Charles Stanley Direct Review 2021

Charles Stanley Direct has low fund fees and low non-trading fees, but its stock and ETF fees are not the most competitive on the market.

How we ranked fees

We ranked Charles Stanley Direct's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

First, let's go over some basic terms related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of Charles Stanley Direct for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing the most important fees are commissions.

We also compared Charles Stanley Direct's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Interactive Investor and Hargreaves Lansdown. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Charles Stanley Direct alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Charles Stanley Direct, let's start with the trading fees.

Charles Stanley Direct trading fees

Charles Stanley Direct trading fees are average to low. It has low fund fees, but higher stock and ETF fees.

In this review, we calculated the fees of products available for online trading. There are many additional products that are available via phone trading, such as bonds or non-UK equities.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Charles Stanley Direct has high stock and ETF commissions.

Stock fees include a £11.50 commission per trade, plus any subsequent platform charges. Platform charges are levied monthly, and are calculated as 0.35% of the trade value per year with a £24 minimum and £240 maximum. However, platform charges for stocks will be waived if you make at least one chargeable trade during a calendar month.

Fund fees

Charles Stanley Direct fund fees are zero, putting it on par Hargreaves Lansdown.

Charles Stanley Direct only charges an annual fee, but doesn't charge a commission on opening and closing mutual fund positions. Fees for mutual funds are volume-based. The higher the value of your holdings, the lower percentage you pay as an annual fee.

Non-trading fees

Charles Stanley Direct has low non-trading fees. It doesn't charge inactivity and withdrawal fees. It doesn't charge an account fee for Investment and ISA accounts either, but it does charge a £100 + VAT yearly account fee for SIPP accounts. This SIPP account fee is waived for accounts holding assets exceeding £30,000.

If you have a UK passport, the account opening procedure is quick and easy. If not, you have to mail in photocopied documents, making the process less convenient.

Can you open an account?

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Only UK residents can open an account at Charles Stanley Direct.

How to open your account

If you have a UK passport, the account opening process is done through electronic verification, which is fairly painless and straightforward. The entire registration process takes about 10 minutes.

Things start to get complicated if electronic verification fails or if you didn't have this verification option to start with (because, for exampe, you don't have a valid passport or if you are not a UK citizen). In this case, you'll need to fill in a physical application form and post these documents:

• a completed application form
• a copy of either your passport, driver's license, firearms certificate (shotgun license), or a recent evidence of entitlement to either
  • a state- or local authority-funded benefit
  • tax credit
  • pension
  • or educational or other grants
• a copy of either your current council tax demand letter or statement (issued within the last three months), current bank statement (issued by post within the last three months), or a utility bill (issued by post within the last three months)
• FOR UK CITIZENS ONLY: a cheque with the initial amount you wish to deposit in your account / direct debit instructions

What is the minimum deposit at Charles Stanley Direct?

The required Charles Stanley Direct minimum deposit is £20 for debit cards and £50 for bank transfers. Furthermore, if you want to open ISA or SIPP accounts, there is a £100 minimum. Investing in Foundation Portfolios requires a £2,500 minimum.

Account types

Charles Stanley Direct has the following account types:

Depositing and withdrawing money is easy and free with bank transfer at Charles Stanley Direct. Unfortunately, accounts are only available in British pounds.

Account base currencies

At Charles Stanley Direct, you can only choose one base currency: GBP.

Why does this matter? Currency conversion fee can occur in case you

• fund your account from a non-GBP bank account
• trade assets in a currency other than GBP.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Compare digital banks

Deposit fees and options

Charles Stanley Direct charges no deposit fees, and you can transfer money either via bank transfer or by credit/debit card.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant.

You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

Charles Stanley Direct withdrawal fees and options

Similarly to its closest competitors, Charles Stanley Direct charges no withdrawal fees.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Charles Stanley Direct? We tested bank transfer withdrawal and it took 2 business days.

You can only withdraw money to accounts that are in your name.

How do you withdraw money from Charles Stanley Direct? You can do it by following these steps:

• Log in to your account
• Go to 'Manage my money'
• Click 'Withdraw money'
• Add the withdrawal amount
• Initiate the withdrawal

The web trading platform is user-friendly and delivers some of the usual basic functions. However, it lacks a safer two-step login, customizability, and advanced order types.

The web trading platform is available in English only.

Look and feel

The Charles Stanley Direct web trading platform is user-friendly and visually appealing. On the other hand, it's not customizable and offers only limited research and trading options.

Login and security

Charles Stanley Direct provides only one-step login. For increased login security, you are required to set an additional memorable word, but you can't use your smartphone or other devices for two-step verification on the web interface.

Search functions

The search functions are OK, but there are some issues:

• the search box lacks the automatic suggestion function and the search bar disappears automatically after each search, which makes searching more cumbersome compared with most competitors
• the "advanced search" function had bugs at the time of our review

You can also search instruments under the 'My Accounts' tab when you click 'Buy Investments'. This search function works a bit differently, for example, it has an automatic suggestion function. In our view, it's a more convenient way to find the asset you would like to trade.

Placing orders

Placing orders is easy and it can be initiated right from the list of securities. You can use only two order types though, Market and Limit, a limited set of options when compared with some close competitors (see comparison table below). The Limit order works on a Good 'til Day (GTD) basis. (To learn more about the basic order types, read this overview.)

Trading in funds

Besides simple buy or sell orders, you can buy funds at Charles Stanley Direct in the form of regular monthly investments or as a part of a basket. These functions can make your life much easier if you would like to grow your investments by small but regular contributions or if your aim is to create a diversified portfolio of funds.

Alerts and notifications

You can set simple price alerts. You can do this easily by clicking on the individual profile of the product you are interested in. 

Portfolio and fee reports

A good overview of your portfolio is available for viewing. This includes your holdings and fees in a clean and customizable format: you can pick from several columns, while the report is also downloadable in PDF and XLS formats.

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The mobile platform looks nice; it's user-friendly and provides a good amount of data and feedback. On the other hand, order types are limited and you can't set up price alerts.

The mobile trading platform is easy to use and is available for both iOS and Android. It doesn't come with a lot of functionalities, though, and we even encountered a few bugs.

Look and feel

The Charles Stanley Direct mobile trading platform has a modern and stylish look and feel. The buttons are big enough to comfortably tap, and information is presented in a well-organized fashion.

Login and security

The Charles Stanley Direct app requires you to use a 6 digit PIN code, and biometric authentication is also available. The login process is still one-step, though, meaning that no other device is needed to use the app.

Search functions

The search functions are OK, but confusing as you can actually use two search functions:

1. There is a search bar at the top of the screen, where you can search for stocks or funds, and also look at market data. This search bar doesn't always appear though for some reason, which is confusing.
2. The other tool appears after clicking the 'buy' button, where you can only look up tradable products. You can search based on the ticker or the asset name.

Placing orders

You can trade stocks, funds, investment trusts and ETFs through the mobile app. You can use only Market and Limit orders, and no order terms such as Good 'til Canceled are available in the mobile app.

Alerts and notifications

Neither alerts nor notifications are available in the mobile app.

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Charles Stanley Direct does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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Charles Stanley Direct offers only UK stocks, ETFs, mutual funds and bonds. International stocks or bonds can be traded offline, but options, futures or CFDs are missing completely.

Charles Stanley Direct's mutual fund offering is great, but it lacks many other product classes.

Stocks and ETFs

At Charles Stanley Direct, you can only trade stock and ETFs on the London Stock Exchange.

Funds

Charles Stanley Direct's mutual fund offer is great, well exceeding that of its competitors. You will find funds both from the biggest fund providers like BlackRock or Vanguard and from smaller ones too.

Bonds

Charles Stanley Direct has an average number of bonds.

The trading ideas section is rich in functionality and data, but otherwise Charles Stanley Direct's research tools are quite limited, and charting tools could also be improved.

We looked at Charles Stanley Direct's research tools on the web platform.

Trading ideas

You can find trading ideas in the 'Outlook' section. These are recommendations from top-tier banks including Barclays, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank.

You can also get personalised investment recommendations for Charles Stanley Funds, Foundation Portfolios, and Foundation Funds. All you have to do is fill out a short questionnaire, available from your account's home page.

Fundamental data

Charles Stanley Direct offers fundamental data, made available on the 'Financials' and 'Company' tabs of the web platform. They both have a clean layout, focusing mostly on financial information without any bells and whistles.

Charting

Charles Stanley Direct has poor charting tools. You can use 19 technical indicators, which is fewer than what many other brokers offer, and the tools' functionalities are limited as well.

News feed

A bare-bones news feed is available covering UK market news. While it's a useful addition to the platform, its look and feel is very simple. You can find these under 'Market News' and at the bottom of individual product pages. Price quotes, news and fundamentals are provided by Thomson Reuters.

Further research materials are available under Insights from Charles Stanley Direct. Here you can mostly find macro-focused articles.

Charles Stanley Direct's customer service is great. It can be contacted via phone, email and live chat. On the flip side, there is no 24/7 availability.

You can contact Charles Stanley Direct via:

• telephone
• email
• live chat

We were really satisfied with Charles Stanley Direct's phone support. They answered the phone instantly and gave us relevant answers.

The email support works as you would expect. We emailed them four times and always received replies within a day. These answers were relevant as well.

Live chat support was likewise quick and useful. We got an answer in less than a minute.

We missed 24/7 availability, though.

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Charles Stanley Direct offers good-quality educational materials, but their number and scope is limited, and some of them are hard to find.

There is a dedicated page for beginners where you can find educational videos and materials. Besides that, there are other written materials scattered across various pages of the platform, making them a bit hard to find. For example, you can learn about socially responsible investing, investing into funds and other topics. There are links to these pages listed in the 'Also available' segment to the left of the 'My Accounts' tab.

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Charles Stanley Direct is overseen by the UK's FCA, a top-tier regulator, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. On the negative side, it does not have a banking license.

Is Charles Stanley Direct regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Charles Stanley Direct is based in the UK and was incorporated in 1985, with its roots going all the way back to 1792.

Is Charles Stanley Direct safe?

To be certain, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

At Charles Stanley Direct, all customers are covered by the UK investor protection scheme, called FSCS.

The FSCS protects against the loss of cash and securities in case the broker goes bust. The limit of FSCS protection is £85,000. This amount is substantially higher than the amount most national investor protection schemes provide.

Background

Charles Stanley Direct was established in 1985. The longer the track record of a broker, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

While it doesn't have a banking license, Charles Stanley Direct is listed on the London Stock Exchange, which is a big plus for safety as the company is required to release financial statements regularly and transparently.

Being listed on a stock exchange, publishing financial statements, and being regulated by a top-tier financial authority are all great signs for Charles Stanley Direct's safety.

Find your safe broker

Charles Stanley Direct is a UK stockbroker regulated by the FCA and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

On the positive side, it has low fund fees. Customer service is great, offering quick and useful answers. Deposit and withdrawal are easy and free.

The service has some drawbacks though. You can only trade UK stocks, ETFs and mutual funds online. Educational and research tools are limited.

As the minimum deposit is low and no inactivity fee is charged, feel free to try Charles Stanley Direct.

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