Interactive Investor is an award winning virtual investment service online since 1995. It provides online retail investors with realistic and useful financial information as well as with the necessary tools in order to make informed decisions when investing. It is considered as one of the best investment and trading sites in the United Kingdom and has about 1.5 million users. This execution-only broker offers a good range of financial services and investment options such as share and fund dealing, ISA trading accounts and SIPP. Users can access their holdings on PCs, mobile devices or over the phone. Interactive Investor is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Trading Offer
The company gives various trading offers such as stocks, spread betting and CFDs as well as bonds and short and leveraged ETFs. In other words, offered assets are shares, Forex pairs, commodities, indices, ETFs and CFD. When it comes to stocks trading, the following are several stock markets offered by the company: Italy, UK, US, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Ireland and France.
Trading platforms available are IIFO and Interactive Markets Mobile by Interactive Investor. This means that the company offers a web based platform and a mobile web platform. There is no downloadable platform. Furthermore, when you open a new account, there is a £10 flat fee for both UK and international shares, while the frequent trader rate just £5. To open an account you need your address details, debit card information including bank account number and sort code as well as you national insurance number. Besides share and fund accounts, there are also ISA accounts, SIPPs, Forex accounts, CFDs and spread betting accounts including a demo account available to new customers for 30 days. The demo account is excellent for beginners in stock trading. A real money account at Interactive Investor offers pricing with low-cost options for real time as well as regular investing and no extra fees for trading online, by phone or on mobile.
Furthermore, the company accepts Orders, but only Limit Orders. Stop Orders, Market Orders, Trading Stop Orders and OCO Orders are not accepted. One click trading is also not available, but customers can do mobile trading wherever they are. As part of the trading and investment tools, Interactive Investor also offers level 2 quotes in real time, a charting package, a streaming news feed and traders can opt in to get email and mobile alerts about market changes.
Spreads, Fees, Margins
Interactive Investor offers tight spreads and low margins across several thousand instruments. Competitive spreads are offered in various spread bet markets such as stocks, currencies, bonus, commodities and indices among others. However, have in mind that spread betting comes with high level of rick of your money. Major spreads are on EUR/USD (0.6), GBP/USD (0.9) and USD/JPY (0.6). The maximum leverage is 200:1. Interactive Investor also offers trading on the margin which is different for different FX pairs. Furthermore, the company charges fees and commissions in certain cases. For example, the fee for buying and selling UK and international shares is £10 per trade. Buying or selling by phone is free of charge. The frequent trader rate is £5 per trade. The company also charges a maintenance fee which is £20. Other charges are Transfers Out fee of £15 per line of stock for Investment and ISA accounts, a £25 fee for insufficient funds to pay charges etc.
Bonus Information
There is no welcome bonus for stock trading, but the company gives a £100 bonus as a kickoff to start spread betting. In addition to the bonus new customers will also get a copy of The Financial Spread Betting Handbook by Malcolm Pryor. The offer is valid for accounts opened in August 2012. To qualify for the £100 bonus, you must have deposited at least £200 in your account during the month of August and have placed ten open and closed bets in qualifying markets such as all indices markets, FX markets, commodities markets and interest rates markets. The bonus money is not transferable to other investor products and is credited within two weeks after the offer expires. It is also advisable to contact the customer support service if you are interested in trading bonuses. There might be a certain type of bonus available for your user type.
Interactive Investor also offers a refer-a-friend bonus. For every friend that you refer to the site you get £30 of commission credit and your friend will also get £30 of commission credit. Bit first he/she must open an account using the Refer a Friend code provided by the company. You can refer up to five friends and get commission credit for each one that signs up with Interactive Investor. The expiry date of the promotion is November 30, 2015. There are no other bonus offers available. The company also doesn’t offer special VIP bonuses to high roller or VIP customers.
Website
There is a lot of information available on the website and sometimes, finding particular details, such as payment options available, can be a bit difficult. You need to make several clicks in order to find what you’re looking for. Nevertheless, the website runs smoothly, loads fast on any web browser and navigation is easy.
As previously mentioned, there are two platforms available i.e. a web platform and a mobile web platform. Regarding mobile trading, there are iPhone and Android mobile apps that give traders the opportunity to deal shares and funds everywhere they are. They allow them to access their investment, ISA and SIPP accounts quickly, review their money balance and make trades on the go, monitor holdings in their portfolio, view market prices and performance charts, set up and cancel limit orders, view statements and discussion posts as well as check secure messages.
Furthermore, with the trading center available on the website customers can get technical support for free. This center offers technical strategies in markets such as Forex, commodities, index, equity and fixed income. Moreover, traders get free access to online research and can opt in to have trading ideas delivered to their emails. Interactive Investor also offers a news feed featuring the latest trading news. There is also video news featured on IITV as well as a useful economic calendar.
Additional offers from the company include an excellent education center. Here beginners can learn the investment glossary, take a look at fundamental analysis, find out more about trading and investing strategies, read beginners guides as well as guides on Forex trading, CFDs and spread betting. They can also get help and free training as well as learn more about risk warnings. Traders can also get a free copy of Inspired magazine.
Banking and Payment Options
Buying and selling shares at Interactive Investor can be done online and by phone as well as on the go. Accounts can be funded via debit cards and you also need to provide the bank account number and sort code. The minimum deposit limit is £500. Cashouts are processed to the provided bank account. Money transfers into Investment and ISA accounts are free of charge, while cashouts via the same account types are charged £15 per line of stock. The company may also ask you to provide photo ID such as a utility bill or a copy of passport when you request a withdrawal. This is due to security reasons and personal protection. It takes several days to process cashout transactions mainly due to the verification procedures. Deposits are instantly processed.
Additional Details of the Broker/Company
Customers at Interactive Investors that hold funds, share dealing, ISA and SIPP accounts can get in touch with the agents from the UK contact center from Monday to Friday from 7:45am to 7pm. They can also call on the telephone provided (it costs 2p per minute) or send an e-mail. Those that own Forex, CFD and spread betting accounts can use the help-desk number which is open 24 hours every day. Calls cost 5p per minute. New customers can also read the frequently asked questions for details of common problems.
Interactive Investor Trading Limited, which runs and operates Interactive Investor, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The company is registered in England with registration number 3699618. The Group VAT registration number is 832 6732 26. Furthermore, the site uses all necessary precaution and security measures in order to provide a risk free and safe environment for stocks trading and investing. There is also a Conflict of Interests policy in place and on request, you can get more information on how the company handles such conflicts. The policy ensures that the company identifies, prevents and manages conflicts of interest and is regularly reviewed by senior management.
Interactive Investor is privately owned by the above mentioned company and is not listed on any exchange. The group also owns Moneywise Publishing Limited, a company dealing with and publishing consumer finance subjects. Interactive Investor also operates a sister website which focuses on mobile delivery of real time share price and trading. The owner is registered in England and Wales and is governed by the Companies Act 2006. Furthermore, the company has won many awards over the years. Some of them are ‘Best Execution-Only Broker’ at Shares Awards 2014, ‘Best Innovative use of Technology’ at Systems in the City Awards 2015 and so on.
Conclusion/Experiences/Comparison
Generally speaking, Interactive Investor is an excellent investment and trading broker with years of experience and a great track record. Although the site might need a bit improvement, particularly its user interface, as well as provide faster customer service, it is a market leader in offering a low cost investment platform and you will benefit a lot from it over time. Furthermore, if you don’t want to pay quarterly fees, you should sign up with another broker, such as Hargreaves Lansdown, but have in mind that even if you don’t pay a quarterly fee, chances are that you will be paying a lot more in ongoing charges. If you want to have better control of your investments and low fee charges, you should definitely sign up with Interactive Investor.