Fractional shares are one of the biggest innovations in the investment world in recent years. With these products, you can buy a fraction of one share, which can be very helpful if a stock has a very high share price. Are fractional shares available in the UK? Absolutely – here are some platforms that offer them.
UK investment platforms that offer fractional shares
Today, a range of brokers in the UK offer fractional shares including:
- Freetrade
- Robinhood
- Trading 212
- Charles Schwab
- IG
- Revolut
Sadly, some popular brokers such as Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell don’t offer them yet. You can check to see if your ISA provider supports fractional shares here.
Can fractional shares be held inside a Stocks and Shares ISA?
Fractional shares can be held inside an ISA today. Originally, HRMC said that these shares would be not be eligible for ISAs, however, in 2024, it backtracked and said that qualifying fractional shares (listed on a recognised exchange) can be held inside an ISA.
What are the pros and cons of fractional shares?
Fractional shares allow you to buy a portion of a company’s share rather than the whole share. This can be particularly useful when investing in companies that have share prices in the hundreds or thousands of pounds/dollars region.
Because they enable you to buy portions of shares, they can be a great diversification tool. Rather than committing a large portion of your portfolio to a single stock, fractional shares allow you to invest smaller amounts in multiple companies across different sectors and markets.
Diversification is one of the most important principles of investing because it helps reduce risk – if one company or sector performs poorly, gains in other parts of the portfolio can help offset those losses. Fractional investing makes this strategy far more accessible, especially for newer investors or those building a portfolio gradually. By lowering the cost barrier to diversification, fractional shares give investors a simple and flexible way to build a balanced portfolio and reduce the risks of putting too much money into a single investment.
Additionally, they can be useful for those regularly investing smaller amounts of money. Many platforms allow investors to set up monthly contributions and automatically allocate funds across several investments using fractional shares.
On the downside, if you switch ISA providers, fractional shares usually cannot be transferred directly. They typically have to be sold and then repurchased with the new provider, although, because this happens within the ISA wrapper, any profits remain tax-free.
Based in London, Edward is a distinguished investment writer with an extensive client portfolio comprising a diverse array of prominent financial services firms across the globe. With over 15 years of hands-on experience in private wealth management and institutional asset management, both in the UK and Australia, he possesses a profound understanding of the finance industry.
Before establishing himself as a writer, Edward earned a Commerce degree from the prestigious University of Melbourne. Complementing his academic background, he holds the esteemed Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and is a proud holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification.
Widely recognised as a sought-after investment expert, Edward’s insightful perspectives and analyses have been featured on sites such as BlackRock, Credit Suisse, WisdomTree, Motley Fool, eToro, and CMC Markets, among others.
