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Halifax Review
Freetrade ReviewHalifax Review
Written by Elizabeth Anderson
Fact-checked by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Your capital is at risk.
Halifax Share Dealing is typically used by people who are already Halifax banking customers. The main selling point of Halifax Share Dealing is its fixed low annual management charge of £36 for ISAs and general investment accounts, which is beneficial if you have a large investment portfolio compared to another platform that charges percentage fees. SIPP charges are capped at £198 a year.
However, the platform is not very modern and offers very limited tools and materials. Dealing fees are on the high end for share and fund trading. There may be a better platform for you that is cheaper and easier to open, depending on how often you invest.
-
Minimum Deposit:
£0 -
ISA:
Yes -
SIPP:
Yes
Halifax share dealing pros and cons
Pros
- Low flat annual management fee of £36 for both ISA and general dealing accounts, and capped at £198 for SIPPs.
- Offers a free regular investment plan, meaning you will not pay charges if buying monthly by direct debit.
- There are no non-trading or inactivity fees.
- You can also see your Halifax current and savings accounts.
- No management charges if you’re aged 18 to 25.
Cons
- Time-intensive to open an account if you are not a Halifax bank customer. You have to wait for a temporary password through the post before you can start trading.
- Separate log-in details required to register for the mobile app.
- On the pricey side for customers who are not regular investors.
- Trade fees are high at £9.50 for funds and U.K. stocks (discounts sometimes apply).
Overall summary
| Feature |
Halifax
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Charges & Fees |
|
| Investment Choices |
|
| Mobile App |
|
| Website |
|
| Ease of Use |
|
| Education |
|
Charges and fees
Halifax share dealing charges are on the high side at £9.50 per transaction. Halifax also charges this fee for funds, which are free to trade on many other platforms. However, Halifax offers free regular dealing, meaning there are no trading charges if you commit to buying the same investment each month through direct debit.
An upside of Halifax is that you don’t need a significant lump sum to start investing. You can either pay in an amount of your choosing upfront, or you can set up regular dealing from £20 a month.
Halifax also offers Commission Countdowns a few times a month, where dealing commission for U.K. stocks is reduced to £3.50 over a two-hour time period.
Another bonus is that Halifax does not charge for international investment trades such as buying U.S. stocks, although a currency conversion fee of 1.25% is applied. This 1.25% is on the high side, as other platforms typically charge 1% or less. However, unless you are trading a large amount, this shouldn’t make a significant difference.
There is an annual management charge of £36 to hold an ISA or general investment account with Halifax, which is lower than the £40 charged on the sister platform Lloyds.
Flat fees versus fees by percentage
The annual management charges at Halifax can work out to be very cheap for people with large portfolios. For example, if you held £100,000 in funds in the Halifax ISA, you’d pay a flat £36 a year in management charges to Halifax (although separate fund manager fees apply). In comparison, if you held £100,000 with Hargreaves Lansdown, which charges a 0.45% annual management fee for mutual funds, you’d pay management fees of £450.
The fee for holding a SIPP with Halifax has risen in 2024, although can still work out very cost efficient. The charge is 0.25% or capped at £16.50 a month, whichever is lower, which effectively means management fees are capped at £198 a year.
Halifax is also attempting to appeal to younger investors by offering no admin fee for those aged 18 to 25, although regular dealing fees apply.
Scenario pricing: When calculating annual share dealing costs, trading frequency and account balance are the two most important factors to consider. Assuming a £30,000 portfolio in a traditional, taxable share dealing account, here are five scenarios of how much Halifax would cost based on trade frequency:
- 5 trades per year = £83.50
- 12 trades per year = £150
- 36 trades per year = £378
- 120 trades per year = £1,176
- 3 fund trades per year = £64.50
| Feature |
Halifax
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | £0 |
| Share Trading: 0-9 Deals/ Month | £9.50 |
| Share Trading: 10-19 Deals/ Month | £9.50 |
| Share Trading: 20+ Deals/ Month | £9.50 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 | £36 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £250K-£500K | £36 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £500,000 - £1m | £36 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £1m and over | £36 |
| Bonds - Corporate - Fee | £9.5 |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) - Fee | £9.5 |
| ETFs - Fee | £9.5 |
| Investment Trusts - Fee | £9.5 |
| Telephone Dealing Fee | £25 |
What type of trader are you?
New to the world of investing? See my picks for the best UK trading platforms for beginners. More experienced traders should check out my guide to the best UK Trading Platforms for Active Traders. If you're looking to trade shares on the go, read my guide to the best UK stock trading apps.
Mobile trading app
The Halifax share dealing app is fairly basic but it’s easy enough to buy shares, funds and investment trusts through the app. However, there are no chart tools or research reports available through the app, so you’ll need to go through the main website or the websites of other platforms if you want more information about potential investments.
You need to have registered for online banking first before logging into the mobile app, although you don’t need to have a bank account with Halifax. Registering for online banking may involve creating a separate password and username as some special characters are recognised in the Share Dealing service but not the banking app, so it can get confusing.
Your Halifax Share Dealing account also needs to have been funded (have money put in) before it will show through the app. It can sometimes take a couple of days for your account to show up. Opening an account through Halifax can be frustrating if you are looking to trade quickly.
Because Halifax Share Dealing and Lloyds Share Dealing are part of Lloyds Banking Group, you can also see your Lloyds Share Dealing account through the Halifax app’s new Save & Invest page. However, you can’t manage your Lloyds account through the Halifax app.
There is also a new save and invest calculator offered by Halifax in the app, which shows you what your money could be worth in the future by investing. It’s also easier for users to see the seven account options offered by Halifax, including the share dealing account, SIPP, or ready-made investments.
Website
The website for Halifax share dealing feels quite old-fashioned and looks like a banking platform in the way it is laid out.
When you log in, you’ll see the overall value of your account and how much cash is available to invest. You’ll also be given the date of the next Commission Countdown when trading fees are reduced to £3.50 over a two-hour window.
Investment information and news are not featured on the home page and it’s not easy to search for stocks by index or market. You have to put in the company name or stock ticker directly. It means you have to know what you are searching for and it’s difficult to get inspiration for new investments.
In my experience, the website is prone to crashes and error messages, particularly when setting up an account.
Research is not available through your Halifax Share Dealing account, but you are directed to the general Halifax website for key financial information about particular companies or funds. There appear to be no chart tools. You can view the historical price of a company's share price but cannot overlay different companies or annotate a chart. There is an option for ‘advanced chart’ but this doesn’t seem to be working on either the desktop website or mobile website.
For investors who wish to share trade via the web or active traders looking for more tools and research, I would recommend either Interactive Brokers or IG.
Investment choices
Halifax offers a choice of more than 8,000 investments. You can invest in bonds, ETFs, funds, and either U.K. or international stocks — all the main asset classes an everyday investor would ever likely want or need.
Halifax has partnered with research firm FE fundinfo to design a shortlist of 63 mutual funds, which investors should find useful rather than having to trawl through 2,500 funds. Halifax also offers an ETF Quicklist, which lists 14 U.K. ETFs based on themes such as clean energy or AI to make it easier to get started with fund investing.
Halifax also offers a "Ready Made Investment Account" or ISA for people who don’t want to pick their own investments. Investors have to commit to paying £50 a month or a £500 lump sum for a ready-made option. There are three options to choose from: Cautious, Balanced, or Progressive, each geared to those risk levels. The fees for the ready-made investments are £3 per month plus ongoing charges of around 0.23% and transaction costs of 0.11%.
Additionally, if you prefer tailored investment advice and have £100,000 in savings, investments, or income, then Halifax has partnered with Schroders Personal Wealth to offer financial planning.
| Feature |
Halifax
|
|---|---|
| Share Trading | No |
| CFD Trading | No |
| Funds | Yes |
| Research - ETFs | Yes |
| Bonds - Corporate | Yes |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) | Yes |
| Investment Trusts | Yes |
| Spread Betting | No |
| Crypto Trading | No |
| Advisor Services | Yes |
Education
The educational materials available at Halifax are not as extensive as those offered by other platforms. However, Halifax offers good basic articles on its website around how investments including ETFs, trusts, funds, and shares work. As an example, Halifax provides a YouTube video demonstrating how the Share Dealing platform works.
In my view, Halifax could improve the educational resources on its app as currently there are none. It would be useful to get investment inspiration or to read guides about how investing works. Currently these are only available on the website.
» New to investing? See our guide to the best U.K. trading platforms for beginner investors, based on weeks of hands-on testing and analysis.
| Feature |
Halifax
|
|---|---|
| Education (Share Trading) | No |
| Education (Funds) | No |
| Education (Retirement) | No |
| Client Webinars | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No |
Final thoughts
Halifax Share Dealing may be worth considering if you already have a current savings account with the bank. However, if you aren’t already a Halifax customer, then other platforms — such as Hargreaves Lansdown, Trading 212, or AJ Bell — are much simpler to register with. Other platforms also have cheaper trading fees, particularly if you trade irregularly or have a small amount to invest.
The best feature about Halifax Share Dealing is its low annual management charges of £36 for an ISA or up to £198 for a SIPP, which makes the platform very economical for those with a large investment portfolio. Some other platforms charge percentage fees instead, which can end up more costly.
About Halifax
The Halifax share dealing account is run by Halifax, a major U.K. bank. Halifax bank dates back to 1852, initially launching as a building society. Its investment arm Halifax Share Dealing launched in 1996. It is now part of Lloyds Banking Group, which also owns the Lloyds Bank and Scottish Widows brands, among others. Being owned by Lloyds Banking Group, Halifax is among the five largest banks in the U.K. with the group having around 27 million customers.
How do I access my Halifax share dealing account?
Either log in through halifaxsharedealing-online.co.uk or access your account through the Halifax mobile banking app.
What are charges for Halifax share dealing?
Like all investment platforms and brokers, Halifax charges fees for investing your money. You will pay trading fees of £9.50 per transaction, although this is reduced to £0 if you are a regular investor paying through monthly direct debit or if you are investing in U.S. stocks. You’ll also pay a flat-rate annual management fee of £36 for an ISA or general investment account, and up to £198 for a SIPP account.
Is Halifax good for share dealing?
Halifax offers a wide range of investments and offers ready-made portfolios for people not confident with building their own. So yes, it is good for share dealing, but you may find a cheaper platform — such as Trading 212 or Freetrade — if you have a smaller portfolio and are starting out.
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Methodology
For the UK.StockBrokers.com Annual Review, we assessed, rated, and ranked 17 U.K. share dealing platforms over a 10-week time period. Each broker’s platforms and features were exhaustively tested by hand and graded on 53 different variables. In total, over 25,000 words of research were produced.
We thoroughly tested and compared features of prime interest to everyday investors, including but not limited to:
- Investment choices, such as whether the broker offers trading of shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, and CFDs; and offers SIPP and ISA accounts.
- The broker’s charges and fees for investing.
- Functionality and design of mobile apps and website platform, and a fluid experience moving between app and web.
- Usability of tools such as charting and watch lists.
- Market research, such as screening, news and analysis.
- Educational resources including tutorials, online courses, videos, webinars and articles.
Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Our lead researcher and writer, Elizabeth Anderson, has more than a decade’s experience as a financial journalist and market researcher. Elizabeth’s expertise is backed by a team of veteran fellow traders, data auditors, editors and project managers who work to ensure that UK.StockBrokers.com reviews and guides are the most unbiased and complete in the industry. Read more about our team.
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Show allAbout the Editorial Team
Elizabeth Anderson, lead writer and researcher, has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. In addition to her work with UK.StockBrokers.com, she has written extensively for major publications including BBC, The Times and Bloomberg. A keen investor herself, she is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing.
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for UK.StockBrokers.com and ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
Carolyn Kimball is a former managing editor for Reink Media and former lead editor for the StockBrokers.com Annual Review. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.