Interactive Investor
Review (2026)
Fees verified August 2026 against official pricing pages — see our methodology
ii runs on flat monthly fees instead of percentages, which is either its biggest advantage or its biggest drawback depending entirely on your portfolio size. This review covers the three plans, the charges that sit outside them, the ISA currency trap, cash interest, expat costs, and who ii actually suits in 2026.
Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you sign up through them. This does not affect our reviews or recommendations — we only feature products we genuinely believe are useful for investors. This site provides educational content only, not personalized investment advice. Investments can lose value and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and for confirming the tax and legal rules that apply in your country.
TL;DR
- Your total holdings with ii sit between £20,000 and £100,000 — Core at £71.88 a year beats a 0.35% percentage fee from roughly £20,500 upwards.
- You want a Stocks and Shares ISA, SIPP and Trading Account under one fee, with no separate pension administration charge.
- You invest monthly through free regular investing in FTSE 350 shares, sterling funds, or the investment trusts and ETFs ii includes in that service.
- You buy GBP-listed ETFs and shares, so the 0.75% conversion charge rarely applies.
- You are a UK resident. The tax wrappers all require it, and non-UK residents pay £5 a month extra.
- Your portfolio is under £15,000 — the flat fee is expensive relative to assets at that size.
- You buy foreign-currency assets inside an ISA. The ISA is sterling only, so every round trip forces two conversions at 0.75% on Core.
- You want fractional shares. ii’s own position is that it does not currently offer them.
- You want CFDs, spread betting or cryptocurrency — none appear anywhere in ii’s product range.
- You hold a shares-and-ETFs-only ISA above £100,000. On Plus at £179.88 a year, HL’s £150 capped charge is cheaper.
Is Interactive Investor safe?
ii is one of the most established investment platforms in the UK. Here is what the regulatory, custody and ownership structure actually looks like.
Interactive Investor Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 141282, and is a member of the London Stock Exchange. Client money is held separately from ii’s own money and pooled with other customers’ client money under FCA client money rules.
The distinction matters and most reviews get it backwards. Investments and the investment service are covered up to £85,000 per claimant against ii itself. Cash sitting in ii’s client money and trustee bank accounts is a deposit claim against the bank, and ii’s own SIPP terms record that limit at £120,000.
ISA investments are registered in the name of ii’s nominee; SIPP investments in the name of the Trustee or another appointed custodian. You keep beneficial ownership, but ii discloses one practical consequence of the pooled structure: you may be unable to reclaim foreign withholding taxes, and may receive dividends net of tax at less favourable rates than a directly registered shareholder.
ii joined the Aberdeen Group in May 2022. By ii’s own published figures it serves over 500,000 investors with over £100bn invested, and describes itself as having three decades of operation. Those are ii’s marketing numbers rather than audited disclosures, but three decades through multiple market cycles without a major failure is meaningful context.
Plans and fees
Three flat-fee plans. You pay the same monthly fee regardless of how much you invest, which benefits larger portfolios and penalises smaller ones. One fee covers a Trading Account, Stocks and Shares ISA, Managed ISA, Personal Pension and Junior ISAs held in the same name.
| Charge | Core | Plus | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £5.99 | £14.99 | £39.99 |
| Annual plan cost | £71.88 | £179.88 | £479.88 |
| Portfolio limit | £100,000 | None | None |
| Funds | £3.99 | £1.49 | Free |
| UK & US shares, ETFs, investment trusts | £3.99 | £3.99 | £2.99 |
| Other international shares | £9.99 | £7.99 | £5.99 |
| Dividend reinvestment (per holding) | £0.99 | £0.99 | Free |
| Regular investing | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Monthly trading credit | None | £3.99 | £5.98 |
| Junior ISA | Not available | Included | Included |
| Currency conversion | 0.75% | 0.75% first £50,000, then 0.25% | 0.25% |
| Custody charge | No separate custody line — covered by the plan fee | ||
| Fractional shares | Not offered | ||
| Minimum deposit | Not stated on ii’s rate card (regular investing requires £25 a month per instruction) | ||
Source: ii Rates and Charges, last updated 1 February 2026, corroborated against ii.co.uk/our-charges. Verified 22 August 2026.
The charges that sit outside the plan fee
These are the lines most flat-fee write-ups skip, and several are large enough to change a decision.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Telephone trade | £49, in addition to the online commission |
| Extended settlement (beyond T+2) | £5, in addition to the online commission |
| UK shares and funds over £500,000 | £40 |
| US shares over £100,000 | 0.04% of trade value |
| International shares over £25,000 | 0.10% of trade value |
| Non-UK residents | £5 per month |
| Joint Trading Account | £14.99 per month, charged separately |
| Company and Trust accounts | £30 per month surcharge, plus a separate plan fee |
| Share certificate withdrawal | £35 + VAT per certificate, CREST securities only |
| Failed payment or late settlement | £25 |
| Paper documents | £2 + VAT per month |
| Quotestream market data | £20 + VAT per month |
| VCT application | £30 per application |
| Same-day or non-sterling withdrawal | £15 (next-day UK sterling and euro withdrawals are free) |
- Direct Debit is the only payment method on Core. Only Plus and Premium can pay the monthly fee from an investment account instead. This is on the rate card and on none of the marketing pages.
- The £100,000 ceiling is a value test, not a contribution test. A market move across £100,000 moves you onto Plus, whether you paid anything in or not.
- The trading credit does not roll over. Plus gets £3.99 a month, Premium £5.98 — that is two Premium trades at £2.99, not two at £3.99. It lasts 31 days and cannot be used against telephone or extended-settlement charges.
- The pension admin fee is inside the plan fee, not on top. ii discloses it as £2.50 a month including VAT on Core and £6.00 on Plus and Premium, carved out of the monthly fee where a pension is held.
- vs Hargreaves Lansdown, funds: HL charges 0.35% a year on funds up to £250,000 with no cap. Core at £71.88 becomes cheaper above roughly £20,500; Plus at £179.88 becomes cheaper above roughly £51,400.
- vs Hargreaves Lansdown, shares and ETFs: different answer, and the one most comparisons get wrong. Since 1 March 2026 HL charges 0.35% on shares, ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts capped at £12.50 a month, £150 a year. Core at £71.88 beats that cap at any size above roughly £20,500. But Plus at £179.88 never beats it — if your ISA is shares and ETFs only and you cross £100,000 onto Plus, HL is £30 a year cheaper.
- vs Vanguard UK: Vanguard charges £4 a month, £48 a year, below £32,000, then 0.15% capped at £375. Core becomes cheaper above roughly £48,000. Below that Vanguard wins on price, but you are limited to Vanguard’s own funds and ETFs.
- vs InvestEngine: the DIY account has no platform fee, no dealing commission, and every ETF is sterling denominated so there is no conversion charge. Cheaper than ii at any portfolio size. The trade-offs are real though: ETFs only, no individual shares, no funds or investment trusts, and transfers out are cash only because holdings are fractional.
Competitor figures checked against Hargreaves Lansdown, Vanguard UK and InvestEngine’s own published charges, August 2026.
Account types
The complexity at ii is not the entity — there is one UK entity and one price list. It is the wrapper. The ISA and Junior ISA behave differently from the SIPP and Trading Account in a way that changes the cost of international investing.
£20,000 annual allowance, self-select and execution only, included in every plan. Sterling only — you can buy international shares inside it, but you cannot hold the foreign currency. A National Insurance number is required, and there are no cancellation rights once the plan is opened. Transfers in must conform to the ISA Regulations and ii is not obliged to accept them.
Included in every plan with no separate administration fee, and multi-currency. You must be a UK resident at the time you apply. Drawdown and pension transfers are supported, and there is a 30-day cancellation right. Property and non-standard investments cannot be held. Junior SIPPs are legacy only and closed to new customers.
No contribution limit and no tax shelter, for investing beyond the ISA allowance. Multi-currency, holding up to nine currencies. This is the only ii account with no stated UK-residency requirement — the terms exclude only US persons and Canadian residents. A joint Trading Account is a separate £14.99 a month and never links to your personal plan.
£9,000 annual allowance, sterling only. Not available on Core — you need Plus or Premium, and there is no standalone Junior ISA plan, so a parent must hold an ISA, Trading Account or SIPP on one of those tiers first. Once there, JISAs are unlimited at no extra cost. At 18 it converts to an adult ISA automatically; if it holds no investments at that point ii closes it without notice.
What you can invest in
ii offers one of the widest ranges of any UK retail platform. It headlines “17 global markets”, but its own published lists name 16 exchanges across 14 international countries plus the UK — so we count what is actually named rather than the headline.
- UK and international shares across the 16 exchanges ii names
- ETFs, including UCITS ETFs listed in London
- Investment trusts
- Open-ended funds (OEICs and unit trusts)
- Corporate and government bonds, and gilts
- IPOs
- VCTs, at £30 per application
- Nine currencies held in-account — SIPP and Trading Account only
- Fractional shares — ii’s stated position is that it does not currently offer them
- CFDs
- Spread betting
- Cryptocurrency
- Options and futures
- Property and non-standard investments inside the SIPP
- Foreign currency balances inside the ISA or Junior ISA
ii routes eligible international orders straight to the home exchange rather than through UK-listed CREST Depository Interests. ii’s stated benefits are the market price without a CDI mark-up, fewer re-quotes, corporate actions reflected on the day they happen, and participation in opening and closing auctions. ii also publishes a comparison table asserting that Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and Fidelity offer neither direct market access nor multi-currency investing — that is ii’s claim about its competitors, not an independent finding, but the routing model itself is a genuine structural difference.
ii also states that it does not use payment for order flow, and that eligible international orders go directly to the underlying exchange with no third party involved.
ii’s long-running Super 60 and ACE 40 rated lists have been retired — the old Super 60 URL now redirects to the Highly Rated Funds tool, which is Morningstar-driven rather than hand-picked. To appear, a fund, trust or ETF must carry a Morningstar Medalist rating of Gold, Silver or Bronze, a 100% analyst coverage rating, three stars or better on the Morningstar star rating, be at least £100m in size, and sit in a recognised sector. Sustainable screening is now a filter inside that tool rather than a separate ethical list. Quick-start Funds, a short set of low-cost multi-asset funds, still exists alongside it. If you land on a review that still cites Super 60 and ACE 40 as live features, it is out of date.
Free regular investing — and its limits
The single most practical feature on the platform for passive monthly investors, and the main reason Core suits monthly ETF buyers. It is also narrower than most write-ups suggest.
Regular investing lets you set up automated monthly purchases at £0 dealing commission, on all three plans, in the ISA, Trading Account, SIPP and Junior ISA. Minimum £25 a month per instruction, up to 25 instructions per account. The easiest way to fund it is a Direct Debit, which ii collects on the 12th of each month; otherwise it comes from your cash balance.
- The eligible universe is a shortlist, not the whole market. ii names three categories: shares of companies in the FTSE 350, a range of popular investment trusts and ETFs, and all funds listed in sterling. That excludes the FTSE SmallCap and AIM entirely, every US and international share, every non-sterling fund, and any ETF ii has not included. Check your specific holding is on the list before assuming it is free to buy.
- Selling is not free. ii is explicit about this: you still pay the trading fee when you sell. A position drip-fed at zero cost over five years still costs £3.99 to exit on Core.
- Sterling only, with no limit or stop orders. Non-sterling balances are not automatically converted, foreign exchange transactions are not available through the service, and orders are aggregated with other customers’ — if the aggregated order cannot be filled in full it carries to the next business day rather than filling partially.
- The dealing date is account-specific. ii does not publish a single execution date; you check yours in-account under Portfolio, Account, Regular investing. Changes need at least two days’ notice before the purchase date.
Currency costs — what most ii reviews miss
Almost every review quotes “0.75%” and stops. Two things sit underneath that number, and one of them is disclosed in ii’s own terms rather than on any pricing page.
Core charges 0.75% on every conversion. Plus charges 0.75% on the first £50,000 converted and 0.25% above. Premium is a flat 0.25%. It applies whether the conversion happens as part of a trade or as a stand-alone transaction, on the way in and on the way out.
The percentage is not the full cost. ii’s terms of service state that the exchange rate used is a bid or offer rate to which ii applies a spread, and that ii and other parties involved may earn revenue in addition to the commission on the trade, based on the difference between that rate and the rate at which the position is offset. ii adds that the charge and the revenue may be higher where a transaction needs more than one conversion or involves a less commonly traded currency.
Separately, ii’s international investing page discloses that it has a revenue sharing agreement with a third party for the currency exchange charge, and that it may receive two parts of commission on international investing — the trading commission and the conversion charge. The size of the spread is not published anywhere, so we are not putting a number on it. What is publishable is that 0.75% is the floor, not the total.
This is the part that changes decisions. Only sterling can be held in the ISA and Junior ISA. You can buy international shares inside them, but you cannot park the proceeds in the foreign currency. Every international round trip inside an ISA therefore forces a conversion in and a conversion out — two charges, unavoidable. In the SIPP and Trading Account the currency can be held and reused, so a seller who intends to rebuy can skip the return leg entirely. ii’s own interest tables confirm the structure: USD and EUR rates are published for the SIPP and Trading Account, and sterling only for the ISA and Junior ISA.
- Buy the GBP-listed line where one exists. Most major UCITS ETFs trade in sterling on the London Stock Exchange alongside a dollar line. Buying the sterling line means no conversion happens at all — same fund, same exposure, no charge and no spread.
- Hold currency only where you can. Parking dollar dividends or sale proceeds in a currency balance avoids a double conversion — but this works in the SIPP and Trading Account only. It is not available inside an ISA.
- Run the Premium maths before upgrading for FX. Dropping from 0.75% to 0.25% saves £500 per £100,000 converted. Premium costs £408 a year more than Core (£479.88 against £71.88). You would need to convert roughly £81,600 a year before Premium pays for itself on conversion savings alone.
Interest on uninvested cash
Rates are tiered and marginal — each band applies only to the value inside that band, not to the whole balance. Paid per account and per currency on the daily cleared cash balance, credited on or around the 25th of each month.
| Sterling balance band | ISA & Junior ISA | Trading Account | SIPP |
|---|---|---|---|
| First £20,000 | 1.10% | 0.80% | 1.70% |
| £20,000.01 to £50,000 | 1.25% | 1.05% | 2.10% |
| £50,000.01 to £100,000 | 1.35% | 1.15% | 2.20% |
| Over £100,000 | 2.10% | 1.80% | 2.30% |
Gross rates, effective 6 January 2026. AER figures are marginally higher. Source: ii cash interest rates page, read 22 August 2026.
- Dollar and euro balances earn interest too — but only in the SIPP and Trading Account. There is no dollar or euro row for the ISA anywhere, because those currencies cannot be held in it at all. Euro is flat rather than tiered: 0.25% in the Trading Account, 1.00% in the SIPP.
- ii keeps the interest its own banks pay it. ii’s terms state that interest received on client money balances belongs to ii, and that ii separately pays you the published rate. The size of the gap is not disclosed and cannot be worked out from the published figures.
- Interest is paid gross. Any tax due is your responsibility. You can opt out of receiving interest by contacting ii, and no interest is due between the last credit and the closure date if you close the account.
Residency, expats and the £5 surcharge
ii is a UK-only broker that does not obviously say so. If you are outside the UK, or planning to leave it, this is the section that matters most.
- Trading Account: no UK-residency requirement is stated. The terms exclude only US persons and Canadian residents.
- Stocks and Shares ISA: UK tax residency, or Crown employee status. You must tell ii in writing if you stop being UK tax resident.
- Junior ISA: the child must be UK resident at application. An existing JISA is not closed if the child later leaves the UK — it stays open and can still receive cash.
- Personal Pension (SIPP): you must be a UK resident at the time you apply. This one catches expats out, because it is a gate at application rather than an ongoing test.
One thing worth stating plainly: ii’s terms nowhere say affirmatively that EU residents are accepted. The exclusion list names only US persons and Canadian residents, and the existence of a non-UK-resident surcharge implies non-UK residents can hold accounts — but that is an inference, not a term, and we found no country list or onboarding restriction page. If you are an EU-based investor considering ii, confirm eligibility with ii directly before you apply rather than reading the absence of a ban as permission.
Platform, app and support
ii’s platform is comprehensive and functional rather than a polished consumer fintech experience. Here is an honest assessment of both, and what the research offering actually contains.
The web platform covers everything you need: portfolio overview, watchlists, research, order entry and account management. Navigation is logical once you learn it, and the app handles portfolio tracking, order placement, watchlists, regular investing setup and secure messaging.
Neither is built for active trading. There is no real-time Level 2 data on the standard service, charting is adequate for reviewing positions rather than analysing them, and live prices require agreeing to ii’s exchange agreements. Quotestream, ii’s streaming data service, is a separate £20 plus VAT a month.
Support is UK-based. The general charges line is 0345 607 6001; the SIPP line is 0345 646 2390, open 8am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday.
Trustpilot showed 4.6 out of 5 from over 28,000 reviews when we checked in August 2026 — strong for a UK platform of this size, and the main input into the support component of our rating. Third-party review scores move, so treat that as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure.
The research layer is built on Morningstar data, which ii describes as a long-standing relationship. Three things sit on top of it:
- Highly Rated Funds — the Morningstar-screened replacement for Super 60 and ACE 40, filtering funds, trusts and ETFs down across around 30 sectors, with sustainable options available as a filter.
- Quick-start Funds — a short list of low-cost multi-asset funds for people who want one decision rather than twenty.
- ii Community — a free social platform for ii customers, plus daily newsletters, podcasts and webinars from ii’s editorial team.
Who should use Interactive Investor
The right broker depends on portfolio size, what you hold, and where you live. ii is a strong fit for some profiles and poor value for others.
ISA plus SIPP plus Trading Account, all in the same name, total holdings between £20,000 and £100,000. One £71.88 fee covers all three with no separate pension charge — this is the profile ii’s structure is built for, and the one where the flat fee is hardest to beat.
Buying GBP-listed UCITS ETFs or sterling funds through regular investing every month. Dealing costs go to zero, the 0.75% conversion charge never triggers, and the annual cost is the plan fee alone. Check your specific holdings are on ii’s regular investing list first.
HL charges 0.35% on funds with no cap below £250,000, so Core is cheaper above roughly £20,500 and Plus above roughly £51,400. In specie transfers mean no forced sell-and-rebuy, and ii charges nothing to receive them. If you hold shares and ETFs rather than funds, run the numbers again — HL caps those at £150 a year.
At £10,000, ii costs £71.88 a year, or 0.72% of assets. Vanguard UK charges £48 at that size, and InvestEngine’s DIY account charges nothing. Start somewhere cheaper and move to ii once the portfolio justifies a fixed fee.
Regularly buying US stocks or dollar-listed ETFs inside an ISA. Sterling-only wrappers mean two conversions per round trip at 0.75% on Core, on top of a spread ii does not quantify. Either move to sterling-listed lines, or use a broker that lets you hold the currency.
The £5 monthly surcharge takes Core to £131.88 a year, the ISA and Junior ISA need UK tax residency, and the SIPP needs UK residency at application. ii’s terms never affirmatively say EU residents are accepted. For European investors this is not the platform to build around.
Ready to open an ii account?
ii suits UK investors building a meaningful portfolio across several accounts — one flat fee covering an ISA, SIPP and Trading Account, free regular investing for monthly buyers, and no charge to transfer in or out.
Go deeper
Frequently asked questions
Is Interactive Investor safe?
Interactive Investor Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 141282. Investments are held by ii’s nominee rather than registered in your own name, and client money is held separately from ii’s own money under FCA client money rules. Two different FSCS limits apply: the investment business is covered up to £85,000 per claimant, while cash held in ii’s client money and trustee bank accounts falls under FSCS deposit protection at the bank level, currently £120,000. ii has operated for three decades and has been part of the Aberdeen Group since May 2022.
Is Interactive Investor good for beginners?
Conditionally. At £10,000 invested, Core costs £71.88 a year, or 0.72% of the portfolio. Vanguard UK would charge £48 a year at that size because of its £4 monthly minimum, and InvestEngine’s DIY account charges no platform fee at all. The flat fee only starts working in your favour somewhere around £20,000 to £25,000. Free regular investing is a real benefit for monthly buyers, but it does not offset the fee on a small account. Starting elsewhere and moving to ii once the portfolio justifies the flat fee is a reasonable plan.
Is Interactive Investor good for a SIPP?
For most UK-resident pension savers, yes. One plan fee covers the SIPP alongside an ISA and Trading Account, with no separate pension administration charge on top, and Core costs £71.88 a year while your total portfolio across all linked ii accounts stays under £100,000. Above that total you move to Plus at £179.88 a year. Note the ceiling is measured across everything you hold with ii, not on the pension alone, and it is a portfolio value test, so a market move can trigger the upgrade. ii requires you to be a UK resident at the time you apply for the SIPP.
Does Interactive Investor support ISA transfers?
Yes. ii accepts cash transfers and in specie transfers, where your existing holdings move across without being sold. ii states the transfer process takes no more than 30 days, and your investments cannot be traded until ii receives them. ii charges nothing for transfers in or out and has no exit fee, though you should check what your existing provider charges. The one charge that survives an exit is withdrawing an investment from an ISA as a share certificate rather than transferring it, at £35 plus VAT per certificate for CREST securities.
Can I use Interactive Investor if I do not live in the UK?
Partly, and it costs more. ii’s Trading Account terms exclude only US persons and Canadian residents, and ii charges non-UK residents £5 a month on top of the plan fee, which takes Core from £5.99 to £10.99 a month, or £131.88 a year. The tax wrappers are stricter: the ISA requires UK tax residency or Crown employee status, the Junior ISA requires UK residency at application, and the SIPP requires you to be a UK resident at the time you apply. ii’s terms do not state anywhere that EU residents are accepted, so confirm eligibility with ii directly before applying.
What is the cheapest Interactive Investor plan?
Core, at £5.99 a month or £71.88 a year, for total holdings up to £100,000 across your linked ii accounts. It includes UK and US shares and ETFs at £3.99 a trade, funds at £3.99, free regular investing, and access to the full range across the Trading Account, ISA and SIPP. It does not include a Junior ISA, which requires Plus or Premium, and it carries the highest foreign exchange charge at 0.75%. If you set up monthly purchases through regular investing and place few manual trades, Core keeps your annual cost to the plan fee alone.
QuantRoutine provides educational content only. Nothing on this page is an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or to open an account with any specific broker. Investments can lose value, and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own investment, tax, and legal decisions. Fee figures are based on publicly available information as of August 2026 — always verify current rates, plan terms, and eligibility directly with Interactive Investor before opening or funding an account.