Fidelity International Review 2023

How we ranked fees

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

We also compared Fidelity International'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 Fidelity International alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Fidelity International, let's start with its trading fees.

Fidelity International trading fees

Fidelity International has low mutual fund fees and average stock/ETF fees.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Fidelity International has average stock and ETF fees. Its stock fees are in line with other similar competitors.

Fidelity International charges a £10 flat fee per trade if you don't invest with a regular savings plan, while £1.5 if you do so. Share dealing orders made by phone are charged £30 each.

If you invest in international stocks/ETFs, there is a high FX conversion fee charged (up to 1%).

If you open a tax-advantaged account, like an ISA/SIPP account, there is also an annual service fee you'll be charged. The annual service fee depends on whether you choose regular savings plans or not. The regular savings plan means that you regularly transfer an amount to your account, which is then invested.

*If you open a Junior ISA/SIPP account, the annual service fee for investments less than £7,500 is £25.

Fund fees

Fidelity International fund fees are low, as at other similar UK brokers.

Fidelity International doesn't charge a commission for buying or selling funds, it charges only an annual service fee. The annual service fee depends on whether you invest in funds with a regular savings plan or not.

*If you open a Junior ISA/SIPP account, the annual service fee for investments less than £7,500 is £25.

Non-trading fees

Fidelity International has low non-trading fees. There are no inactivity or account fees, and Fidelity International also does not charge any fees after deposits and withdrawals.

However, there is a high conversion fee if you invest in international stocks/ETFs. FX fees are volume-tiered (the more you convert, the lower fee would be)

• 1.00% up to £10k
• 0.75% above £10k and up to £20k
• 0.50% above £20k and up to £30k
• 0.25% above £30k

Can you open an account?

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What is the minimum deposit at Fidelity International?

The required minimum deposit at Fidelity International is £1,000 for an Investment Account, an Individual Savings Account (ISA), and Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) accounts.

There is also an option to create a regular savings plan (RSP) instead of starting with a lump-sum investment — in this case, you can forgo the large £1,000 initial deposit and need to add just £25 per month to your account. You can also choose a different frequency for your investments: either £150 per quarter, £300 every six months, or £600 for an annual RSP.

Account types

Fidelity International has different account types you can choose from:

How to open your account

Only UK residents can open an account, for whom the account opening process is usually simple. The whole thing takes about 10 minutes and only the most basic information is required. If they manage to verify your details electronically you won't even need to provide proof of ID or proof of address.

Things start to get complicated if electronic verification fails. Why would your verification fail? This can happen for a number of reasons, for example, if you have recently moved, either within or to the UK. For a definite answer, you will need to contact Fidelity International. In early 2021, the company added an online upload option for some documents, but none that relate to the account opening process; however, they plan to extend this service to cover other forms.

If your verification fails, then you will need to fill out a confirmation of identity form and post documents verifying your identity and your address. All in all, you will need to send the following:

• filled-in application form
• if you have a UK photocard driving license or valid UK passport, you can send a photocopy of one of these to confirm your identity. These do not have to be independently certified.
• if you do not have any UK ID documents, you can send a photocopy of your national ID card or EU Identity Card. These must be indepentently certified by a third person.
• to confirm your address, you need to send one of the following documents: UK driving licence (an old-style paper version); (non-UK) photocard driving license; national ID card (with address on the card); a statement issued in the past three months by a UK regulated financial services firm; a council tax bill for the current year; a utility bill issued in the last three months; a mortgage statement; a current tenancy agreement or rent book; a government-issued document about tax or entitlements; or a letter from a commanding officer confirming your residential address if you or your partner is a member of the armed forces.

Fidelity International deposit fees and options

Fidelity International charges no deposit fees and you can add money to your account for one-off investments via a debit card, bank transfer, or by cheque. No electronic wallets are available.

Another option is to create a regular savings plan (RSP) — in this case, you need to add bank account details and the payments will be transferred from that account at regular intervals (e.g. a certain day every month) via direct debit.

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.

Fidelity International withdrawal fees and options

Fidelity International charges no withdrawal fees. You can only withdraw money to a bank account you have added to your Fidelity International account.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Fidelity International? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 2 business days.

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How do you withdraw money from Fidelity International?

• There are several options to start with:
  • after logging in, either click on the 'Manage investments' drop-down menu at the top, or
  • from your Account Summary, select your appropriate account, i.e. Cash Management Account or Investment Account and then  
• Click on 'Move or withdraw cash' (there is a button at the top in the Cash Management Account, but for the Investment Account you have to scroll down to 'Cash', and click on the 'Manage' button to see the options
• Enter the amount you wish to withdraw
• Add or select the bank account the money should be transferred to
• Click 'Confirm'

Fidelity International's web trading platform is available in English.

Look and feel

The Fidelity International web trading platform is user-friendly: it is well-designed and can be easily navigated. However, it cannot be customized to fit the needs of different clients.

Login and security

Fidelity International provides a safer, two-step login. When logging in for the first time from a new computer or browser, a security code will be sent to the email address you registered with.  

Search functions

The search functions are good, working as they are supposed to. You can search by typing in an asset name or ticker, and a relevant list will appear during the search.

You can filter results by asset by clicking on available tabs, to show only mutual funds and investment trusts, or exchange-traded products (stocks and ETFs).

Placing orders

You can use only two order types: Market, Limit. To get a better understanding of these terms, read this overview of order types.

There is also one order time limit that you can use, which is a Day order.

Alerts and notifications

You cannot set price alerts and notifications in Fidelity International's web trading platform.

Portfolio and fee reports

Fidelity International has clear portfolio and fee reports. These reports can be found in the 'Transactions & Reports' menu at the top. You can also see an overview of your investment performance on the 'Summary' dashboard, including gain/loss and annualised return. Perfromance reports are also downloadable in several formats.

The fees you paid are also visible in the 'Account summary' section, in the 'Book cost' column for each asset. This however only shows the assets you currently hold in your portfolio. 

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The mobile trading platform is the same as the web platform.

It is well-designed and user-friendly. You can set two-step authentication and can log in using biometric authentication. On the other hand, the order types are limited and you can't set price alert.

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Fidelity International does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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Fidelity International has a limited product portfolio. You can invest in and trade stocks, ETFs, funds and investment trusts. Fidelity International has a good selection of funds, on par with its main competitors. However, its selection of exchange-traded investments, such as stocks and ETFs, is quite limited as it only offers products that are traded on the London Stock Exchange and are denominated in GBP.

You cannot invest in bonds, and forex, CFDs and cryptos are not available either. There is no options or futures trading at Fidelity International. 

Stocks and ETFs

Fidelity International gives you access only to UK, US, and European stocks. 

Accordingly, the range of stocks and ETFs available is quite limited, comparing poorly to similar UK competitors.

Funds

Fidelity International's selection of mutual funds is quite extensive. 

A wide selection of more than 3,000 funds are available from around 180 providers. In addition to Fidelity International's own funds, many funds managed by major providers like BlackRock and Vanguard are accessible through Fidelity International.

Investment Trusts

Fidelity International also offers the possibility to invest in Investment Trusts, which are basically funds registered as public limited companies. These can invest in other companies and are traded on a stock exchange themselves. There is a selection of around 180 Investment Trusts offered by various providers that Fidelity International clients can choose from.

We looked at the research tools available on the web trading platform. There is an ample selection of research tools, from trading ideas to stock market reports and analyses by Fidelity experts. 

The research tools have nice and clean visuals. However, some of the tools, like the interactive chart, take quite a few clicks to find and get to on first use.

Trading ideas

Fidelity International provides trading ideas for users in the form of 'Investing ideas' articles that can be found in the 'Markets & insights' section. These articles are written by Fidelity's own expert team and cover all assets, including stocks, funds and commodities, presenting their views on recent events and what it could mean for your investments.

There is a useful tool in the 'Market & shares data' section where you can see the Top 10 transacted (bought and sold) investments by other customers on the Fidelity website over the past week, which could also give you some trading ideas. You can see the Top 10 overall, or the top stocks and funds separately, as well as the proportion of buy and sell transactions.

Fundamental data

Fidelity International offers fundamental data. You can find a lot of useful information on the factsheets for the various investments, ranging from key statistics to a share price chart, news and financials. There is also a fair value estimate and competitor comparison provided by Morningstar for each asset.

Charting

Fidelity International has some standard charting tools. You can use 21 technical indicators on a basic interface. This is more limited than what some other brokers provide.

News feed

There is a good news feed on the Fidelity International platform. You can see the latest news concerning companies on the fundamental data screen, including the most recent company announcements.

More research info

You can contact Fidelity International via:

• phone
• email

Fidelity International's phone support was great. We were connected immediately, and the customer support team was very friendly and gave relevant answers.

We had mixed experience with email support. You can send secure messages to the support staff from within your account, and the response time varied from 1-2 hours to several days. However, once we got the answers, they were always useful and relevant.

Fidelity International does not offer live chat and support is not available 24/7.

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At Fidelity International you can learn in the following ways:

• Platform tutorial videos
• General educational videos
• Quality educational articles

The website offers a wide range of useful information to help beginners on their investment journey: there are many guides and videos on investment basics, as well as downloadable brochures on special areas such as setting up a pension savings account. You can also sign up for daily, weekly and quarterly newsletters.

In addition, there are tools that help choose the right investments for you, including various calculators (e.g. retirement, tax and regular savings calculator), risk assessment, chart-and-compare tools, as well as a selection of top-pick funds recommended by Fidelity International experts.

On the negative side, there is no demo account available at Fidelity International.

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Is Fidelity International regulated?

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

Fidelity International is based in the UK and was founded in 1980.

Is Fidelity International safe?

To be certain if 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

This is important because the investor protection amount differs from regulator to regulator. However, this is not an issue in this case, as all customers are covered by Fidelity, under the legal entity FIL Investments International. This means that being regulated by the FCA, there is investor protection for an amount of £85,000.

Background

Fidelity International was established in 1980. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

You may have some trouble if you are looking for detailed financial information about the company, as it is not listed on a stock exchange. No detailed annual reports are published; all we could find was a country-by-country group report, with only minimal financial data, and it was located on another Fidelity website. The Fidelity UK group companies are owned by FIL Holdings (UK) Limited, which in turn is owned by FIL Limited, based in Bermuda.

Being regulated by a top-tier authority and having a long track record are good signs for Fidelity International's safety.

Find your safe broker

We recommend Fidelity International for beginners and long-term investors focusing on the UK market.

Below you can find links to all aspects of Fidelity International in this comprehensive collection.

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our Fidelity International fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the Fidelity International minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your Fidelity International account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the Fidelity International account opening.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the Fidelity International trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the Fidelity International customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is Fidelity International legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether Fidelity International is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is Fidelity International good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on Fidelity International?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on Fidelity International guide

I want to trade options, are they available at Fidelity International?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Fidelity International?

What is the minimum account balance at Fidelity International?

Check out the current account balance requirements at Fidelity International in our What is the minimum account balance at Fidelity International article.

Looking for commission and fees data for Fidelity International?

We collected them in Fidelity International commission and fees.

How do you withdraw money from Fidelity International?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on Fidelity International.