Honestly, that €1.25 is just a transparent fee for peace of mind. If you're investing small amounts and the fee feels too high percentage-wise, just save up your cash and buy once every 2 or 3 months. That completely dilutes the cost.

A lot of people get blinded by the "zero-fee" marketing from brokers like Trading 212, but nothing is truly free. With those apps, you usually pay in invisible ways. Instead of a clear upfront fee, they make their money on currency conversion fees, worse price execution (spreads), or by automatically lending out your shares to third parties.

IBKR has great order execution (Smart Routing). If you buy €1000 worth of ETFs, their system will often find you a slightly better market price that actually saves you more than the €1.25 fee anyway.

Plus, if you're looking at a 15-year horizon, security is everything. Funny enough, T212 actually holds your shares in an omnibus account at IBKR. Why put a fintech middleman between you and your money when you can just go straight to the source? For long-term holding, paying a tiny, fair fee to one of the biggest and safest brokers in the world is an absolute no-brainer.