We live in a digital age where everything is just at our fingertips. The future is now, and that includes the investment world. Technology has given us more options to invest online or via smartphone apps than ever before. You can choose to invest money in the stock market, buy real estate properties, trade cryptocurrency, or anything else you can imagine investing in. The best investment apps UK are giving people the opportunity to grow their portfolios whether they are experienced investors or just beginning to learn how to be successful with investing.
Are you interested in learning about the best investment platforms UK? If so, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’re going to discuss the top online investment platforms and apps available in the UK.
Wealthify
I’ve looked at Wealthify in more detail elsewhere, and it’s safe to say that it does impress quite a bit. It’s probably one of the best money investment apps in the UK right now purely based on its freedom of choice.
Wealthify lets you take the bull by the horns to a wide degree, meaning that if you’re unsure how much you’d like to invest, or if you want to plunge straight in and invest a stack of money in a given fund or sector, the app will support you. You can easily set goals and parameters through this app, and it’s pretty easy to manage everything from a small screen. On top of this, Wealthify will never charge you extra if you want to take your money away. That’s a definite plus point.
Fund charges appear to level out around 0.22% for the year, and you can expect a maximum of 0.7% applied to your yearly investments. There are, however, transaction fees you need to look out for, with a rate of 0.7% applying on the flat.
The bright and breezy appeal of the interface, as well as the lack of a minimum investment requirement, is going to appeal to plenty of people. It’s one of many Android investing apps that’s worth looking at if you really don’t know where to start.
Interactive Investor
Interactive Investor has more than 40,000 investments to choose from, including UK and overseas shares, funds, investment trusts, and ETFs. You get a free trade every month, which you can use to buy or sell any investment. It is free to top up your ISA each month, and there are no trading fees with its regular investing service. It also has several ready-made funds and expert ideas to make it easy to choose investments. Interactive Investor’s products include Trading Account, Stocks and Shares ISA, SIPP, and Junior ISA.
eToro
This investment app allows you to buy and sell stocks and shares on the world’s biggest stock exchanges, including London and New York, as well as more than 15 cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency (virtual or digital money) is one of the fastest group forms of investment. eToro’s investment app is known for its intuitive and user-friendly design. Social trading is also one of its many selling points, thanks to a community of 12 million customers.
Trading 212
Trading 212 does a lot of advertising and while searching for an investment app on Google Play, I decided to take the plunge with them. You can read my Trading 212 review here where I take an i-depth look at the funds I selected and discuss their performance.
Registration
The app is reassuringly slick and the registration was quick and simple. It involves scanning your ID (you can use passport or driving licence), and taking a photograph of yourself. Both using the app.
Buying stocks
First off the bat, the CFD trading came with a warning about the losses that some traders make using this platform, so I gave that a wide berth. I already have a Stocks and Shares ISA, so wouldn’t be able to open another this tax year, so I plumped for the Stocks Investing platform.
To get started, I loaded £25 and split it between 5 companies. 4 that I knew of and 1 wildcard.
The companies I chose were Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba and Beyond Meat (an American company specialising in vegan and vegetarian foods). Again the process was straightforward.
It’s easy to click through to a profile page for any company and check their share price, past performance and more. There’s also a potted history of the company. The whole experience is reassuringly slick and a lot of thoguht has gone into the app.
The general layout, graphics and diagrams are nicely laid out and pleasing to the eye. Most importantly, for the novice, they are all easy to understand and there’s very little jargon or industry terms to put a beginner off.
As with other trading apps there is a practice area within the app where you are generously given a virtual £50,000. In this virtual arena, I split my funds between four stocks. Tesla, Zoom, Microsoft and NIO who are a Chinese electronic vehicle components manufacturer.
In summary, Trading 212 is:
- Easy to get up and running with
- Is clearly laid out
- Feels secure with fingerprint sign-in enabled
- Great for the novice as you can start investing from £1
Freetrade
Freetrade is a modern-take on retail investing. It’s got a clean and easy to use app with a hot-pink colour scheme. Freetrade’s fees are its main draw – you can trade with zero commission on a huge selection of shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and investment trusts, including US shares. If you want to invest in an ISA, you can do so with a small monthly fee.
Hargreaves Lansdown
Kickstart your investing with an award-winning ISA. Hargreaves Lansdown has thousands of investments to choose from, including UK and overseas shares, funds, investment trusts, and ETFs. Choose your own investments with expert research and ideas to help you, or simply pick a ready-made portfolio. Manage via website, app or phone. Hargreaves Lansdown’s services include Stocks and Shares ISA, Lifetime ISA, Junior ISA, Fund and Share Account, and SIPP. These services are intended for investors happy at making their own decisions. Capital at risk. Other charges apply.
IG
This app is definitely worth mentioning for its choice, with access to more than 10,000 shares, funds, and trusts. IG has a well designed and easy-to-use app and a standalone app called the IG Academy for teaching beginners about the world of investment. Their minimum deposit is higher than others at £250, but the apps are highly rated.
Fineco
Fineco lets you access more than 26 markets worldwide and trade more than 20,000 financial instruments. It’s pretty new for UK traders but is one of Europe’s largest banks. Fineco lets you trade futures, stocks, currencies, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options and funds. It has an advanced platform on offer with great charting tools and notifications. For beginners it’s got free webinars, live events and videos to teach you all about share trading and keep you in the loop about what’s going on in the stock market.
InvestEngine
InvestEngine is a UK investment platform providing ready-made and commission-free DIY investments. Users can invest in ETFs through a Stocks and Shares ISA, personal account or business account. With InvestEngine, there are no setup fees, dealing fees, ISA fees or withdrawal fees. If you choose the DIY Portfolio, you can invest in ETFs commission-free.
Moneyfarm
To kick things off let’s take a look at Moneyfarm. Moneyfarm may not have received the same amount of press as some as the other apps on this list, but it is certainly worth looking into. The app is intuitive and friendly enough to appeal to most beginners and casual investors, and what’s more, you can ask the app to provide you with a starter portfolio based on your knowledge level. Moneyfarm appears to take risk level with knowledge and attitude pretty seriously – which is a good thing.
You can invest via a pension, a general investment account or an investment ISA as you see fit. The platform management fee starts at 0.75% for any amount between £500 – £10,000 and then the fee starts to drop based on the amount invested. So it’s all very competitive in terms of fees.
Moneyfarm is a nice and easy platform to get started with. Their responsible attitude to risk levels along with fully managed portfolios, competitive fees and a minimum investment amount of just £500 makes it a great option for casual or beginner investors looking to get started without any fuss.
Conclusion:
With binary options demo account the UK, it is easily possible to start with forex trading UK without investing your money or having to make an initial deposit. You can even begin immediately after you have completed all the registration steps online. You will see promos about the best investment platforms the UK. When you know more about these companies, you will be able to make an informed decision about what is best for your family’s needs.