Step-by-step:
Open Your Comdirect Depot
Comdirect is Germany's most-recommended online broker for ETF savings plans. 500+ ETFs with zero order fees, savings plans from €1/month, and custody at €0 with no activity condition since the July 2026 price list. What most expats miss: a few expat-specific tax rules can quietly eat 30% of your returns.
Reviewed by Oliver Frankfurth (Bankfachwirt IHK) · Updated September 2026
Go directly to depot opening →Quick answer
Opening a Comdirect Depot takes about 10 minutes online: complete the application, work through the WpHG experience questions, then confirm your identity via video call. Depot management costs €0 with no activity condition attached, and new customers pay a flat €3.90 per order for the first 3 years if the Depot is open by 15 September 2026. Below, the guide walks you through the questionnaire, your Freistellungsauftrag, and the US-person trap.
Updated September 2026
Six steps, start to finish
Filling in the form takes roughly 10 minutes. Activation runs 1–2 business days for new customers and is instant if you already bank with Comdirect. Then you're set: 500+ ETF Sparpläne at zero cost and €3.90 flat orders through the first three years.
Line up the prerequisites
Line up the prerequisites
You need a Comdirect Girokonto as settlement account. No Girokonto yet? Open both together. The Girokonto stays free in any month you clear one of its conditions: €700+ Geldeingang, or 3 Apple/Google Pay payments, or one Trade plus one Sparplan execution, or an account holder under 28 in education.
Tip: No Comdirect Girokonto yet? The combined application is the fastest path; identity verification then covers both accounts in one go.
Open the online application
Open the online application
Click "Open Depot" on the Comdirect site. Existing customers log in first: name, address, and identity are pre-filled. New customers complete the full Girokonto + Depot form together.
Tip: The whole form is German-only. Translate each field with this guide open alongside; the sequence matches the steps here step for step.
Clear the WpHG experience check
Clear the WpHG experience check
As a licensed broker, Comdirect has to run the WpHG (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz) suitability check: a short questionnaire on how much you've already traded shares, bonds, funds, and derivatives. Answer it straight. Nothing here stops your depot from opening; low experience only parks complex instruments like Optionsscheine and leveraged certificates until later.
Tip: Ticking "no experience" across the board still leaves you free to buy shares, ETFs, and ETF Sparpläne from day one. Only derivatives stay locked. Clear Comdirect's short online knowledge test whenever you want to unlock them.
Enter your tax details
Enter your tax details
Type in your 11-digit Steuer-ID (tax number). It sits on the BZSt letter that lands a few weeks after you register your address. Confirm Germany as your tax home, then file a Freistellungsauftrag on the spot so the first €1,000 of yearly gains stays untaxed, or €2,000 if you and your spouse file together.
Tip: Just arrived and no Steuer-ID? It reaches you by post roughly two to four weeks once your Anmeldung is done. Rather than wait, order a copy through the BZSt site (bzst.de); it usually turns up sooner.
Identity verification via IDnow VideoIdent (new customers only)
Identity verification via IDnow VideoIdent (new customers only)
Existing Comdirect customers confirm with a TAN and skip ahead. New customers run a 5–10-minute IDnow VideoIdent call from home, with no branches and no PostIdent. Show your passport or EU ID to the agent.
Tip: Daylight beats apartment lighting. If your laptop mic is weak, use an external one. Around 10% of IDnow first attempts fail on audio quality alone.
Go live and place your first trade
Go live and place your first trade
Depot live in 1–2 business days (instant for existing customers). Open the Depot section, search for an ISIN or ticker, place your first order. For the first three years every order is €3.90 flat, Xetra included. After that: €4.90 base fee plus 0.25% of the order volume (min €9.90, max €59.90), or use the 500+ free ETF Sparpläne to skip order fees entirely.
Tip: Start with one of the 500+ no-fee ETF Sparpläne from €1/month. Comdirect rotates which ETFs are free, but the major MSCI World, FTSE All-World, and S&P 500 accumulating variants are usually on the list. Check the "Top-Preis-ETFs" list before you pick.
Open Depot Now
Since 2014 we've walked 10,000+ expats through German brokers. Plenty of US citizens hit the PFIC wall right after their first ETF order at Comdirect. This walkthrough covers the application and the tax traps nobody flags in advance.
Open Depot Now →What Comdirect rarely tells expats about a German Depot
Hold a US passport? Sort out PFIC and W-8BEN first
A US passport or green card turns nearly every fund listed in Europe into a PFIC on your US return. That means penalty tax rates and a separate Form 8621 for each fund, every single year. Your two clean routes: own US-domiciled ETFs via a broker open to US persons (few are, in Germany), or buy individual shares instead. Comdirect asks you to declare US-person status during the application; say yes if it applies to you, because a false answer can cost you the depot down the line. The FATCA data-sharing with the IRS runs on its own.
Fund domicile: Irish beats Luxembourg on US dividends
Non-US investors, watch the fund domicile. An Irish ETF (its ISIN opens with IE) claws back 15% of the withholding tax on US dividends through the Ireland-US treaty; a Luxembourg fund (LU) recovers nothing. On an ETF loaded with US shares, that gap is worth around 0.3% a year, down to the ISIN you pick. Comdirect's free-Sparplan list leans Irish for the big "MSCI World accumulating" names, but confirm the IE prefix before you commit.
Exit tax (Wegzugsbesteuerung) when you leave Germany
This one bites only if you own at least 1% of a company, which is unusual for an ordinary ETF investor. Move your tax residence out of Germany while holding such a stake and the Finanzamt taxes the paper gains as though you sold one day before departure. Broad ETFs and modest single-stock holdings stay clear. Sitting on a large slice of a startup or your employer's shares? See a Steuerberater before you relocate. Berlin tightened these rules back in 2022.
Custody is €0, so plan around order costs instead
The July 2026 price list scrapped the quarterly activity rule: a Depot opened now costs €0 to hold, with no trade count, no Sparplan, and no Girokonto required. Your real costs sit in the orders. Single trades run €3.90 flat for 3 years and then €4.90 base fee plus 0.25% of the order volume (min €9.90, max €59.90). Phone orders add €14.90, and savings plans outside the Top-Preis list cost 1.5% of each execution. Pick a free Top-Preis ETF and your running cost is the fund's TER.
Vermögenswirksame Leistungen (VL): your employer might pay your Sparplan
Many German employers contribute up to €40/month to a VL-eligible Sparplan as part of your benefits, pure free money many expats never claim. Comdirect supports VL-fähige ETF-Sparpläne; you give your employer a VL-Vertrag with your depot details. Ask HR specifically for "vermögenswirksame Leistungen". Tarifverträge and many individual contracts include it.
Prep checklist before you apply
Keep two things within reach: your Steuer-ID and the IBAN of your settlement account. A Sparplan can wait or start on day one, your call. One catch on the Freistellungsauftrag: the €1,000 allowance spreads across every German bank you use, so if another one already holds part of it, trim that first or you'll double-book the exemption.