Halifax Review 2023

How we ranked fees

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

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

Halifax offers a few different trading accounts; here, we examine the fees of the Share Dealing Account. Let's start with the trading fees.

Halifax trading fees

Halifax has low stock/ETF fees and average fund fees.

It offers commission-free trading for international trades completed online.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Halifax generally has low stock and ETF fees compared with some similar brokers.

Halifax offers commission-free trading for international trades and a flat fee of £9.50 per trade for domestic (UK) ones. However, there is a high, 1.25% FX conversion fee for international trades

If you use the ShareBuilder service to set up a regular savings plan investing a minimum of £20 per month, then scheduled trades cost only £2 each.

Fund fees

Halifax's fund trading fees are less competitive. For each transaction, Halifax charges the same £9.50 flat transaction fee as for stocks and ETFs. This doesn't compare favorably to fund fees at close competitors. On top of this, you will also have to pay other costs charged by the fund managers rather than Halifax, such as a transaction fee and ongoing charges.

Non-trading fees

Halifax has low non-trading fees.

There is no inactivity fee for the basic Share Dealing Account; this is great for beginners because this way they don't have to commit to investing or trading frequently in order to avoid inactivity charges. Halifax also charges no withdrawal fees or deposit fees.

On the downside, there's a £36 administration fee per year for the basic Share Dealing Account as well as for the tax-advantaged Stocks/Shares ISA account (you can hold both accounts at the same time for a single £36 charge). Halifax's tax-advantaged SIPP account also involves quarterly administration charges.

Can you open an account?

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Only UK residents can open an account at Halifax.

What is the minimum deposit at Halifax?

The required Halifax minimum deposit is $0. Brokers that require no minimum deposit are great for beginners who may want to start trading with smaller amounts only.

Account types

Halifax offers several account types, including a standard share-dealing account, an account for regular savings, as well as tax-friendly ISA and SIPP accounts. We tested the standard Share Dealing Account.

How to open your account

The account opening process at Halifax is fast. Once we completed the steps, it took less than one day to get our account up and running. However, the user interface at Halifax makes the process more complicated than we expected. For example, we found the navigation through each section not very intuitive, and the required formatting of information was sometimes confusing, with no clear explanations provided.

To open a Share Dealing account at Halifax:

1. Open the Halifax website.
2. Click the Investing tab in the top navigation bar.
3. Click Start Investing, which will bring you to a page outlining the account options.
4. Choose Share Dealing Account and Find Out More.
5. Scroll Down to Apply for a Share Dealing Account and click Apply Now.
6. Proceed through the required steps and present the required identification documents.

Account base currencies

At Halifax, only one base currency is available, which is GBP.

This means that if you trade international products, Halifax will charge you a currency conversion fee of 2.99% on your investment.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. 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.

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

Compare digital banks

Deposit fees and options

Halifax charges no deposit fees and you can add money to your account using a debit card, via direct debit from your bank account, or by cheque. No electronic wallets are acceppted, though. There is also a £100,000 limit on deposits by debit card.

A bank transfer can take several business days to go through, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant and also more convenient.

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

Halifax withdrawal fees and options

Halifax charges no withdrawal fees. You can only withdraw funds to a bank account you have designated for this purpose.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Halifax? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took more than 3 business days.

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

How do you withdraw money from Halifax?

1. Navigate to Halifax Share Dealing and sign in to your account.
2. Click 'Account Management' in the sidebar to open a drop-down list.
3. Choose 'Fund & Withdraw' if you want to either deposit to, or withdraw from your account. You can save your most frequently used bank account here to make future deposits easier.

Halifax offers a simple web platform for its users. It is available in English and includes access to trading UK and international instruments, funding and withdrawal functions, and a chance to view historical trading and fee reports.

Look and feel

The Halifax web trading platform is user-friendly. We found the navigation column on the right useful for exploring the platform's capabilities.

However, the platform is not customizable and looks more like a simple online banking platform. We felt that in order to properly trade on this platform, we needed to open multiple tabs to access all relevant information, which clutters our desktop.

The platform has links to sections on Halifax's public website, including a stock screener, information on security, and access to news. Still, integrating all of this information into one easy-to-use platform would help simplify its use.

Login and security

Halifax provides a safe two-step login. This two-step login requires answering an extra security question each time you sign in. Two-factor authentification using another device could make the platform even more secure.

Search functions

The search functions are OK. You can search for either the ticker or the name to find the asset you need. The search function is split into UK-based assets, international assets and funds. It would be even more helpful if users could search by industry, attributes or asset price. Halifax does in fact offer additional search options using screeners on its main webpage, but it would be nice to have this capability inside the trading platform.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop Loss
• Target setting (Combination of Limit and Stop Loss)
• Range (Using two Limit Orders)
• Price Lock (an automatically adjusting Stop Loss)

To trade using the Market order type, you can simply place a regular order with the listed price quote. To be able to use the other order types, you need to set up a TradePlan, which has even more capabilities to customize your trade.

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 can set price alerts and notifications through a feature called Watchlist. This feature is only offered on the public website and requires you to register with an email and password separately from setting up a trading account.

To access this feature, navigate to Halifax Investments, choose 'Research the market' and then 'Watchlist' in the top right.

Portfolio and fee reports

Halifax has clear portfolio and fee reports accessible on the Share Dealing Portal under 'Valuation & Statements'. These include Dealing History, TradePlan History, Dividend History, Cash History, Income History, Admin Charges and Tax Certificates. These statements are great because they provide full transparency and can potentially help you calculate your taxes.

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Stocks and ETFsNote: Halifax also offers bonds, but only via phone. We did not include bonds in the list above because they are not available for trading on the online platform.

Halifax offers international stocks and ETFs by granting access to several global exchanges such as London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Amsterdam or Brussels. However, this is still a limited selection compared with some close competitors.

Stocks and ETFs

Funds

Investment Trusts

Halifax also offers the chance 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. Halifax clients can choose from a selection of around 200 Investment Trusts offered by various providers.

Halifax's research tools are located outside the trading platform, on the public website. To access the research page, you should follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Halifax Share Dealing main page
2. Find 'Research the Market'
3. From here, you can access the Share Centre, the Funds Centre, Markets News, Investment Ideas, and Watchlist (for setting price alerts)

Trading ideas

Halifax provides some trading ideas with the Risers and Fallers list, based on daily price changes, and with the Most Traded list, based on volume. We found these lists informative.

Fundamental data

Halifax offers some fundamental data for each stock, ETF and fund. Most of the data is based on historical pricing and volume.

Charting

Halifax provides OK charting tools on its fundamental data page for all stocks and ETFs. You can access it by clicking 'Advanced Chart' and can use 87 technical indicators for charting.

News feed

Halifax provides news updates from Morningstar. These include Headline News, Market News, Company News, Economic News and Regulatory News. There's also an 'Insights' section that has additional opinion and advice pieces. We found the news articles high quality and relevant.

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Overall, customer service at Halifax is very poor. During our review, a simple change of client data (a new home address) took customer support almost 2 hours to register, and in the end we did not find our new address in the account.

Customer support is available only during working hours; we missed the 24/7 availability that is provided by many other brokers.

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Halifax provides educational information in five mediums to cater to a variety of customers:

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

We found that educational materials can be hard to find on Halifax's website because they are located in three separate places. Therefore, we laid them out for you below.

We found Halifax's educational materials helpful and relevant, but we would still like to see a demo account for prospective clients.

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Is Halifax regulated?

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

Halifax Share Dealing is based in the UK and was founded in 1996, but its banking roots trace back to the 19th century.

Is Halifax 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

In the event that Halifax is unable to pay its debts, clients are eligible to be covered by the FCA up to £85,000 per account. This amount is higher than most other international investor protection schemes.

Background

Halifax Share Dealing was established in 1996 and merged with the Bank of Scotland in 2001, which was subsequently bought during the financial crisis in 2009 by Lloyds Banking Group. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Halifax has a banking license and as such, it is subject to tougher regulations than brokers. Halifax's ultimate parent company, Lloyd's Banking Group, is listed on a stock exchange, which is a big plus for safety as it needs to release financial statements regularly and transparently.

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

Find your safe broker

We recommend Halifax for beginners and long-term investors.

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

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our Halifax fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the Halifax minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your Halifax account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the Halifax account opening.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the Halifax customer service.

Legit or scam?

'Is Halifax 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 Halifax is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is Halifax good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on Halifax?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on Halifax guide.

I want to trade options, are they available at Halifax?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Halifax?

What is the minimum account balance at Halifax?

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

Looking for commission and fees data for Halifax?

We collected them in Halifax commission and fees.

How do you withdraw money from Halifax?

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