Bolero vs Public.com — which broker is better?

Pros

• Run by KBC Bank NV, a Belgian credit institution supervised by the ECB together with the National Bank of Belgium and by the FSMA for conduct; the KBC Group is listed on Euronext Brussels
• Small orders from EUR 2.50 (up to EUR 250) on Euronext, Germany, the other online European markets, Toronto and the 100 ETFs of the ETF Playlist, and from USD 2.50 in the US
• No custody fee, no account management fee and no minimum deposit; opening and closing the account are free
• Belgian taxes handled at source: the stock exchange tax on every contract note, and from 1 June 2026 the 10% capital gains tax withheld unless you opt out
• More than 20 markets online, plus phone orders through the Orderdesk on exchanges such as Hong Kong, Japan and Australia
• Research included at no charge: a daily newsletter running since 2006, share analyses, Reuters and ABM Financial News, screeners and the Idea Center
• Invest & Repeat: periodic orders on the ETF Playlist monthly, every two months, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, priced from EUR 2.50
• Long phone hours: the Orderdesk takes orders every trading day from 08:00 to 22:00

Cons

• Adults domiciled in Belgium only, with a Belgian current account; residents of other countries and US persons cannot open an account
• Mid-sized orders cost more than at low-cost platforms: on Euronext an order above EUR 2,500 costs EUR 15 per EUR 10,000, up to EUR 50
• A 0.60% currency conversion margin, 2% (maximum EUR 125) for collecting foreign dividends, and no credit interest on cash at present
• No futures, short selling or securities credit; we found no CFDs, forex trading or fractional shares, and Bolero points to trackers and turbos for commodities
• Crypto is limited to Bitcoin and Ether, cannot be transferred in, can leave only to an account at a regulated EU or EEA provider and is outside the guarantee fund
• A phone order costs EUR 15 when the security can be traded online, and the administration answers only during office hours

Pros

• Options Rebate Program pays USD 0.06–0.18 per stock or ETF contract, typically more than the roughly USD 0.05 per contract of regulatory fees — a net-negative transaction cost that no competitor here matches
• Cheapest margin of the three: 5.15% base (Fed Funds Target Rate + 1.15%, with FFTR at 4.00% as of 17 September 2026), tiering to 4.20% above USD 50 million
• A real bond desk — fractional corporate bonds at 0.35%–0.50% of par, Treasuries at 0.10%–0.25%, plus customisable Treasury ladders (the separate Jiko 6-month T-bill account stops taking new deposits after 31 October 2026)
• Genuinely multi-asset in one login: stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, Treasuries, 60+ crypto assets, IRAs, Crypto IRAs and a high-yield cash account quoted at 3.30% APY in mid-2026
• Free ACH in and out, free incoming wires and free incoming ACAT transfers, with no minimum deposit
• Transparent, well-maintained public fee schedule — the version used for this record was updated 13 October 2026 and states every line item including the awkward ones
• Index options at USD 0.35 per contract for every customer, plus the exchange fees Public passes on

Cons

• US residents only — no international entity, so European, UK or DACH investors cannot open an account
• USD 100 to transfer securities out, plus USD 115 per security for a DRS transfer; both are the highest in this comparison
• No futures, no spot forex, no mutual funds and no desktop application — active traders will find the charting and depth-of-market shallow next to Webull or moomoo
• The options rebate is funded by payment for order flow, so you are accepting a routing model in exchange for the payment; the free Wholesale route is the default, and choosing Smart Order or Lit-Exchange routing costs USD 0.003 per share
• A USD 3.99 monthly inactivity fee applies to accounts under USD 70 with no six-month activity, and there is no paper-trading environment to practise in