A savings plan sounds like a building society product from the 1980s. What European brokers are calling a savings plan is actually a recurring, commission-free ETF purchase executed automatically on a date you choose. The difference matters because it removes the two biggest obstacles to consistent investing: friction and the temptation to time the market.
How savings plans work mechanically
You choose an ETF, a monthly amount, and a date. The broker buys the ETF at market open (or a set NAV time for funds) without charging a commission. Because it is automatic, you invest whether the market is up, down, or sideways — which is precisely the point. Dollar-cost averaging works best when the investor cannot override it.
Which brokers offer them, and at what cost
Trading 212 offers free savings plans on all ETFs with no minimum. Scalable Capital offers them on major trackers from €1 with a flat €2.99/month subscription. Degiro does not offer savings plans — purchases must be initiated manually each month, which introduces timing risk.
The fractional share problem
Savings plans require fractional shares when your monthly amount does not divide evenly into a whole ETF unit. Brokers handle this differently: some round down and hold the remainder as cash; others issue fractional units that earn proportional dividends. The latter is significantly better for compounding — undeployed cash is a drag on every purchase cycle.