Interactive Investor Review 2020

Interactive Investor has average trading fees and low non-trading fees. On the other hand, it charges a monthly account fee.

How we ranked fees

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

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo 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 Interactive Investor for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing, commissions are the most important fees.

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

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

Interactive Investor trading fees

Interactive investor trading fees are average.

You can choose from three fee structures which differ based on the monthly account fee and the fees charged for certain products. In each plan, Interactive Investor provides free credit of £7.99 every month to be used against any trade. Each free credit can be used for 90 days. 

In this review, we calculated with the Investor service plan.

Interactive Investor partnered with Gain Capital's City Index brand, LCG, and Saxo Bank. Forex, CFD, spread betting, and futures trading are available through their platforms. You can check the fees at Gain Capital and Saxo Bank in our reviews.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Interactive Investor has generally average stock and ETF commission. For UK and US stocks, it's lower than Hargreaves Lansdown but higher than DEGIRO.

Fund fees

Interactive Investor fund fees are low. As you can see, they are slightly lower than DEGIRO's but still higher than Hargreaves Lansdown's fund fees.

Bond fees

Interactive Investor has generally low bond fees. It charges less than its competitors.

Non-trading fees

Interactive Investor has low non-trading fees. 

It charges no inactivity fee and there is also no withdrawal fee with the standard withdrawal. Withdrawal fees are charged if you make an instant withdrawal for GBP and EUR or if you make a withdrawal in other than these currencies. 

On the negative side, there is a monthly account fee which is different for each service plan.

When you transfer in a currency or trade with an asset different from your account base currency, a currency conversion fee is charged. The FX fees start at 1.5% margin and get lower rates if more amount is exchanged.

Opening an account with Interactive Investor is fast and fully digital. There is no minimum deposit. An account opening can be troublesome if you lived outside the UK during the past 3 years.

Can you open an account?

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What is the minimum deposit at Interactive Investor?

There is no required minimum deposit at Interactive Investor.

As there is a flat monthly subscription fee to use the platform, you need to have this amount available in your account. Alternatively, you can set up a direct debit to pay the monthly fees.

Account types

Interactive Investor has a variety of accounts available in the UK:

In this review, we tested the Trading Account. 

Trading Account is the only one available in Ireland.

How to open your account

For UK residents, opening an account is a straightforward and fast procedure. Verification goes online. If successful, you're done in about 10 minutes. 

Issues arise if you lived outside of the UK in the past three years. There is no option to provide a non-UK address. Here onwards, you are poised to fail their online verification which makes the process not user-friendly.

If their online verification fails, you'll need to send in certified copies of your:

1. proof of identity, e.g. passport or UK driver's license, and
2. proof of residence, e.g. bank statement or utility bill. 

In our experience, these copies are received and processed surprisingly quickly (1-2 business days). However, we had a hiccup with the verification process, so the documents that were posted were very not immediately accepted by Interactive Investor. Following this, they didn't reply to our email for 14 days, but then they replied to our follow-up email the next day. It was an experience of the extremes: Interactive Investor was either super responsive or extremely not.

The deposit and withdrawal are easy, quick, and in most cases, free. You can also use credit/debit cards for deposits. On the negative side, electronic wallets and credit/debit cards for withdrawal are missing.

Account base currencies

At Interactive Investor, you can choose from 9 base currencies. The available base currencies are: GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, HKD, SGD, AUD, SEK, CHF. If you are in Ireland, CHF and SEK are not supported.

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. Revolut or Transferwise both 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.

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Deposit fees and options

Depositing money is free with ii.

Using a debit card, you can deposit money instantly up to GBP 99,999. You can also send in money via a bank transfer. If you wish to transfer in money other than GBP or EUR, you will need to contact ii for the bank details where each respective currency could be sent to.

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

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

Interactive Investor withdrawal fees and options

Standard withdrawals in GBP or EUR are free with Interactive Investor. Withdrawals can only be made via bank transfer.

If you wish to withdraw money in any of the other currencies, it can be done for an extra fee. For USD and CAD, you can request the withdrawal online. Unfortunately, withdrawal requests for the rest of the currencies (AUD, CHF, HKD, SEK, SGD) can only be made via phone. 

How long does it take to withdraw money from Interactive Investor? If your withdrawal request is submitted before 2 pm, it can arrive the next day. Otherwise, it will take 2 business days. For a fee, urgent same-day transfers can be requested before 2 pm. You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How do you withdraw money from ii?

• Once logged in, click on the "cash and transfers" button in the top header
• Select "withdraw/transfer cash" 
• Click on the orange "Bank transfer" button
• Add your bank account or choose from the list of accounts you previously added. Click the orange "Transfer" button next to the one you wish to withdraw the funds to
• Specify the amount, the investment account you want to withdraw money from, the withdrawal type (standard or urgent), and if you want to set up a recurring withdrawal
• Tick the box that you accept the conditions of the withdrawal and click the orange "Check and Preview" button
• If all the details seem correct, click the orange "Confirm" button

Compare to other brokers

Interactive Investor's web platform is user-friendly and easy to use. There are no two-step login option and the platform cannot be customized.

Interactive Investor has its own platform, except when you trade with forex, CFDs, spread betting, or futures. In these cases, you will use Interactive Investor's partners' trading platforms. You can read more about Gain Capital's City Index and Saxo Bank's trading platforms. Now, we concentrate on Interactive Investor's own platform.

Interactive Investor's web trading platform is available in English.

Look and feel

The Interactive Investor web trading platform is user-friendly and it is easy to get around. The platform's customizability is limited though.

Login and security

Interactive Investor provides a two-step authentication only when you log in to the web platform from a new device. In this case, the platform will ask for the last 4 digits of your phone number, and then a verification code sent via text message to this number. On subsequent logins, you only get one-step verification.

Search functions

The search functions work as you would expect. You can search by typing both a company's name or asset's ticker and during the search, a relevant list appears. You can also search based on investment types and based on markets.

The search fields can be found in more places. For example, on the bottom of the page or when you click on "Research" > "Find an investment" sections.

Placing orders

You can use the following basic order types. The list is quite limited, you won't find very sophisticated orders like the "one cancels the other" order:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop Loss

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

There are also order time limits you can use: Fill or Kill, Good 'til date (GTD)

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications via email or SMS. The range of alerts is very limited, you can set alerts only for price movements.

Portfolio and fee reports

Interactive Investor has clear portfolio and fee reports. These can be found in the "Portfolio" section. 

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The Interactive Investor mobile trading platform looks neat and it is user-friendly. It lacks two-step login and you can't set alerts.

Similarly to the web trading platform, you can use Interactive Investor's own mobile trading platform at accounts except for CFD and spread betting account.

The mobile trading platform is available in English. 

We tested Interactive Investor's own mobile trading platform. It is available both on iOS and Android. We tested it on iOS.

Look and feel

The Interactive Investor mobile trading platform is user-friendly and it has a neat and simplistic design.

Login and security

Interactive Investor provides a two-step verification only when you log in for the first time, then you only get a one-step login. 

You can log in using biometric authentication. It's a convenient feature.

Search functions

The search functions are good. You can search in the same manner as on the web trading platform.

Placing orders

You can use the same order types and order terms as on the web trading platform.

Alerts and notifications

The major difference compared to the web trading platform is that you can't set alerts. You can't even set mobile push notifications. This is a big drawback of the mobile platform.

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Interactive Investor does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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Interactive Investor offers stocks, ETFs, funds, and bonds. Funds and bonds cover only the UK market. Other asset classes, like forex, futures, or CFDs are available through partners.

Interactive Investor has a great fund and average stock and ETF offers. The bond offer lags behind the competitors.

If you prefer forex, CFDs, spread betting, or futures, you have to open an account with one of Interactive Investor's partners: Gain Capital's City Index brand, LCG, or Saxo Bank. You can read more about City Index's and Saxo Bank's product offers through the links.

Stocks and ETFs

Interactive Investor gives you access to European, Australian, some North American, and some Asian stock exchanges. 

The number of stocks and ETFs lags behind DEGIRO's portfolio and it is similar to Hargreaves Lansdown's offer.

These stock exchanges available at Interactive Investor:

Funds

The mutual fund offer is great. It is similar to Hargreaves Lansdown's fund offer and wider than DEGIRO's range of funds.

Bonds

It's not transparent which bonds you can trade at Interactive Investor.

We found only UK government bonds. The number is smaller than what Hargreaves Lansdown or DEGIRO have.

The research tools are easy to navigate, you won't have any problems with finding what you are looking for. Sophisticated analytic and charting tools are missing.

We tested the research tools on the web trading platform. The research tools are good and useful, however, there is a limited range that you can use. 

All research tools have nice and clean visuals. The drawback of the platform is that the charting tool and the analytic tools are quite limited in their data and customizability.

Trading ideas

Interactive Investor does not provide trading ideas. They have some articles on their "News" section about current market news, but there are no specific suggestions on the trading platform.

Fundamental data

Charting

Interactive Investor has poor charting tools. You can use 7 technical indicators. This is a way smaller number than what most brokers provide. 

News feed

Quality news feed is available from several screens on the interface. You can access the main news feed even without a trading account.

• the main news flow are articles by resident authors of Interactive Investor and some guest authors 
• the news section of the fundamental data screen combines news, reports, and company announcements

Other research tools you will enjoy

There is a technical analysis tool, called Technical Insights. It shows the patterns emerged on the charts. It also shows whether bullish or bearish price moves are expected.

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Interactive Investor's customer service is fast to reply both via phone and email. On the flip side, there is no 24/7 availability and live chat is not provided.

You can contact Interactive Investor via:

• telephone
• email

Interactive Investor's phone support was great. They connected in under a minute and we got relevant answers.

The email support works well too. We got answers within 1 day and they were relevant.

We missed 24/7 availability and the live chat. You can contact them between 07:45 am - 17:30 pm GMT

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Interactive Investor's educational content is well-designed and it is available for free. They provide demo accounts under the name "Research Account".

At Interactive Investor you can learn in the following ways:

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

We really liked that Interactive Investor publishes articles frequently about relevant topics in the investment world. Some of these are news, but many of them have an educational purpose as well. It is a plus that many of these articles are also available in a video format. 

Interactive Investor offers a demo account as well, named "Research Account". It is free of any charges.

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Interactive Investor is regulated by FCA, a top-tier regulator, as such you are eligible for £85,000 of investor protection. Interactive Investor is a private company, not listed on any stock exchange.

Is Interactive Investor regulated?

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

Interactive Investor is based in the UK founded in 1995. It was incorporated in 2003 in its current format.

Is Interactive Investor 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

Background

Interactive Investor is a direct-to-investor investment service, with headquarters in the United Kingdom. It was incorporated in 2003 in its current form, and its ancestor company, Interactive Investor International was founded in 1995. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Interactive Investor's majority is owned by the private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. It is a well-established player in the private equity field focused on the financial services sector. You can find out more about Interactive Investor's ownership and management on their website.

Being in operation for a long time, owned by a reputable private equity firm, and regulated by a top-tier regulator are all great signs for Interactive Investor's safety.

Nonetheless, financial information is not publicly available for Interactive Investor. This would add another layer to its safety. 

Find your safe broker

Interactive Investor is one of the biggest UK brokers regulated by the top-tier FCA.

It has user-friendly and well-designed trading platforms. The deposit and withdrawal are easy and fast. Its customer service is great, you will get relevant answers within a short time.

It has some drawbacks though. The product offer covers only traditional products, like stock or funds and mostly on the UK market. The technical research tools are limited, and there is a monthly account fee.

As there is no minimum deposit and you can use great trading platforms, feel free to try Interactive Investor.

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