- Experts rate the Interactive Investor Stocks & Shares ISA highly, particularly for larger portfolios, noting that the fixed monthly fee structure is advantageous for high-value accounts. However, they caution that the costs can be prohibitive for smaller investments, and highlight the platform's excellent market access and customer service as key strengths.
- Across 1125 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 4.3/5, customers frequently commend the platform's user-friendly interface, efficient customer service, and the appealing flat-fee structure for trading. However, some users express concerns about high fees for smaller accounts and the platform's performance tracking capabilities, with a few reporting issues with missing funds and clunky navigation.
interactive investor Stocks & Shares ISA Expert rating
Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.Our experts have rated interactive investor Stocks & Shares ISA across five key areas of our review framework.
- Pricing4.5
- Market Access5.0
- App & Platform5.0
- Customer Service5.0
- Research & Analysis4.5
Pros
- Pick your own investments or use their model portfolios
- Established provider with great market access
- Fixed account fee that does not increase with your investments
Cons
- Fixed fee is expensive for very small accounts below £1,000
- Limited historic managed ISA performance figures
See full expert review
Our verdict
Interactive Investor has previously won the Good Money Guide award for best stocks and shares ISA account as they offer one of the cheapest investment ISAs that provides access to over 40,000 shares and 3,000 funds, as well as investment trusts, ETFs and bonds. They are a good choice for people that want to take control of what they invest in.
Capital at risk
Is the Interactive Investor ISA any good?
Yes, we rate the Interactive Investor ISA as very good, especially for high-value accounts as the account costs do not rise with your portfolio value. Plus, there are DIY and managed ISA options. However, for smaller accounts, the fixed monthly fee is expensive, so ii is a better ISA account for larger investors.
Pricing: An ii ISA costs from £5.99 per month for portfolios up to £100,000 invested and if you are buying US stocks FX fees reduced to a flat rate of 0.75% (this is quite expensive)
However, if you opt for the Plus account at £14.99 per month you also get fee-free accounts for up to 5 family members, unlimited free Junior ISAs, cheaper fund (£1.49 vs £3.99) and international trades (ex. UK/US £7.99 vs £9.99), FX fees are also reduced (0.75% up to £50,000 and 0.25% for amounts over £50,000), one free monthly trade (worth £3.99)
Market Access: Very good, you can invest in small cap shares (an excellent hunting ground for growth in the UK), international shares and lots of funds, trusts and index trackers.
Apps & Platforms: Excellent (especially for a full service broker, that could be hindered by legacy tech). Easy to use, and far more market data than most new investing apps.
Customer Service: Top-notch, real people that actually answer the phone.
Added Value: Excellent social channels with interviews and market commentary, plus good market data and news on the platforms and apps.
When the interactive investor managed stocks and shares ISA turned 1 year old, we open an account, to test the platform, performance and compare it to other providers.
II does not charge any additional fees for a Stocks and Shares ISA, over and above its standard trading account charges. Whilst competitors Hargreaves Landsdown and AJ Bell both charge annual custody fees based on the value of your holdings.
How does the managed ii ISA work?
interactive investor offers both a self-managed stocks and shares ISA and a managed option, which means that you can either make your own investment decisions or buy into a pre-made portfolio. One of the key advantages about the ii ISA is that you can invest in smaller-cap shares on the AIM market which you cannot do with other investment apps like Lightyear or Freetrade.
The Managed ISA is designed for investors who want to hold investments in a tax-efficient ISA wrapper, but who don't have the time, or inclination, to research and select investments themselves. These are similar to what robo-advisors offer like Nutmeg, Wealthify and Moneyfarm,
Low-cost trackers or sustainable investing
There are two options: lost-cost index trackers, and a sustainable plan, but that is more expensive with investment costs (charged by investment manager, not ii) of 0.25%-0.29% versus 0.13% - 0.2% for the non-sustainable option. However, with the sustainable portfolio only 55%-90% of your investment is in sustainable funds (depending on how much risk you take).
But how sustainable are they? For instance, the biggest allocation of the sustainable portfolio is 33% in the iShares US ESG Index Fund, if you take on the most risk, which mainly consists of big US tech stocks like Apple (6.76%), Microsoft (5.81%) and Nvidia (3.21%).
This is opposed to the standard index tracker where the two largest holdings are abrdn American Equity Tracker (16%) which is 6.5% Apple stock and the L&G US Index Trust which has 6.45% Apple stock. So you're really only investing a small about in sustainable investments and being charged a lot more for it.
Performance
When I opened an II managed ISA to test them out I went with the minimum £250 initial deposit and set up recurring monthly investments of £50 in the Level-5 very adventurous portfolio, which according to ii would net me healthy £8,030 if the market performed as expected from £6,250 contributions (a profit of £1,780) which they calculate on assumed returns of 5%, which is a bit dull in my opinion, especially when the fees are going to be £144.55 a year or £1,445.50 over 10 years, essentialy halving my returns. more on that later.
These portfolios have just turned a year old so I wanted to have a quick look at how well they had done, but alas, ii does not publish this info. When I phoned customer services (got straight through) to find out more they said they don't have the info but woudl let me know when they do and I will let you know to.
Which I thought was odd becuause the entire reason I updated this ii managed ISA review was becuase I just received an email titled "Managed ISA turns 1 — ready to join the club?"
No I know that past performance is no reflection of future returns, (the risk warning that must apply to all investing) but I'd at least like to see a chart that can tell me if it has made or lost money in the past. Not just a bog-standard estimation based on assumed returns. I hope this gets better in the future, as clearly no-one is going to want to invest in a poorly performing product, and not being able to see historic returns sort of implies there is something to hide. Even if there isn't.
How does the II-managed ISA compare to the competition?
interactive investor's flat monthly fee charging structure will save ISA investors money over the long term.
Which brings me back to my point about ii being expensive for small portfolios. But, if you invested all £20,000 of your ISA allowance with ii, your estimated profit on the same basis would be £11,900 with £1694.80 in fees over ten years, which is less than 15% of your returns
Compare this to other managed ISAs like Wealthify who charge 0.6% where if you added your full allocation to your ISA each year your fees would be around £8k, but as interacitve investor fees are fixed, you would save nearly £6k.
According to calculations on their website, £50,000 held in an ISA with the platform for 30 years, would have grown to almost £1.20 million, assuming a growth rate of 5.0% per annum, in a mixed portfolio of funds and shares.
That's up to £45,000 more than you would have returned at rivals like Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Fidelity, and Barclays Smart Investor, according to the Interactive Investor data.
Customer reviews for interactive investor
Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.Based on 1,125 reviews
- Excellent51%
- Very good33%
- Basic10%
- Poor4%
- Bad2%
Read customer reviews
Missing Funds
My Sipp pension funds have been missing for two weeks, the company do not seem to care and can not be bothered to even return my calls.
Useless and expensive
Useless and expensive. High fees, which will continue to increase, for rubbish service. They will tell you " you can't do that online, you need to phone". Then when you find an opportunity to phone within their limited opening times, they will tell you "you can't do that on the phone, you need to do it online", then when you do it online you will wait for four days and still won't receive a response. Then you'll process a transaction and it will say it will complete by 14:00 tomorrow, but when you submit the request, it will say that it will complete three days later. There are many other cheaper or free trading platforms, use them not Interactive Investor.
Must pay fees from ISA, not SIPP
Sipp for several years. now added 'free'ISA only to find they insist on all chagres being taken from ISA, not Sipp as before
Sipp is taxable, ISA is tax free. why do we have to pay charges out of ISA?
Increased account fees.
I've been with ii for some years now, and have seen their account fees rise from £9.99 to £14.99 as of February 2026. However, what is disturbing, is that since Brexit they've introduced an additional non UK resident charge of £5.99. These year on year increases are becoming a worrying trend.
Aside from this, I have found them to be a good broker, with an easy to use web site and pleasantly helpful staff. Would recommend with a caution regarding fees.
Not so Clunky
I also amended a drawdown amount this month. an entirely automated process but admittedly hard to find. (ref Albert's comment). The new fee structure from February is excellent and improves the previous costly FX charges.
Clunky platform
I recently tried to amend the monthly drawdown amount from my II SIPP. I expected to find a simple option on their secure platform. Instead I was taken through multiple web pages and eventually asked to complete a pdf form that their site linked to and submit using their secure messaging option. I did this only to be told that the form was out of date and I would need to complete a different form. This new form requires the user to complete several text boxes some of which do not retain the election once the document is saved. It also requires a signature meaning the user must either have electronic signing facilities or a printer and scanner. It's submitted via their secure messaging platform so why require a signature? This whole process should be automated.
Investments in other currencies
While the platform for basic usage is a little more expensive than the competition, it offers a unique service of investment (including funds) in currency other than sterling.
efficient transfer. helpful customer service
efficient transfer. helpful customer service
Good range
Great range of different accounts and a decent fee structure, especially if you make a lot of trades, and will definitely save money against some of the traditional investment providers/brokers.
Excellent.
Straight forward and easy to work with. Helpful people.
Reliable service and easy to use platform
Have been with Interactive Investor for many years and have found the service to be very reliable. The online platform is straigtforward to use and the customer support team has always been helpful.
average
Commission for UK stocks when added to the monthly fee is not as cheap as first appears. For overseas transactions the fx fees are large and frankly a rip off.
Customer service is painful as they often ask for NI number which not many would know. Some customer representatives seem to think they are quiz masters rather than customer service reps, so I try to avoid the phone.
Great platform
Interactive Investor stands out as a reliable platform for serious investors who value a flat-fee structure and a wealth of investment options. While it may not be the best fit for beginners or those with smaller portfolios, its robust tools and transparency make it a compelling choice for experienced investors.
STABLE PLATFORM WITH A GOOD INTERFACE AND GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE
I have been with Interactive Investor for over a decade and highly recommend the service. The fixed fee pricing for high volume trading is excellent value.
Opening an account
Opening an account is very easy and the interface is easy to navigate
Excellent functionality, good value
I’ve been a very satisfied ii customer for many years now. They have a great range of accounts (trading, ISA, SIPP and JISA’s) all for a single monthly fee. Communication with the company is excellent when needed.
Lots of simple features, easy to use
Lots of simple features, easy to get the handle on and use ongoing. Access instant quotes and get a simple to understand historical record of transtions. Very good phone support.
Platform is good but charts are poor
I use II for most of my ISA and some of my SIPP investments. Overall the platform is excellent, fees are pretty good, however I find charts quite poor, can be glitchy when switching through different timelines, for that reason alone I keep other platform accounts where better charts are available.
Reasonable fees
There is good information on shares but they used to have brokers' views and I wish they would bring that back.
Very efficient user friendly investment platform
The fees are among the lowest around and it has a very informative platform with many very good analysis from several analysts
The interactive Investor stocks and shares ISA is a way to invest in the markets through a government-approved tax-free wrapper. Individuals can invest up to £20,000 per annum in their stocks and shares ISA or indeed across several other ISAs.
In an ISA there are no capital gains taxes on trading profits and no tax is levied on the income from stock dividends or bond coupon payments. Stocks and Shares ISAs are open to all UK residents aged 18 or over, who can open a new Stocks and Shares ISA each year.
There are many securities, both domestic and international that are ISA eligible. However, an ISA can only contain pounds sterling which means that if you trade in overseas securities you will incur FX conversion charges.
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.