Frequently Asked Questions
GENERAL
Birdwingo was founded by brothers Adam and Andrej Hano. They lived in the United States and London, where they saw how investing helps ordinary people to easily and regularly save and grow their money.
Every time they came back to the Central European region, they were struck by how investing (doesn’t) work: high and hidden fees, shady financial advisors, unfavorable products, and complicated interfaces. They teamed up with Bienville Capital, a prominent NYC-based venture capital/private equity fund that has backed companies like Spotify, Reddit, Epic Games in the past, and built a simple investment platform with the lowest fees in the region.
Birdwingo offers more than 11,000 different stocks, ETFs and mutual funds, including popular products like Apple, Microsoft, and the S&P 500. Whether you’re new to investing or an experienced investor, Birdwingo offers the flexibility and tools to meet your needs.
ETFs: We have both accumulating and distributing ETFs but most ETFs on our platform are currently distributing ETFs. To prevent double taxation, we facilitate an automatic completion of the W-8BEN form during the signup process. Dividends are automatically taxed in the app according to the current legislation so that the Birdwingo user receives the net amount that has already been taxed.
At Birdwingo, we take pride in our state-of-the-art technological and investment infrastructure, which we’ve meticulously built from the ground up. This ingenuity enables us to bypass many of the costly intermediaries that traditionally inflate fees, ensuring our transactions are more cost-effective.
We also adopt a direct approach to marketing. Instead of relying on intermediaries, such as financial advisors, who often feed leads to companies that give them the biggest commissions, we trust in the power of positive user experiences. Our customers are our biggest advocates, and their personal recommendations are our most valuable endorsements. This not only saves on costs but also fosters a community of trust and shared success.
SECURITY
We are regulated. Operations are fully backed by our partner Wealth Effect Management, which is a fully registered stock broker regulated by the National Bank of Slovakia with the ability to offer services in other EU member states. Trading takes place through Alpaca Securities, regulated by the US regulator FINRA. It manages large amounts of transactions worldwide every day.
Strong investors. We are significantly supported by Bienville Capital, a New York-based fund that manages more than $3.7 billion in assets and invests in legendary technology companies around the world. Their representatives, former managing directors of JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank in New York, regularly advise us on strategy and provide valuable contacts.
Data Security. We use advanced encryption technologies to protect data, just as banks do, and we constantly update them to prevent any security threats. Personal data is stored in accordance with the GDPR regulations.
Your funds are insured up to $500,000 (~€450,000) per user under the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) scheme.
First of all, we’re not planning on going anywhere 🙂 We are growing fast and we are backed by a strong investor from New York, Bienville Capital, and other prominent investors from around the world as well as from Central Europe.
At Birdwingo, money of each individual user is protected up to $500 000 (approximately €450 000 or 11 million CZK) per account under the SIPC insurance scheme. Needless to say, client and company money is kept separately. At the same time, all stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds at Birdwingo are registered directly in your name. With us, you won’t find an omnibus structure or non-transparent CFD products.
In the unlikely event of Birdwingo’s closure, your money will be returned to you in full or, if you wish, you will be given the option of transferring your assets to another company that will take over from us. Everything is overseen by the National Bank of Slovakia and the US regulator FINRA.
FOR BEGINNERS
Yes, Birdwingo is the perfect place for beginners in the investing world! Here’s what makes us beginner-friendly:
- Micro-Investing: Start your investment journey with just 1€. This feature allows you to buy fractional shares of leading companies and ETFs, making investing accessible regardless of your budget.
- Automated Investing: Our Auto-invest feature simplifies investing. You can schedule investments on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, which helps in building a consistent investment habit without the need for daily management.
- Personalized Portfolios: Tailor your investment journey. Design a diversified portfolio that aligns with your interests and financial goals in just a few steps.
- Earn More with Your Savings: Say goodbye to meager bank interests. Enjoy a whopping 4% net annual gain on your savings, compounded from day one and paid out monthly.
- Learn as you go: Dive deep into Birdwingo’s in-app lessons on investing & finance.
Starting your investment journey with Birdwingo is simple and secure. Here’s how to kickstart:
🦶 Step 1: Creating a Birdwingo profile
To get started, you need a tool for investing. As with opening a bank account or buying plane tickets, the first step is a quick and secure identity verification.
🦶 Step 2: Adding money
Before investing, you need to add the money you want to invest. You can use a bank transfer, credit card, or Apple/Google pay.
🦶 Step 3: Choosing an investment
Remember, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. A good way to diversify your investments are ETFs that contain several companies at once.
If you invest in an individual company, make sure you know it well. What is the future potential of its product? How has it been able to adapt to situations in the world in the past?
💡 A good starting point is the S&P 500 ETF, which lets you invest in 500 of the largest US companies at once. You can also build a personalised portfolio in the “Autoinvest” section, where we’ll walk you through the whole process.
💡A few closing tips
Think long term, regularly, and don’t let price fluctuations scare you. Your investments will go up and down, but the important thing is that their value increases over the long term.
Remember, you got this.
The simple answer is the more the better, but investing even $50 every month, for example, has a greater effect than investing $50,000 in one go 30 years later. That’s why it’s best to start as early as possible and invest regularly.
One well-known rule is 50:30:20, where 50% of your income should go to basic living needs, 30% to “wants”, and the rest can be safely put to work → invested.
INVESTING
- Real Investing from 1€: No need for big budgets! Start investing with as little as 1€. Own parts of companies & ETFs like Apple, Tesla, and S&P 500, no matter their stock price.
- Auto-invest: Set it and forget it! Schedule daily, weekly, or monthly investments to cultivate the powerful habit of consistent saving and investing.
- Personalized Portfolios: Tailor your investment journey. Design a diversified portfolio that aligns with your interests and financial goals in just a few steps.
- Earn More with Your Savings: Say goodbye to meager bank interests. Enjoy a whopping 4% net annual gain on your savings, compounded from day one and paid out monthly.
- Learn as you go: Dive deep into Birdwingo’s interactive lessons on investing & finance.
At Birdwingo, we keep it simple and transparent with our fees. When you buy or sell, we charge a straightforward one-time fee of 0.49%, capped at a maximum of 1 euro or 25 CZK.
That’s it. We don’t burden you with the additional fees that many other brokers and banks might, such as deposit or withdrawal fees, management fees, performance fees, or inactivity fees. Plus, we ensure fair currency exchange by using the interbank exchange rate, so you won’t lose out when converting currencies. We will always be transparent. Detailed information can be found here.
It is always worth transferring your money if another broker charges you a management, performance or custody fee as such fees accumulate over time. At Birdwingo, we don’t charge any of these fees. This means that over the long term, you could potentially earn 20% to 80% more, simply by paying lower fees. Similar to refinancing your mortgage, for example, or finding a cheaper eshop with phones.
The easiest way is to request a withdrawal to your bank account. You can then simply add money from your bank account to Birdwingo by bank transfer, card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Myth: “My portfolio is in the red, I have to wait for it to start making money before I sell it.”
Whether a portfolio is in a positive or negative position has no bearing on whether you can transfer it elsewhere. It’s just human psychology. Because of high fees, especially management fees, you may never get to positive numbers or it may take a very long time. If you are in the red or have held the portfolio for at least 12 months (Slovak tax residency) or 36 months (Czech tax residency) and you sell the portfolio, you pay no tax.
Your funds are held in USD as investments take place mostly on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.
We currently accept Euros and Czech Crowns. Gradually we will start accepting all European currencies as well as US Dollars.
Unlike others, we use the interbank exchange rate (the same as Revolut, for example) and do not charge any fees for changing currencies. The interbank rate is the rate that banks use when trading with each other – it’s exactly what we guarantee for you.
Deposits
If you deposit money from an account held in € or CZK, it will arrive in your Birdwingo account in dollars. We use the lowest possible exchange rate – the interbank exchange rate, just like Revolut or banks do when they send money between each other. No artificial rate markup (fx markup) will apply, which is often used by other brokers.
Withdrawals
When you withdraw, the dollars from your Birdwingo account will be converted back into your local currency, Euros or Czech Crowns, via the interbank rate as well. You pay no withdrawal fees and no artificial exchange rate markup is applied.
Simply because the Birdwingo app can sort everything out for you automatically.
There are two forms of taxes when investing: 1) capital gains tax and 2) dividend tax. Capital gains tax is incurred when I sell stocks or ETFs at a profit. For example, I bought the S&P 500 index at a price of $370. The price rose over time to $400 and I made $30. The big advantage of the Czech Republic and Slovakia is the so-called time test: if I hold a publicly traded stock or ETF for at least a year (Slovakia) or at least 3 years (Czech Republic) and then sell it, I don’t pay tax on the profit. Another reason to take a long-term view and invest regularly!
Some stocks and ETFs pay dividends (a share of the profits). Here it’s even easier. Birdwingo will automatically tax these dividends according to current laws and the net amount will come to your app. This amount is no longer taxed because you would pay tax twice. For the experts: during registration Birdwingo automatically fills in the W-8BEN form for you, which prevents double taxation and you don’t have to do anything.
We always send everyone a detailed statement for the previous year in January in case you need to add the data to your tax return.
SMART SAVINGS
Smart Savings is an account with 4% annual interest. Imagine a savings account at a bank with no time limit, and a much better interest rate. You can add money at any time and withdraw it at any time.
The interest is calculated per day – at the end of each day, an amount is added and then paid to you at the end of the month. If you withdraw money during the month, it doesn’t matter at all, we’ll still pay you the interest you’ve saved from the days you had money in your account.
The Smart Saving interest rate is tightly linked to the monetary policies of central banks. When central banks like the FED and the European Central Bank (ECB) adjust interest rates, we follow. This ensures that your investment remains consistent, reliable and safe.
Your money is held in U.S. Treasury Bills, which are considered one of the safest repositories of money. Your money is also protected up to USD 500,000 (~EUR 450,000) by government protection schemes that we are a part of as a regulated entity.
With interest rates currently being higher than average, this way of safely storing your money is very advantageous.
Yes, the interest on “Smart Savings” can change at any time. The Smart Savings functionality follows the current economic situation and the interest rates of the central banks. We monitor the situation and reserve the right to change the interest rate. We will always keep you informed of any changes.
All income earned from the Smart Savings program is automatically taxed in the Birdwingo app, and you receive the net amount in your account.
All Birdwingo users have automatically filled out the W-8BEN form during registration, which prevents double taxation so that you don’t have to do anything.
Money in Smart Savings is held in U.S. dollars ($). This allows us to offer you a significantly higher interest rate on your savings due to the higher interest rates offered by the U.S. Federal Reserve. At the same time, we can provide you with significantly higher deposit protection of up to $500,000 (approximately €460,000 or CZK 11 million) per client account versus the European standard of €20,000 or €50,000, 9 to 23 times more.
You earn specified interest on the dollar value of your deposits. This value may vary slightly according to the current exchange rate. Birdwingo uses the interbank rate to exchange currencies and does not mark it up, so you don’t lose anything on the exchange.
