How to invest on a platform

Platforms, sometimes known as fund supermarkets or online brokers, allow you to buy, hold and sell investment companies. But which platform should you choose? Read on to find out more.

There are a few things to bear in mind when choosing a platform to buy investment company shares.

First, you’ll need to make sure the platform actually offers investment companies! Most do, but as you can see from the table below, not all of them. 

Do you want to invest in anything besides investment companies, such as funds, or maybe shares or \bonds? You’ll need to check the platform offers those too.

Do you want to hold your investments in an ISA, self-invested personal pension (SIPP) or just an ordinary investment account? Do you need a Junior ISA for the kids? The table below shows what kinds of tax-advantaged account (sometimes called ‘tax wrappers’) are available on each platform. 

You’ll need to think about the sort of service you need: for example, do you want to deal over the phone, or just online? Finally, you’ll want to compare costs.

The table below gives an overview of some major investment platforms and the investments and accounts they offer. 

 

Platform Investment account Pension ISA Junior ISA Flexible ISA Lifetime ISA Can hold funds Can hold investment companies Website
AJ Bell  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Aviva Consumer Platform  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Barclays  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Bestinvest  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Charles Stanley Direct  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Close Brothers A.M. Self Directed Service  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Fidelity Personal Investing  ✔  ✔  ✔   ✔ ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Freetrade

AICbinoculars

Halifax Share Dealing  ✔  ✔  ✔   ✘ ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Hargreaves Lansdown  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

iDealing  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

IG  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Interactive Investor  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

iWeb  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Santander  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

shareDeal active  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

Willis Owen  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

X-O  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 

AICbinoculars

 

Source: AIC/the lang cat (last update 17/11/23)

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Costs at a glance

Find out how much it costs to buy, sell and hold investment companies on different platforms.

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Ways to invest

Read more about different ways to invest in investment companies.

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