Start earning interest on your uninvested cash. It is paid daily. There are no minimums or limits and you can withdraw at any time.
What is uninvested cash?
This is any cash that you have not invested in instruments like stocks and ETFs. Check how much of your cash is not invested in the Earn interest on cash dashboard in the Menu 👇
Where can I check the interest I have earned?
- Go to your Menu.
- Select
Earn interest on cash
- Check the total interest you've earned for each currency under Your earnings.
Where is the uninvested cash held?
It is held either in banks or in QMMFs.
For Trading 212 AU PTY LTD clients, funds are held only in banks. Any further QMMF information does not apply.
Which account types are eligible for interest?
All accounts are eligible for interest.
What are the current interest rates?
In the app, tap on ‘Earn Interest on cash’, and you will find the current interest rates. You can also see our terms and fees.
Are there any min or max balance requirements to earn interest?
No.
How do I enable the interest?
Login to your account, tap on ‘Earn Interest on cash’, follow the instructions and tap the ‘Enable’ button. You’ll need to consent to having your cash held in qualifying money market funds (QMMFs).
What if I don’t want to earn interest?
You can disable it at any time via the ‘Interest on cash’ dashboard in your app.
You can turn the interest back on at any time.
How does Trading 212 earn this interest?
We use a mixture of products and vehicles, such as qualifying money market funds, time deposits, and current accounts. For Trading 212 AU accounts, time deposits and current accounts with banks are used.
What’s a qualifying money market fund (QMMF)?
A qualifying money market fund holds mainly short-term, low-risk financial assets, aiming to maintain a stable value. These funds are designed to be low-risk places to keep your cash while earning a bit of interest, and they're often used for the cash portion of retirement or investment accounts. They're called "qualifying" because they meet certain regulations that allow them to be considered cash equivalents.
Who uses QMMFs?
Pension funds, insurance funds, banks, and other major financial institutions.
These institutions typically use QMMFs to hold large amounts of money. Over €1 trillion is held in QMMFs in Europe and over $6 trillion in the USA as of January 2024.
How is the daily interest payment calculated?
Daily interest payments are calculated using the industry standard AER (or APY) formula:
(1+r/n)^n - 1, where
* r = interest rate
* n = compounding frequency (365.25 days)
We use 365.25 days to account for leap years.
💡Example
USD AER = 5%
USD cash balance = $1,000
- Daily payment (DP) = Cash balance * [(1 + AER) ^ 1/365.25 - 1]
- DP = $1,000 * [(1 + 0.05) ^ 1/365.25 - 1]
- DP = $1,000 * (1.05 ^ 1/365.25 - 1)
- 365.25th root of 1.05 = 1.00013358
- DP = $1,000 * (1.00013358 - 1)
- DP = $1,000 * 0.00013358
- DP = $0.13358
How often do I get interest?
Interest payments are made daily, rounded down to the nearest cent. Amounts below 0.01 are carried forward.
If the daily interest falls below 0.01, it will accumulate until reaching 0.01 or more, at which point it will be paid.
Do I have to pay taxes on the earned interest?
This depends on your tax residency. For more information, check 👉 here.
If you are a client of Trading 212 AU PTY LTD, you should check out this article about taxation.
Which currencies earn interest?
In the app, tap on ‘Earn Interest on cash’, and you’ll find which currencies earn interest. You can also find them on our terms and fees page.
Is my money still protected?
Where we hold your money with a bank, clients of Trading 212 UK Ltd. are protected by the FSCS up to a limit of £85,000. Clients of Trading 212 Markets Ltd. are protected by the ICF up to a limit of €20,000. Learn more about how your money is protected here.
Money placed with a QMMF is treated as an investment and not as money held with a bank. In the unlikely event that the QMMF fails to maintain their low-risk strategy, as with any investment, the protection will not be available. We carefully select all QMMFs to ensure that they are highly liquid, stable in value and maintain their highly regulated status.
Can QMMFs go down in value?
If a QMMF in which your cash is invested goes down in value, this may affect the value of your uninvested cash held in the QMMF. However, to manage this risk, we select only high-quality QMMFs, and we monitor them frequently. Learn more about the risks of QMMFs and how we manage them 👉 here.
How much of my money is held in QMMFs?
You can see your cash holdings in QMMFs and banks through the app's 'Interest on cash' dashboard and in the 'Cash in banks' and 'Cash in QMMFs' sections of your account activity and monthly statements.
How often do interest rates change?
Interest rates are based on rates we receive from the banks and QMMFs we hold your cash with. These rates are based on the central banks' rates, like the Bank of England's base rate. If the central bank rate changes, you can expect a change in the interest on cash.
Can I earn interest without trading?
No, you need to have trading activity every 6 months in your investment accounts (CFD, Equity, Stocks ISA) to benefit from the interest on cash feature. Executing at least one trade is considered trading activity.
If you aren't trading in your account, we will disable the interest on cash for you.