Fidelity review 2026

Fidelity states the terms for the FondsdepotPlus unambiguously on its own site: depot management is free from an average depot volume of €20,000 in the calendar year. Anyone below that pays 0.25 percent of the average depot value per year, at least €25 and at most €45 per calendar year begun (as of 09/2026). For beginners with small holdings that is a noticeable hurdle: at a depot value of €5,000, the minimum fee of €25 is half a percent of the assets. A separate current account at another bank is not required. The FondsdepotPlus comes with a settlement account through which purchases, sales and switches run; Fidelity expressly states account management as free. A custody charge on balances is currently given as 0.00 percent per year. Scoring (15/20): Because the fee-free status is tied to the condition of an average depot volume of €20,000, we award 10 out of 15 points rather than the full score. The fact that no additional current account is needed and the settlement account is run free of charge gives the full 5 points.

Fidelity works with a deliberately simple price list: every purchase and every sale online costs a uniform €2, regardless of order volume. Anyone who orders by phone, fax or post pays €8. On the front-end load, the provider grants a 100 percent discount on most funds; funds and ETFs with a different cost arrangement are excluded. A €500 one-off investment therefore costs exactly €2 online. Savings plans and withdrawal plans are free according to the price overview. The provider's own FAQ confirms this expressly for ETFs: if the ETF savings plan is set up and executed online, no transaction costs apply; only orders submitted offline cost €8. A €400 savings plan instalment therefore costs nothing. One weak point is the trading route. Fidelity consistently describes purchases and sales as an order through the online depot management, with settlement via the fund company or the custodian bank. The provider names no exchange trading venue for the FondsdepotPlus anywhere – neither Xetra nor any other exchange. That an ETF can be ordered specifically via Xetra cannot be verified on the provider's site. Scoring (17/25): The free €400 ETF savings plan gives the full 12 points. For the €500 one-off investment at €2 we award 5 out of 10 points (the up-to-€3 level). For the Xetra order there are 0 out of 3 points, because Fidelity states no exchange trading venue for the depot; this rating is based on missing public information, not on a proven exclusion.

The fund savings plan is one of the core products. It is possible from €25 per fund and month, the intervals are monthly, quarterly or half-yearly, and collection takes place on the 1st or 15th of the month. Changes, pauses and cancellations run online through the depot management. All savings plan executions are free – so the number of free ETF savings plans equals the number of ETFs eligible for savings plans. On quantity, Fidelity stays imprecise. Its own FAQ states that the majority of the roughly 10,000 funds and 1,000 ETFs from over 260 fund companies are available for a savings plan. The provider does not publish a reliable number of ETFs eligible for savings plans; anyone who wants to know exactly must filter the fund finder for funds eligible for savings plans. A value of at least 500 can be derived from the wording, but a value of at least 1,000 cannot. The minimum savings rate of €25 is the second weak point. Neobrokers and several direct banks start at €1 today; anyone who wants to diversify widely with very small instalments cannot do so at Fidelity, because the €25 applies per fund and not per savings plan package. Scoring (7/20): For the number of ETF savings plans we award 3 out of 8 points (the 500-and-above level), because the provider itself speaks only of a majority of the roughly 1,000 ETFs and gives no exact number. Because all savings plans are free, the same value applies to free ETF savings plans: 3 out of 7 points. The minimum savings rate of €25 gives 1 out of 5 points.

Fidelity puts the investment universe of the FondsdepotPlus at over 10,000 investment funds and more than 1,000 ETFs from over 260 fund companies. For a fund depot that is a very broad offer, and the fund finder on the website makes it searchable. In addition, a fixed-term deposit with a cooperating investment bank can be taken out through the settlement account. Structurally, however, the offer ends at the fund boundary. Individual shares are not tradable, nor are individual bonds; derivatives such as warrants, knock-outs or certificates are not part of the offer, and crypto assets cannot be bought by private customers via the depot. Anyone who wants to reflect bond or commodity allocations can do so only through corresponding funds and ETFs. That is not a flaw in execution but the design of the product – under our methodology, however, it leads to point deductions in two of the three sub-criteria. Scoring (4/15): For more than 1,000 tradable ETFs we award 4 out of 6 points (the 1,000-and-above level). For tradable shares there are 0 out of 6 points, as individual shares are not on offer. For the crypto, derivatives and bonds criterion we award 0 out of 3 points, because none of these three asset classes is tradable as an individual security.

On credit interest, Fidelity is unusually clear – and unusually poor: the price overview expressly shows the credit interest on the settlement account as 0.00 percent per year. A custody charge is not currently levied, but overdrafts cost 6.25 percent per year. Investors who want to park larger amounts in between are referred to the separate FestgeldPlus product, which is taken out through the settlement account. There is a bonus, but only for depot transfers: anyone who transfers an existing depot to FFB and holds the holdings for twelve months receives a tiered bonus – €50 from €10,000 transferred, €100 from €20,000, up to €5,000 from one million euros. The credit is made in units of a Fidelity fund. ETFs, index funds, money market funds and funds from Union Investment and Deka do not count towards the bonus calculation, and there is only one bonus per person. We found no bonus for simply opening a new depot without a transfer. Scoring (2/8): For credit interest we award 0 out of 5 points, because the provider itself shows 0.00 percent. For the new-customer bonus we award 2 out of 3 points: a bonus exists and is transparently tiered, but the entry level is €50 and requires a depot transfer of €10,000 plus a twelve-month holding period; the full score from €100 can only be reached from €20,000 transferred.

The depot is run through the browser-based online depot management at direct.fidelity.de. There, orders can be placed, savings plans set up and changed, depot statements retrieved with back-dating and personal data maintained. The depot overview was recently reworked and allows a choice of up to six key figures. The authorisation of orders is strikingly old-fashioned: opening documents and the PIN and iTAN sheet arrive separately by post, and TAN entries use this list. The provider does not advertise a mobile app of its own for Fidelity direct customers anywhere on fidelity.de – not in the navigation, not in the footer and not in the FAQ on depot management; the online depot in the browser is referred to throughout. There is an app from FIL Fondsbank GmbH in the App Store, but it requires FFB login details, is limited to holdings overview, mailbox and master data and has no order function; no Android equivalent could be found. Real-time prices are not available by system design. Funds and ETFs are settled at Fidelity at the unit price that the fund company usually determines once a day; what matters is the order cut-off time, not a price at the moment the order is placed. Scoring (0/8): For the mobile app we award 0 out of 5 points, because no app is documented for Fidelity direct customers on the provider's site and availability on iOS and Android cannot therefore be verified. For free real-time prices there are 0 out of 3 points, because the depot does not provide for exchange or real-time trading.

For private investors, Fidelity gives a fixed service number with the area code 06173, available Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm. It is an ordinary landline number, not a premium-rate number; in addition there are email addresses for orders and general enquiries as well as a callback service. Orders can even be placed by phone, but then cost €8 instead of €2. The depot is held at FIL Fondsbank GmbH, a CRR credit institution in Kronberg im Taunus. Fund units remain segregated assets or customer property separate from the bank's assets and can be reclaimed or transferred in an insolvency. Balances in the settlement account are covered by the statutory Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken and additionally by the voluntary deposit protection fund of the Bundesverband deutscher Banken. As a German bank, flat-rate withholding tax (Abgeltungsteuer) is paid automatically, and the exemption order (Freistellungsauftrag) and loss offsetting can be mapped in the depot. Scoring (4/4): German-language phone support on working days from 8 am to 6 pm, reachable via a regular landline number, earns the full 4 points.