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Vanguard ReviewInteractive Investor Review
Written by Elizabeth Anderson, Blain Reinkensmeyer
Fact-checked by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by Carolyn Kimball, Jeff Anberg
Your capital is at risk.
The standout feature of Interactive Investor (ii), a major U.K. investment platform, is its low flat-rate fees. This is in contrast to other investment platforms, which typically favour percentage fees for fund investing, although more brokers are now opting for flat fees.
This flat-fee structure is particularly valuable to those with large investment portfolios. My view is that Interactive Investor is a great platform for any investor, offering a wide range of investments for cheap prices on the whole and extensive research for those taking a hands-on approach to investing.
-
Minimum Deposit:
£0 -
ISA:
Yes -
SIPP:
Yes
Interactive Investor pros & cons
Pros
Cons
- Charges for mutual fund trades (£3.99), which many other platforms offer for free (although instead charge ongoing fees).
- ii can work out more expensive for those with small portfolios of less than £15,000.
Overall summary
| Feature |
Interactive Investor
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Charges & Fees |
|
| Investment Choices |
|
| Mobile App |
|
| Website |
|
| Ease of Use |
|
| Education |
|
Charges and fees
Interactive Investor (ii) appeals to people who like the idea of flat fees, rather than a percentage charge based on the value of your portfolio. Flat fees are clearer to understand and can also work out far cheaper than percentage fees depending on how much you have invested.
Interactive Investor charges £4.99 a month to those with under £50,000 invested in an ISA or general dealing account through its Investor Essentials plan. For those with more than £50,000, the charge is £11.99 a month.
For those investing through a SIPP (self-invested personal pension), the charge is £5.99 a month for those with less than £50,000, or £12.99 monthly for those with more than £50,000 in their SIPP.
This means that with a £30,000 ISA portfolio, you’d pay annual management fees of £59.88 to Interactive Investor compared to £135 at Hargreaves Lansdown (if investing in mutual funds).
You’ll also pay trading fees like other platforms, but ii’s costs are competitive here too. It charges £3.99 to buy and sell funds, investment trusts, and U.K. or U.S. shares. Even better, if you commit to ii’s regular investing service — paying in at least £25 a month — trading charges are zero. You can have up to 25 regular monthly trades. Note that you don’t have to invest the same amount each month for investments to count as a regular trade.
Dividend reinvestment is £0.99, and can only be done when you have at least £10 to reinvest.
If you are investing in other international shares beyond the U.S., dealing charges are £9.99 or £5.99 each time, depending on the price plan of your account.
Finally, it’s even easier to add cash to your account now as ii now accepts instant bank payments.
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 Interactive Investor would cost based on trade frequency:
- 5 trades per year = £79.83
- 12 trades per year = £59.88 / £107.76
- 36 trades per year = £59.88 / £203.52
- 120 trades per year = £59.88 / £538.68
- 3 fund trades per year = £71.85
| Feature |
Interactive Investor
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | £0 |
| Share Trading: 0-9 Deals/ Month | £3.99 |
| Share Trading: 10-19 Deals/ Month | £3.99 |
| Share Trading: 20+ Deals/ Month | £3.99 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 | £59.88 - £143.88 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £250K-£500K | £143.88 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £500,000 - £1m | £143.88 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £1m and over | £143.88 |
| Bonds - Corporate - Fee | £3.99 |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) - Fee | £3.99 |
| ETFs - Fee | £3.99 |
| Investment Trusts - Fee | £3.99 |
| Telephone Dealing Fee | £49 |
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 apps
The Interactive Investor mobile app is more basic than the website, with charting tools kept simple for the mobile app. You can access your watch lists, find investments, view basic research, and see stock price and market movements through the app. Ideally, though, I’d like to see it offer more extensive charting features and more research to customers.
Interactive Investor has recently launched a new ii Community mobile app, where you can discuss investments, stocks, and see the portfolios of other users. This is taking a similar approach to the likes of eToro, which already has an active social community. While the launch of a community platform is an interesting step into social trading for ii, and I particularly like the fact you can see others' portfolios, I think it’s a shame the community forum is not available in the main ii app. You have to download the separate ii Community app, which makes accessing it less convenient.
Tap for a demo of Interactive Investor's U.K. trading app.
Website
I found the website both easy to navigate and laid out to make it easy to understand ii’s services and charges. Through the ii website, you can see an overview of your portfolio, set price alerts for up to 10 investments, search for investments, and create up to 10 watch lists. You can also hold international currencies in your account to avoid paying foreign exchange, or FX, fees on every overseas trade.
I was pleased to find plentiful and useful guides explaining how to get the most from the platform – for example, explaining how to set up and manage a watch list. Interactive Investor is one of the easiest platforms to use and get to grips with, in my opinion, thanks to its focus on helping the customer as much as possible.
The website offers a wide range of charting tools through a partnership with TradingView, with more than 100 indicators available and 18 drawing tools. These allow you to monitor simple moving averages and to use indicators such as the Relative Strength Index to help determine whether a stock has become overbought or oversold. These tools aren’t available on the mobile app and are probably not needed for most investors, but they are useful if you are a more hands-on trader and like to analyse market trends.
You can also compare the historical performance of stocks and indices, and you can overlay one over the other to draw better comparisons. This is a great feature not offered by all platforms.
| Feature |
Interactive Investor
|
|---|---|
| Web Platform | Yes |
| iPhone App | Yes |
| Android App | Yes |
| Stock Alerts | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 104 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools | 18 |
| Charting - Notes | Yes |
| Charting - Display Corporate Events | Yes |
| Charting - Stock Overlays | Yes |
| Charting - Index Overlays | Yes |
Investment choices
Interactive Investor offers more than 40,000 U.K. and international investment options across 17 global markets, including shares, funds, investment trusts, ETFs, and bonds. This is the widest range of available equities in a mainstream U.K. investment platform.
Interactive Investor has many materials to help people get started, including explainer articles and model portfolios. To help narrow down the wide list of funds, ii offers a Super 60 rated list, which incorporates funds, investment trusts, and ETFs, and ACE 40, a sustainable rated list that includes funds, investment trusts, and ETFs.
ISAs: In May 2024, Interactive Investor also launched its Managed ISA product. This gives you the choice of investing in one of 10 portfolios that have already been curated by ii’s investment team rather than worrying about creating your own portfolio.
SIPPs: Interactive Investor’s SIPP offers a vast selection of investment options, with access to the same assortment of equities and markets as its other account types. For those who prefer a hands-off approach, ready-made portfolios are also available.
Ready-made portfolios: Interactive Investor’s ready-made portfolios are well tailored to your risk tolerance, and how you want to invest — whether you prefer active or passive investments. Fees are £5.99 monthly for an ISA plus 0.13% to 0.29%, depending on the portfolio you choose. On a £20,000 investment in ii’s cheapest ready-made ISA portfolio, you’d pay total annual fees of £97.88. I think this is good value and becomes even better value the more money you have invested. On a £45,000 investment, for example, you’d pay a total annual fee of £130.38.
| Feature |
Interactive Investor
|
|---|---|
| Share Trading | Yes |
| CFD Trading | No |
| ETFs | Yes |
| Funds | Yes |
| Bonds - Corporate | Yes |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) | Yes |
| Investment Trusts | Yes |
| Spread Betting | No |
| Crypto Trading | No |
| Advisor Services | No |
Education
Interactive Investor goes big on education, featuring market insights, share tips, and articles from its own in-house experts and external contributors. It also publishes detailed reports that look at the wider U.K. savings and pensions landscape to strive for change.
It’s clear that overall, ii believes it has a duty to provide the support, intelligence, and investment choices to help Britons make better financial decisions. It offers educational content that is detailed, easy to understand, and available in accessible formats, from articles to videos. Regular webinars are also on offer, including Lunchtime Live with Bloomberg columnist Merryn Somerset Webb, and the website has an area where you can watch previously recorded webinars.
Interactive Investor also has a new partnership with Trading Central to showcase ‘market buzz’, giving real-time information on companies seeing a higher number of mentions on social media, news, and websites. Trading Central also offers other technical insights into specific companies, giving ratings for value, growth, quality, and an overall rating that reflects whether the general view is bullish or bearish. For those looking to invest in individual stocks, this offers a useful way to see the general prospects of a particular company, although, of course, returns are never guaranteed with investing.
| Feature |
Interactive Investor
|
|---|---|
| Education (Share Trading) | Yes |
| Education (Funds) | Yes |
| Education (Retirement) | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
Final thoughts
Interactive Investor is a great choice for people who like flat-fee costs — particularly those with a large investment portfolio of perhaps £50,000 to £70,000 or more. Investing comes with costs and it can be hard to understand exactly what you'll end up paying using brokers that charge fees based on a percentage of your portfolio.
Interactive Investor does charge for mutual fund trades, unlike rivals that typically offer fund trades for free. However, if you invest monthly into the same fund you’ll pay no trading charges.
The platform also charges £3.99 for U.K. and U.S. shares, and £9.99 for shares in other international markets. Some platforms, such as eToro, Trading 212, and CMC Invest, have no charges for these. But overall, ii is a very good platform and offers among the best value for investors. If you invest regularly each month, you’ll pay no trading charges at all.
About Interactive Investor
Interactive Investor was founded in 1995 and has more than 400,000 customers — around the same as rival AJ Bell — who hold a total of around £55 billion through the platform. Its company mission is to offer transparent and fair fees to its customers. Interactive Investor was bought by institutional investor Abrdn in 2022.
Is Interactive Investor good for beginners?
Interactive Investor is a good platform for any investor, although beginners with a small portfolio might find there are cheaper platforms to start with – such as Freetrade, Hargreaves Lansdown, or Vanguard. Interactive Investor has extensive educational articles and guides to help beginner investors, and also offers ready-made portfolios to help investors get started straight away.
How safe is my money with Interactive Investor?
Your money is very safe with Interactive Investor as the platform has been around for almost three decades. Like any legitimate financial services firm in the U.K., it is covered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), meaning customers are protected for up to £85,000 should the company go bust for any reason.
Who owns Interactive Investor UK?
Interactive Investor is owned by Abrdn, a global asset manager that manages around £500 billion of assets for clients.
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Methodology
For the UK.StockBrokers.com Annual Awards, we assessed, rated, and ranked 21 U.K. share dealing platforms. 21 U.K. brokers were assessed on 55 different variables across six categories: Charges & Fees, Investment Choices, Mobile App, Website, Education and Ease of Use.
We thoroughly tested and compared features of 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.
Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.
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.
Jeff Anberg is a Senior Editor at UK.StockBrokers.com. Along with years of experience in media distribution at a global newsroom, Jeff has a versatile knowledge base encompassing the technology and financial markets. He is a long-time active investor and engages in research on emerging markets like cryptocurrency. Jeff holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature with a minor in Philosophy from San Francisco State University.