Trading 212 vs InvestEngine Referral Offers

Trading 212

Trading 212 Review UK: What Does Commission-Free Really Cost?

Cheap to run if you mostly buy and hold. There's no commission and no custody or platform fee, the Stocks and Shares ISA starts at £1, and the one charge Trading 212 itself makes on investing is a 0.15% FX fee when you trade something priced in another currency: £1.50 on a £1,000 US share purchase, and about the same again when you sell. The catches sit elsewhere. Interest on cash stays off until you switch it on, and outside the Cash ISA and SIPP that cash can sit in money market funds that aren't bank deposits. Card deposits cost 0.7% after your first £2,000, a full ISA transfer out sells your fractional shares, and slow transfers and identity checks lead the recent complaints. The free share is worth £8 to £100, so plan on £8: a small extra, not a reason to open the account. Capital at risk.

InvestEngine

InvestEngine Review: £0 Platform Fee, ETFs Only. What's the Catch?

For a patient ETF investor, InvestEngine is very cheap. DIY portfolios have no platform, account, dealing, FX or withdrawal fee, so £10,000 in an ETF charging 0.03% costs about £3 a year in fund charges, plus a spread InvestEngine doesn't publish. Managed portfolios add a 0.25% fee, which comes to about £43 to £45 a year all-in on the same £10,000. The cost that isn't on the price list: InvestEngine keeps all the interest on your uninvested cash. The trade-offs are once-a-day trading, three to four working days to get money out of an invested portfolio, email-only support, and no shares, Lifetime ISA or Junior ISA. Treat the referral bonus as a sweetener: three times in four it is £20 to £24, the expected value from InvestEngine's own odds is about £30, and it has to stay invested alongside your £100 for 12 months.