AJ Bell Dodl Review: Is investing really that easy?

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AJ Bell Dodl say they are your low-cost, little-effort investment app that offers a range of funds, themed investments and shares through an investment ISA, investment lifetime ISA, pension or GIA.

On this page you’ll find the latest customer reviews of Dodl, along with Good Money Guide’s expert breakdown of it.

Customer Reviews

4.5
4.5 out of 5 stars (based on 35 reviews)
Excellent69%
Very good17%
Average8%
Poor6%
Terrible0%

Excellent for low cost trading….

21st June 2024

Excellent for low cost trading. Wish it had a web view

Andrew Barber

Excellent for low cost trading….

21st June 2024

Excellent for low cost trading. Wish it had a web view

Andrew Barber

So far so good

19th June 2024

So far so good

Eunice Onwuamaegbu

OK not used much

15th June 2024

OK not used much

David Bosworth

Very good

11th June 2024

Very good

Jonathan Ball

Very informative, easy to use…

7th June 2024

Very informative, easy to use & friendly

Lisa Jurevicius

5/5

7th June 2024
John Binding

Great value and very user…

7th June 2024

Great value and very user friendly – aimed at younger investors and great for thid

Lorraine Globe

excellent platform for new investors,…

6th June 2024

excellent platform for new investors, giving good value for ease of investing in a range of products

Andrew Southcott

I’m can’t express enough how…

6th June 2024

I’m can’t express enough how fantastic Dodl have been, the customer support, easy access and use of the app. Coupled with the fact they were the only provider on the market who allowed me as an over 40 women to transfer my LISA. I’ve recommend several friends and family to Dodl and the wider AJ Bell group

Charlotte Galt

Great fees if choosing the…

6th June 2024

Great fees if choosing the right funds

Brad Tillett

They make it look easy…

6th June 2024

They make it look easy and safe

Ionut Murariu

Good investment. Good returns. Reasonable…

6th June 2024

Good investment. Good returns. Reasonable fees.

Janet Schulz

Dodl is excellent for helping…

6th June 2024

Dodl is excellent for helping you find your bearings whilst leaning to invest.

Wayne Baitson

Dodl by AJ BEll is…

6th June 2024

Dodl by AJ BEll is easy to use as it is accessed via an app on my phone – making it simple to check on my investment at any time.

Andrew Fraser Crombie

Easy to invest and money…

6th June 2024

Easy to invest and money is secure (well, as secure as the stock market can be)

William Ralphs

The friendliest investment platform! Simple…

6th June 2024

The friendliest investment platform! Simple to use and quick. Excellent guidance and FAQs. I used the chat function for support and had instant replies with all the answers.

Frederick Gatfield

Dodl is easy and cheap…

6th June 2024

Dodl is easy and cheap operate with advice on the basics.

Terry Young

This is my platform of…

6th June 2024

This is my platform of choice

Lesley Findlay-Bill

Easy to use without needing…

6th June 2024

Easy to use without needing to be an investing expert.

Sam Rogers

Easy to use.

24th May 2024

Easy to use.

Sam

Very concise and useful interface…

23rd May 2024

Very concise and useful interface good if tou don’t want to swamp yourself with research.

Mark H Jones

Great customer service chat function,…

22nd May 2024

Great customer service chat function, cheap and easy to invest.

Joe Powell

No thoughts

22nd May 2024

No thoughts

John Woodberry

4/5

24th February 2023

Pros:

Simplicity of language

Cons:

More investment options – get rid of the silly red character too.

GMG Awards Voter: [118252011019]

5/5

22nd February 2023
GMG Awards Voter: [118249767711]

5/5

21st February 2023
GMG Awards Voter: [118249571712]

5/5

18th February 2023
GMG Awards Voter: [118247313173]

3/5

15th February 2023

Pros:

Free trading

Cons:

Need more shares and also need ETF’s on the platform

GMG Awards Voter: [118244595292]

3/5

15th February 2023

Pros:

Might be good for beginners but limited in universe of investments available

Cons:

Expand universe of investments

GMG Awards Voter: [118244554615]

4/5

14th February 2023

Pros:

Simplicity, low cost Lifestrategy

Cons:

Calling the funds by actual names rather than nicknames

GMG Awards Voter: [118243735583]

2/5

14th February 2023
GMG Awards Voter: [118243700985]

5/5

14th February 2023

Pros:

Economical priced

Cons:

More range and child isa

GMG Awards Voter: [118243692835]

2/5

4th February 2023

Pros:

Low fees

Cons:

Greater investment choice

GMG Awards Voter: [118236665422]

5/5

23rd January 2023

Pros:

Simple to use, no jargon

Cons:

More investment info

GMG Awards Voter: [118225577765]

5/5

18th January 2023

Pros:

How easy it is to use and get started

Cons:

larger range of funds

GMG Awards Voter: [118222372414]

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  • Tell us what you think of this company and help others make more informed financial decisions.

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Dodl Facts & Figures

⬜ Public Company✔️ (part of AJ Bell)
👉 Number Active ClientsN/A (AJ Bell 469,000)
💰 Minimum Deposit£25 per month or £100 one off
💸 Client Fundsna (AJ Bell £73 bn)
📅 Founded2022 (AJ Bell 1995)
Account Costs
➡️ Investment Account
0.15%
➡️ SIPP
0.15% (pension account)
➡️ Stocks & Shares ISA
0.15%
➡️ Junior ISA
❌ (na)
➡️ Lifetime ISA
0.15%
Dealing Costs
➡️ UK Shares
£0
➡️ US Stocks
£0
➡️ ETFs
£0
➡️ Bonds
❌ (na)
➡️ Funds£0

Capital at risk.

Dodl – Good Money Guide’s Expert Review

AJ Bell Dodl Review
Dodl by AJ Bell

Name: AJ Bell Dodl

Description: Dodl is a low-cost investment app provided by AJ Bell. The app fees are lower than AJ Bells, and they cater to newer investors by offering commission-free investing in AJ Bell funds, themed investments and a small selection of main market shares.
Capital at risk.

Why we like it

AJ Bell Dodl is a great way for the next generation of investors to invest with a “low-cost, little effort” app which focuses on making investing easy. Which it does well, Dodl is very user-friendly, has great educational content and is one of the cheapest ways to start investing.

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Low cost
  • Great for beginners

Cons

  • Limited range of investments
  • App only
  • Pricing
    (5)
  • Market Access
    (3)
  • Online Platform
    (5)
  • Customer Service
    (5)
  • Research & Analysis
    (4.5)
Overall
4.5

The thing about investing is that it needs to be done as early as possible, and never has there been a time when the young are so interested in the stock markets. That can probably be attributed to the stellar growth of big brand FAANG stocks, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) tweets, meme stocks like Gamestop, and the boom in cryptocurrency. Alarmingly enough though, all of these are probably the riskiest types of investments you could possibly make. But it’s undeniable that they are the gateway to the stock market for first-time investors. 

Beginners will no doubt get burnt, trying to time the market with highly volatile punts. But then they’ll hopefully calm down and realise that the most sensible way to invest is to leave it to the professionals, or buy and hold stocks you have an affinity with.

Investing Options With Dodl

Which is what Dodl offers. It’s a combination of app-only stock brokers like Freetrade, where you can buy stocks and robo-advisors like Nutmeg, where you can just buy funds. Dodl is one of the only investment apps for beginners that offers both. But, and rather cleverly, they have limited the stocks you can buy to only those in the FTSE 350 (the most valuable 350 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange), which is a good thing because generally, these stocks are more established and less volatile than smaller caps stocks on AIM. This means (in theory at least) they should be less risky, but still offer some good growth and income opportunities through dividends. 

You can’t buy individual stocks in the live market though, as orders are only processed once a day, obviously to keep costs down, although that actually makes it less of a stock trading app and more of an investment service. 

Backed By AJ Bell

Before I wrote this review I spoke to Emma Keywood, who was responsible for delivering Dodl for AJ Bell to entice new investors into the market. When I asked what she enjoyed most about Dodl, she said “getting the monster suit“, which was actually quite nice to hear because, AJ Bell is a very serious company, which looks after a serious amount of money (about £73bn for nearly 420,000 clients). So it’s good to see that Dodl have a sense of humour about investing, because sometimes that’s what is needed. 

She said the worst thing was the waiting, (which is what most founders say as when we interview them), despite the fact that Dodl only took 18 months to develop and launch (with the help of piggybacking on AJ Bells’ existing infrastructure). That is pretty impressive seeing as sometimes when you are dealing with legacy platforms, making a feature change can take that long.

Dodl – Making Investing Easy

Dodl’s tag line is “investing doesn’t need to be scary“, which is absolutely right, when done right. Investing isn’t scary, it’s actually incredibly boring. What you need to do is just do it, and then do nothing (or if you do want to do something, at least read the Art of Execution first). If you read any of our CEO interviews, in particular from fund managers, or the big platform CEOs like HL founder Peter Hargreaves or II CEO Richard Wilson (I haven’t managed to blag an interview with Andy Bell yet), they all say that one of the most important things to do is start investing early. Because the longer you are in the market, the more chance you have to make money.

And the Dodl app does make it really easy to invest and the interface is simple. I managed to open an account in minutes, and you get the option to invest via a share dealing account, Stocks and shares ISA or private pension in a range of AJ Bell funds from cautious to risky or (as is essential now for the ESG-inclined) the AJ Bell Responsible Fund. If you want to invest based on a theme rather than risk, you can choose some friendly named funds like ‘The Home Team’ (HSBC FTSE 250 Index Fund) or ‘Across the Pond’ (Blackrock’s iShares US Equity Index Fund), or funds based on tech stocks or bonds. 

It’s a bit annoying you can’t see the fund holdings on the Dodl app. Even though when investing in funds, you are putting your faith in the fund manager to do the hard work, it would still be nice to see what a fund’s top ten holdings are. Obviously, you can look this up on trustnet, but having it integrated into the app would be more engaging.

Small Investors & beginners

You can invest lump sums or drip-feed money into the market on a monthly basis, (monthly investing is a great way to ensure that you build your portfolio on autopilot) and Dodl has some of the cheapest investment accounts fees (0.15%) of any of the investing apps. (Nutmeg charges 0.45% to 0.75%, Wealthify charges 0.6% and even AJ Bell’s main platform charges 0.25%).

There are a few areas where I think the Dodl team has missed a trick though. It would be better if it integrated with the main AJ Bell platform, so as clients progress and become more sophisticated, they can simply make the switch to a more grown-up account with more investment options. The educational elements are very digestible for those about to start investing, but I would like to see firms, trying to educate earlier, before they hit 18, so a gamified version would be fantastic, to help children understand the importance of compound investing returns. 7IM tried it with 7IMagine (developed by some of their clients, who incidentally developed the original Donkey Kong game). 

I’m sure it would be easier to explain using a friendly monster than technical terms for children, but I find the Monster a little too childish for 18+. Dodl said though, that the Monster actually tested very positively, so who am I to argue with that as am definitely not their target market and no doubt with the backing and supervision of AJ Bell, they have been very thorough.

There is a little niggle in the back of my mind though – I wonder how long Dodl will be around as usually, these apps get developed in the other direction. In that entrepreneurs create an app at a loss that really engages with a younger audience and then gets bought out by one of the bigger boys after they have onboarded loads of clients (think Nutmeg being bought by JP Morgan, or Rooster Money being bought by NatWest). 

I got that feeling with PagoFX when I interviewed their CEO. PagoFX was a money transfer app that was launched by Santander, where the bank essentially created a cheaper version of something they already offered. Because they were encumbered by compliance issues, weren’t able to market it or promote it in the nimble ways that a gung-ho start-up can.

Should You Invest With Dodl?

Hopefully, though, Dodl can overcome that and get lots of people investing the right way by smashing out some great social media advertising, because the AJ Bell brand is probably a bit too fuddy-duddy for the TikTok generation. If my children used Dodl to start investing I’d be delighted because it is certainly a safe, cheap and easy way to start building a portfolio. Plus, when you are ready to graduate to a proper AJ Bell account, it’s free to transfer your positions out.

Capital at risk.

Dodl – Exclusive Video Demo

Here you can see us testing the Dodl app and buying some shares in BT.

Capital at risk.

Is A Dodl Pension Any Good?

Yes, a Dodl pension costs 0.15% of the value of your investments in each account, per year. This is charged monthly with a minimum of £1. An AJ Bell Dodl pension is for beginners and has a limited range of investments, but the full AJ Bell platform lets you invest in thousands of shares, funds and ETFs in a SIPP.

An AJ Bell Dodl pension is for beginners and has a limited range of investments, but the full AJ Bell platform lets you invest in thousands of shares, funds and ETFs in a SIPP.

AJ Bell Dodl’s pension lets you invest in some of the largest funds and shares in the UK and US. They are backed by AJ Bell, and as the pension is aimed at first time investors, costs are very low.

Capital at risk.

What Funds Are Available On AJ Bell Dodl?

You can only invest in own brand AJ Bell funds and a small selection of themed funds from main stream providers like Vanguard with Dodl. However, even though the choice is limited, it is more than enough for new investors to get started.

    • Investments: Shares, ETFs, funds
    • Minimum deposit: £1
    • Account types: GIA, ISA, Pension, LISA
    • Account charge: 0.15%
    • Dealing fee: £0

AJ Bell Dodl lets you invest in a range of AJ Bell funds with different levels of risk. Dodl has also put together a range of thematic funds with descriptive names to make picking your investments easier.

Pension Fees: Dodl charges your account 0.15% of the value of your funds per year (min £1 per month).

Capital at risk.

Who Is AJ Bell Dodl’s ISA Aimed At?

I’d say Dodl are aiming their ISA at people who are just starting their investment journey and want a easy, friendly, cheap stocks and share ISA with simple investment choices.

  • Investments: Shares, ETFs, funds
  • Minimum deposit: £100 or £25 per month
  • Account types: GIA, ISA, Pension, LISA
  • ISA Account charge: 0.15%
  • Dealing fee: £0

AJ Bell Dodl’s ISA is a great option of beginner investors as costs are super low making it ideal for small portfolios. The app is user friendly and as they are part of AJ Bell new investors are in safe hands.

Capital at risk.

How Risky Is An AJ Bell Dodl Lifetime ISA?

An AJ Bell Dodl lifetime ISA is a stocks and shares ISA which means you are choosing to invest your money in the stock market, which can go up and down. Dodl is a safe and regulated lifetime ISA, but the main disadvantage of a lifetime ISA is, like all investing, you could get back less than you originally put in.

  • Investments: Shares, ETFs, bonds & funds
  • Minimum deposit: £100 or £25 per month
  • LISA fund charges: 0.15%
  • LISA share charges: 0.15% 
  • Dealing fee: £0

AJ Bell Dodl’s lifetime ISA is a great choice for beginners who want a low cost and simple way to take advantage of the government bonus and have easy investment options.

Capital at risk.

Should You Open An AJ Bell Dodl General Investment Account Or An ISA?

If you have already opened an ISA this tax year, you’ll need a AJ Bell Dodl general investment account (GIA) as you can only open one stocks and shares ISA per year.

An AJ Bell Dodl GIA is a great option of beginner investors as costs are super low making it ideal for small portfolios. 

Capital at risk.

Buying US Stocks Is Now a Dodl

In October 2022 Dodl introduced a range of 30 blue-chip US stocks that can be traded using the Dodl App.

What US Stocks Can You Trade Using Dodl?

You can trade various US stocks on Dodl including internet and technology giants such as Amazon and Alphabet, the owner of Google, as well as old economy names such as 3M, Visa and Coca-Cola. There are many consumer-facing stocks such as Disney, McDonald’s and Starbucks, and pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Moderna.

Dodl users are able to trade and invest in these stocks paying dealing fees of just 0.15%, though there will also be a 0.75% FX charge, as you will be dealing in US dollars and not pounds sterling.

Which Account Types Can Trade US Stocks Using The Dodl App?

All of Dodl’s account types will be able to access US share trading, be they ISAs, pensions, or General Investing Accounts (GIAs).

The 30 US stocks join a range of UK shares that are drawn from nine different sectors, as well as a series of specially selected funds, run by AJ Bell, and themed investments that cater for various risk appetites and geographies. Dodl also allows you to save and invest regular monthly amounts, via a direct debit, starting at just £25.00.

Has Dodl Made Any Other Changes?

Yes – Dodl has made some changes to its terms and conditions. For example the daily order cut-off time has been moved to 3pm from 11am to accommodate US trading.

Dodl aggregates its trades combining customer orders together into larger transactions and then polls the market for quotations, using electronic order management systems and RSPs.

Dodl clients who want to deal in US stocks will also need to complete form W-8BEN from the US Department of the Treasury, which clarifies their US tax status if any. Though we note that pension accounts are exempt from this form.

The platform’s website advises that you read through the new T&Cs to refresh your understanding of them, even if you are an existing user.

The new offering from Dodl isn’t going to set the world on fire, in terms of its coverage or its charging structure. However it shows the direction of travel for the Dodl app, and we would expect the list of US shares available to grow over time, and for stocks from other jurisdictions, such as Europe to be added to the app in due course.

Capital at risk.

Dodl FAQs

Dodl gives you access to a wide range of the largest shares listed on the UK and US stock exchanges. If you are interested in investing in smaller-cap and higher-risk stocks, AJ Bell may be more appropriate for you.

Dodl is owned by established investment platform AJ Bell. It was set up to encourage younger investors to start investing who may have thought the traditional stock brokerage too advanced.

Dodl makes money by charging an account fee of 0.15% of the value of your portfolio. There is a minimum £1 monthly charge, making them one of the cheapest investment apps for small accounts.

Yes, Dodl is one of the cheapest ways to start investing in shares and ready-made funds.

With Dodl you can invest through these account types:

  • investment ISA
  • lifetime ISA
  • pension
  • general investment account

Yes, AJ Bell Dodl is a safe investment app, based on our metrics and the fact they are owned by AJ Bell which is public company listed on the London Stock Exchange and regulated by the FCA.

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