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Freetrade ReviewInteractive Investor Review
Written by Elizabeth Anderson, Blain Reinkensmeyer
Fact-checked by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Your capital is at risk.
The standout feature at 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. Our view is that Interactive Investor is a great platform for any investor, offering a wide range of investments for cheap prices on the whole.
-
Minimum Deposit:
£0 -
ISA:
Yes -
SIPP:
Yes
Interactive Investor pros & cons
Pros
- Flat fee structure is very cost-effective for those with larger portfolios.
- Cheap for ISAs, SIPPs and general dealing accounts.
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
It used to be the case that Interactive Investor’s flat fee meant the platform was better for larger pots. Those with small portfolios of perhaps less than £20,000 would be better with a broker that charges percentage fees.
However, ii launched Investor Essentials in January 2023 – meaning investors with assets under £50,000 now pay £4.99 a month. With a £20,000 investment portfolio, you’d pay annual management fees of £59.88 to Interactive Investor, compared with £70 at Fidelity and £90 at Hargreaves Lansdown (if investing in mutual funds).
You will 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. and 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.
For investments worth above £50,000, charges are £11.99 a month.
In October 2023, Interactive Investor also reduced charges for pension clients with small pots. Those with SIPPs worth less than £50,000 now pay £5.99 a month - reduced from £12.99 a month - making ii very attractive for people with pots worth more than £15,000.
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 = £107.76
- 36 trades per year = £203.52
- 120 trades per year = £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 and view basic research and stock price movements through the app. Ideally, though, I’d like to see it offer more extensive charting features and more research to customers.
Tap for a demo of Interactive Investor's U.K. trading app.
Website
I found the website easy to navigate and understand ii’s services and charges. There is two-factor authentication when you log in, making it extra secure.
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 hold international currencies in your account so you 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, 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.
You can also compare the historical performance of stocks and indices, and you can overlay one over the other to draw better comparisons.
| 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, including shares, funds, investment trusts, ETFs and bonds. This is the widest range of mainstream U.K. investment platforms.
Interactive Investor has many materials to help people get started, including explainer articles and model portfolios. For those looking for ready-made portfolios, investors can choose from:
- Quick-start funds for beginner investors with varying risk levels.
- Super 60 rated list, which incorporates funds, investment trusts and ETFs.
- ACE 40, a sustainable rated list that includes funds, investment trusts and ETFs .
| Feature |
Interactive Investor
|
|---|---|
| Share Trading | Yes |
| 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 | 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 landscape to strive for change.
It’s clear that overall, ii believes it has a duty in providing the support, intelligence and investment choice 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. Monthly webinars are also on offer, and the website has an area where you can watch previously recorded webinars.
| 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. Investing comes with costs and it can be hard to understand exactly what you’re paying with brokers that charge fees of 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 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.
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 £50 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 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.
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.