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Written by: Gyula L. Updated: Dec 2022
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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Overview of Charles Stanley Direct fees and charges

When it comes to brokerage fees, Charles Stanley Direct is a mixed bag. To see how they may affect you, first you need to figure out your approach to trading - i.e. whether you are more of a buy-and-hold investor or if you want to trade frequently; or what type of assets and in what volumes you'll want to trade. Alternatively, use our questionnaire to help you tell whether Charles Stanley Direct fees are beneficial for you. Continue reading about Charles Stanley Direct fees and charges to see if this is the right broker for you, or if a similar broker like Interactive Investor or Hargreaves Lansdown might suit you better.

Here's a high-level overview of Charles Stanley Direct's fees

Charles Stanley Direct Fees snapshot
Assets Fee level Fee terms
US stock fee - Not available
EURUSD fee - Not available
US mutual fund fees Low Tiered annual fee based on volume held. On first £250k the fee is 0.35%, on the value between £250k-£500k it is 0.20%, on the value between £500k-£1m it is 0.15%, on the value between £1m-£2m it is 0.05%, and there is no charge on the value above £2m.
Inactivity fee Low No inactivity fee

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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Charles Stanley Direct fees explained

Online brokerages in general charge much lower brokerage fees than traditional brokerages do - this is largely because online brokerages' businesses can be much better scaled: from a purely technical standpoint, it doesn't make that much of a difference for them if they have 100 or 5,000 clients.

This is not to say, however, that they don't charge any fees at all. They make money by charging you various rates for various actions or events. Usually you need to keep an eye on the following three types of fees:

  • Trading fees - these are brokerage fees that you pay when you actually carry out a trade, like buying an Apple share or an ETF. What you pay is either a commission, a spread or a financing rate. Some brokers apply all of these.
    • A commission is either fixed or based on the traded volume.
    • A spread is the difference between the buy price and the sell price.
    • A financing rate or overnight rate is charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than one day.
  • Non-trading fees. These are usually related to some operations you carry out in your account, such as depositing money, withdrawing money, or not trading for an extended period.

We compare Charles Stanley Direct fees with its closest competitors, Interactive Investor and Hargreaves Lansdown.

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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Charles Stanley Direct trading fees

Charles Stanley Direct's trading fees are mixed, which means that some asset classes come with high trading fees - be sure to check these carefully.

Let's break down trading fees according to the different asset classes available at Charles Stanley Direct.

Trading fees

Charles Stanley Direct's trading fees are average.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Charles Stanley Direct has average stock trading fees.

Stock fees of a $2,000 trade
Charles Stanley Direct Interactive Investor Hargreaves Lansdown
US stock - $7.4 $14.8
UK stock $14.3 $7.4 $14.8
German stock - $24.8 $14.8

Fund fees

Charles Stanley Direct fund fees are low.

Fees of a $2,000 fund purchase
Charles Stanley Direct Interactive Investor Hargreaves Lansdown
Mutual fund $0.0 $7.4 $0.0
EU mutual fund $0.0 $9.6 $0.0

Bond fees

Charles Stanley Direct has bond fees.

Fees of a $10,000 bond trade
Charles Stanley Direct Interactive Investor Hargreaves Lansdown
US Treasury bond - - -
EU government bond - $7.4 $14.8

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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Charles Stanley Direct non-trading fees

When it comes to non-trading fees, Charles Stanley Direct is a rather cheap broker.

Non-trading fees include various brokerage fees and charges at Charles Stanley Direct that are not related to buying or selling assets. This can be a withdrawal fee, deposit fee, inactivity fee or account fee.

A high-level overview of how Charles Stanley Direct stacks up in terms of non-trading fees
Charles Stanley Direct Interactive Investor Hargreaves Lansdown
Withdrawal fee $0 $0 $0
Deposit fee $0 $0 $0
Inactivity fee No No No
Account fee No Yes No

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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Charles Stanley Direct deposit fee

Usually, brokers don't charge anything for deposits, and Charles Stanley Direct is no different.

Charles Stanley Direct deposit methods
Charles Stanley Direct Interactive Investor Hargreaves Lansdown
Bank transfer Yes Yes Yes
Credit/debit card Yes Yes Yes
Electronic wallets No No No
Deposit fee $0 $0 $0

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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Charles Stanley Direct withdrawal fee

Charles Stanley Direct generally doesn't charge a withdrawal fee.

Charles Stanley Direct withdrawal fees and options compared
Charles Stanley Direct Interactive Investor Hargreaves Lansdown
Bank transfer Yes Yes Yes
Credit/debit card Yes Yes Yes
Electronic wallets No No No
Withdrawal fee for bank transfer $0 $0 $0

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Charles Stanley Direct fees
Charles Stanley Direct inactivity fee

Charles Stanley Direct does not apply an inactivity fee, which is great because your account won't be charged even if you do not trade for an extended period (like several months or years).

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Author of this article

Gyula Lencsés, CFA

Author of this article

Gyula has more than 10 years of experience in the financial industry. He spent most of his career in the wealth management business as a portfolio manager of mutual funds. He has trading experience in a wide range of asset classes, including stocks, ETFs, bonds, commodities, forex, and derivatives markets. He joined BrokerChooser in 2020 and his aim is to make finding the best brokers in a rapidly changing investment world as easy as possible.

Gyula Lencsés, CFA

Head of Content

Gyula has more than 10 years of experience in the financial industry. He spent most of his career in the wealth management business as a portfolio manager of mutual funds. He has trading experience in a wide range of asset classes, including stocks, ETFs, bonds, commodities, forex, and derivatives markets. He joined BrokerChooser in 2020 and his aim is to make finding the best brokers in a rapidly changing investment world as easy as possible.

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology

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