EQi Review 2021

EQi charges no withdrawal fees and has relatively low fund fees. Its other trading fees are relatively high though, especially for non-UK stocks and ETFs; there's also a custody fee.

How we ranked fees

We ranked EQi'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 EQi for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing the most important fees are commissions.

We also compared EQi's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, AJ Bell Youinvest 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 EQi alternatives.

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

EQi trading fees

EQi has mostly high trading fees.

Broken down by product category, stock and ETF fees are high, but fund and bond fees are lower. Therefore, EQi is not recommended for traders interested in short-term trading of stocks or ETFs.

On the other hand, for long-term investors  who don't want to buy and sell assets frequently, EQi could be a good choice. (This is also because of EQi's low non-trading fees, which we will discuss further below.)

Stock fees and ETF fees

EQi has generally high stock and ETF commissions compared with its closest competitors, except on the UK market, its home market.

EQi charges a flat fee of £10.99 per trade, regardless of the volume of the transaction. This also means, however, that executing more trades per year will raise the total amount you pay in fees. For trading international shares, EQi charges you an additional fee. This fee depends on the share trade value, as detailed in the table below. It's also important to highlight that share prices in foreign currencies are converted at the current market exchange rate.

Fund fees

EQi fund fees are low and they are charged pro-rata. If you hold any funds, EQi charges a percentage of their total value per quarter; but there is no fee to buy funds. However, the sale of mutual funds costs you £10.99 per trade.

Compared with its closest competitors, EQi's fund fees can be considered high. 

Bond fees

EQi has generally low bond fees, on par with competitors such as Hargreaves Lansdown. 

Non-trading fees

EQi has generally low non-trading fees. Deposits and withdrawals are free of charge, and there is no account fee for the default Dealing Account.

While there is no outright inactivity fee, EQi does charge a quarterly custody fee of £17.49. Any trading fees you paid during the quarter can be deducted from this custody fee; meaning that if you haven't carried out any (fee-bearing) trades in the past quarter, it will function as a kind of inactivity fee. The custody fee is waived if you have another account with EQi such as an ISA or SIPP account, or if you have no funds in your account.

Opening an account at EQi is fast and fully online. The process is simple and easy to follow. However, it is only available to UK residents.

Can you open an account?

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Only UK residents can open an account at EQi.

What is the minimum deposit at EQi?

The required EQi minimum deposit is $0 for all account types. This is great if you want to trade or invest with lower amounts only.

Account types

EQi offers several account types: Dealing Account, SIPP, ISA and Lifetime ISA. However, corporate accounts are not available. For this review, we tested the Dealing Account.

How to open your account

The account opening at EQi is simple, fast and fully online. It takes no more than 5 minutes to open your account.

To open an account, you will need the following: a UK address, a UK bank account and your National Insurance Number. (If you are a non-UK national or have multiple nationalities, you will need some additional information.)

The steps of registration are the following:

1. Make sure you have all of the above.
2. Fill out the form with your personal details.
3. Provide information and details about your bank account. At this point, EQi will ask for a direct debit to be approved from your bank account.
4. Verify your nationality by entering your UK National Insurance Number and details about your country and place of birth.
5. Create your 8-digit PIN. 

The whole process was straightforward and we did not experience any bugs or errors.

EQi offers simple and free deposit and withdrawal via bank transfer or credit/debit card. On the negative side, only GBP accounts are available, and withdrawal is slow.

Account base currencies

At EQi, the only available base currency is GBP. This means that buying non-UK products may incur a currency exchange fee.

Why does this matter? If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee. So if you have a personal bank account in a currency other than GBP, then you will be charged a conversion fee.

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

EQi charges no deposit fees. You can use bank transfer or credit/debit cards to fund your accounts; however, electronic wallets are not accepted.

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.

EQi withdrawal fees and options

EQi charges no withdrawal fees. All withdrawals are made from the Dealing Account to your Nominated Bank Account, so credit/debit card withdrawal is not possible.

How long does it take to withdraw money from EQi? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and found that it can take at least 3 business days. Alternatively, you can request immediate withdrawal via CHAPS payment, but it comes with a £35.00 fee.

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

How do you withdraw money from EQi?

• Sign in to your EQi Dealing Account.
• Go to your dashboard, where you can select 'View' or 'Deal'. 
• On either of these pages, click the 'Manage' button. 
• In the dropdown menu, click 'Move your Money' then select 'Withdraw Money'.
• Enter the amount you wish to withdraw, then submit your request.
• After checking all the information, press 'Confirm' to initiate the withdrawal.

Compare to other brokers

EQi's web trading platform has a simple design and offers good fee reports. However, it lacks customizability and is not really user-friendly at first sight.

EQi offers a web and a mobile trading platform. Both are available only in English.

Look and feel

The EQi web trading platform has a nice, simple design, but it sometimes feels outdated, and some features are hard to find, making the platform difficult to navigate at first.

The platform is not customizable. You can view some charts and dropdowns, but these aren't helpful enough.

Among other negatives, we experienced some bugs during testing, such as an error message when we tried to log in.

Overall, EQi offers a decent trading platform, but it could use some improvements.

Login and security

EQi provides only a one-step login. Two-step authentication would be more secure.

Search functions

The search functions are fine. You can search for either the ticker or the name to find the asset you need. Stocks, funds and ETFs can be searched separately, and you can also search by industry, attributes or price levels. 

Placing orders

You can use the following order types:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Trailing stop

To get a better understanding of these terms, read our overview of order types.

There are also order time limits you can use: Good 'til 30/60/90 Days or until a custom date.

Alerts and notifications

You can't set up price alerts and notifications. However, you will get an order confirmation for processed limit orders. 

Portfolio and fee reports

EQi has clear and transparent portfolio and fee reports. Go to your Dashboard and click 'View' to view all your holdings and open orders. 

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EQi's mobile platform has a simple, clear design, and offers safe login. However, we wished there was a wider selection of order types, price alerts and chart functions.

The EQi mobile trading platform offers only a few functions: you can place orders and check your account. It is available only in English, and only for iOS. 

Look and feel

The EQi mobile trading platform is quite user-friendly. The design is really simple and straightforward. It has just a few functions, but these are easy to find. We had the feeling that this platform is meant primarily as a quick backup solution for cases when you don't have access to the web trading platform.

Login and security

EQi provides a safe login for its mobile platform, with two-step authentication. However, you can't log in using biometric authentication. Adding this feature would provide extra convenience and security.

Search functions

The search functions are OK. You can search by entering a ticker or an asset name, and it shows you possible results as you type. However, the results themselves do not provide a lot of information. There are no charts or any other tools to help your research.

Placing orders

The range of order types is very narrow, as you can only choose among Market, Limit and Rising Buy orders. This is fewer than the order types available on the web trading platform.

There are also only a few order time limits you can use: Day and Good 'til 30/60/90 Days.

Alerts and notifications

You can't set alerts and notifications on the EQi mobile platform.

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EQi does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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EQi offers an impressive range of stocks, funds, ETFs and bonds, but many other product categories such as forex, CFDs, futures or options are missing entirely.

EQi has a decent product portfolio. You can invest in and trade stocks, ETFs, funds and bonds.

Stocks and ETFs

EQi offers a wide range of international stocks and ETFs. It gives you access to European and North American stock exchanges, such as London, New York, Toronto or Paris.

EQi's stock and ETF offer is much bigger than that of its closest competitors.

Funds

EQi offers an extensive range of funds, and the number of available mutual fund providers roughly matches that of its competitors.

A wide selection of more than 6,000 funds is available from about 140 providers. You will find funds from the biggest fund providers, like BlackRock and Vanguard, and also from smaller ones.

Bonds

EQi offers quite a large number of bonds to trade. These are mostly corporate bonds. However, it is important to note that most of these bonds are not tradeable online; you have to contact costumer service on the phone if you want to trade bonds. 

EQi's research section offers some trading ideas and fundamental data, but there are no analytic tools and only a low-quality news feed.

Trading ideas

EQi provides some trading ideas, in the form of its Risers and Fallers list, based on daily price changes; and its lists of "Top five most traded" assets. However, actual recommendations are quite limited. You can view third-party recommendations via the Stockomedation tool, but this is not free of charge.

Fundamental data

EQi offers some fundamental data. For example, for stocks, you can view income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements. You can select which year you want to see data for.

Charting

EQi has poor charting tools. There are only 9 technical indicators and just a few chart types. There is no possibility to draw trendlines, and the data provided is also scarce. You can acces charting tools by clicking 'Go to interactive chart'; however, you can't save your charts on the platform.

News feed

EQi offers only a quite simple news feed. It involves a weekly roundup of recent events and their impact on the market.

Compare research pros and cons

EQi's customer service is OK. Responses are useful and relevant, but can be slow over both email and the phone. In addition, there is no live chat or 24/7 availability.

You can contact EQi via:

• phone
• email

We had mixed experiences with EQi's phone support. Its response speed was average at best, but we nonetheless got relevant answers.

It was mostly the same with email support: we received relevant answers but they took a while to arrive. We recieved the anwers after 3 working days, though they were long and detailed. 

On the negative side, we missed 24/7 availability and the live chat function.

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EQi offers little more than a handful of articles when it comes to education. It has no demo account or platform tutorial videos.

At EQi, you can find articles about how to protect your investments or where to invest; focusing on the basics of ISAs, SIPPs and other long-term investment forms. Besides articles, you can also find podcast episodes about financial topics.

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EQi is regulated by the top-tier UK FCA. It's safety is further boosted by its membership of the Equiniti Group, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Is EQi regulated?

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

EQi is based in the UK and was founded in 2007; it is now part of the Equiniti Group.

Is EQi safe?

To be certain whether a brokerage is safe, 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

Should EQi become insolvent, you are eligible to be covered by the FCA up to £85,000 per account.

EQi does not provide negative balance protection. If the balance on your account goes into negative, you will not be protected.

Background

EQi was established in 2007, and was later acquired by the Equiniti Group. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

The Equiniti Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange, which is a big plus for safety as EQi releases financial statements regularly and transparently.

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

Find your safe broker

EQi is a UK-based stockbroker, regulated by a top-tier authority and focusing on UK clients.

EQi provides low fund trading fees and access to international markets. It has a quick account opening process and offers pretty good deposit and withdrawal options. 

On the negative side, EQi has high trading fees for non-UK stocks and ETFs. The design and functionality of the web trading platform compares poorly to EQi's competitors. The lack of research capabilities and quality educational tools is not making the broker beginner-friendly at all. The mobile platform is rudimentary; while EQi has only one base currency (GBP).

With no minimum deposit and low fund fees, EQi may be a good choice for UK residents who are focusing on long-term investments.

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