier of 10x would result in an investment of €2 (i.e. ten times the rounded up amount).
Once you select your multiplier, you then click ‘Activate’. You can pause or edit your Round Up at any time. There are no fees charged for purchasing investments via Round Up. Whenever you choose to sell, Trade Republic charges a flat fee of €1.
Key Insight: If you spend an exact euro amount, like €2, and Round Up is active, Trade Republic will still round the transaction up to the nearest euro i.e. €3. Rounded up amounts are invested on the 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd of each month (or the next working day).
To earn 2% interest on your cash, you must manually activate it. To do this, go to the ‘Cash’ section of the Trade Republic app and click ‘Interest’. Once active, you will begin earning 2% interest on cash balances up to €50,000. Any deposits in excess of this amount will not earn interest. Interest payments are made on the first working day of the following month.
Importantly, Trade Republic does not deduct Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) from your interest before paying it to you. This means you’ll need to declare the interest to Revenue and pay the tax owed as part of your tax return. You can find a guide on how to do this here.
Key Insight: Your money remains instantly accessible and available for spending within Trade Republic, even while it’s earning 2% interest. This makes Trade Republic one of the highest yielding ‘spending’ accounts available to Irish customers.
One of the biggest benefits of the Trade Republic card is that you can spend and withdraw money abroad in foreign currencies at no cost. The normal fee-free ATM withdrawal limits apply. No fees or markups are applied to non-Euro spending with the Trade Republic card.
By clicking on your profile icon, you will be able to access a number of important documents including, but not limited to:
- Annual Tax Report: useful for declaring income earned via Trade Republic to Revenue as part of a tax return
- Account Statement: shows opening balance, money in and money out of the account over a period of time
- Bank Details Statement: shows the IBAN and BIC of your account
Frequently Asked Questions
No, Irish employees can’t get their salary paid into Trade Republic. Your cash account can only receive funds from bank accounts that you personally own, including joint accounts. If your employer attempted to send a salary payment it would bounce.
No, the Trade Republic card allows you to use your euros for a foreign currency transaction without having to pay any fees or markups.
Yes, a single transaction limit of €50 applies to contactless transactions with the physical Trade Republic card. You may also have to enter your PIN if you’ve spent a total of €150 or carried out five contactless transactions since your last authentication. These limits don’t apply to contactless transactions carried out via your digital wallet.
Yes, if you request a refund from a merchant and they agree to process it then your funds will be returned. However, you may lose any saveback earned on the transaction.
In the ‘Cash’ section of the app, click on ‘Card’. Either select ‘Freeze’ or navigate to ‘Manage' and scroll down for the option to ‘Terminate Card’.
When in the app, click ‘Transfer’ and select the account that you wish to send the withdrawal to. Enter the withdrawal amount and process the transaction. Trade Republic supports SEPA Instant, so your withdrawal should be received in your other SEPA bank account within 10 seconds.
No, Irish customers will be given a German IBAN beginning with “DE”.
No, you do not have to use the Trade Republic card to enjoy the benefits of the platform. Other options include using it as a savings or investment account.
No, Trade Republic does not offer business accounts.
There are no unavoidable fees associated with using Trade Republic. While there is a 1% fee for deposits made via Apple Pay, Google Pay and card, this can be avoided by simply opting for a bank transfer. The ATM withdrawal fee can be avoided by withdrawing more than €100.
No, Trade Republic does not offer joint accounts to Irish customers. However, you can have a joint bank account linked to your Trade Republic account for deposits and withdrawals.
No, Trade Republic does not offer children’s accounts to Irish customers.
No, Trade Republic’s cash account can’t be used for direct debits.
No, Trade Republic’s cash account can’t be used for standing orders.
You can only transfer money to bank accounts that you own and have been used previously for sending money to your Trade Republic account.
