I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. This review reflects my own personal experience with Interactive Investor over seven years. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions.
Introduction
Seven years ago I opened my first account with Interactive Investor. Not because of an advert. Not because someone sold it to me. Because I did my own research, followed my instincts, and decided it felt right.
Since then I have used Interactive Investor to manage a SIPP, an ISA, a Trading Account, and two Junior ISAs for my children. Five accounts. One platform. Seven years of real experience with real money. This is not a dabble. This Interactive Investor review is based on my actual financial life.
I am going to tell you exactly what it has been like. What works, what does not, and whether I would choose it again today if I was starting from scratch. Spoiler: I would.
This review is for women in their forties, fifties, or sixties who are starting to think seriously about what retirement actually looks like and want to take control of their own money. It is for anyone who has had that thought, the one that goes “I really should have started this twenty years ago,” and has been frozen by it ever since. I know that thought well. It does not mean the window has closed. It means today is the day.
How I found Interactive Investor
I came to investing through Ann Wilson, author of The Wealth Chef. I read her book and then took her passive investing course. She introduced several UK platforms during the course, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor among them, and told us to look at two things specifically: free regular investing and fees.
So I checked both properly. I liked the layout and feel of Interactive Investor more. But it was not just aesthetics. Interactive Investor offered free regular investing, the ability to set up a fixed monthly amount to go in automatically as long as your cash wallet is topped up. That feature, combined with the fee structure, made the decision for me.
I have never regretted it.
Quick Verdict
Best for: UK investors who want to invest regularly across multiple tax efficient accounts, including a SIPP, ISA, and Junior ISAs, without platform fees eating into growth as the pot grows. The flat monthly fee becomes better value the more accounts you hold and the larger your portfolio gets.
Not for: someone who wants a single standalone ISA or Junior ISA and nothing else. At low balances with just one account, a percentage fee platform may work out cheaper. Do the maths for your own situation before committing.
Overall: Interactive Investor is a solid, transparent, well established platform that I trust with my retirement savings and my children’s futures. I would choose it again today without hesitation.
What is Interactive Investor?
Interactive Investor is an online self directed investing platform. It does not tell you what to invest in, manage your money on your behalf, or make any decisions for you. The decision, and the responsibility, always sits with you.
What it does provide is the infrastructure to invest: account types, a wide range of funds and shares to choose from, research tools, and an education module with solid support for investors at all stages. I have found it genuinely useful as someone who came to this with no financial background whatsoever.
Interactive Investor is owned by abrdn and fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Your investments are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000.
Plans and Fees Breakdown
The single most important thing to understand about Interactive Investor is this: it charges a flat monthly fee, not a percentage of your portfolio. That one structural difference is what makes it genuinely competitive as your money grows.
The plans:
Core Plan: £5.99 per month. Suitable for most investors starting out or with portfolios under £100,000. Includes one free monthly trade credit.
Plus Plan: £14.99 per month. Better value for larger portfolios or investors who want several different types of accounts or investors who want additional trade credits. Includes two free monthly trade credits.
I am on the Plus Plan at £14.99 per month. My combined portfolio sits at around £77,000, which technically falls within the Core Plan threshold, but I have chosen Plus deliberately for the additional trade credit and the benefits that come with it.
Trade costs on the Plus Plan:
Funds: £1.49 per trade UK and US shares: £3.99 per trade (one free trade credit included monthly) International shares: £7.99 per trade Dividend reinvestment: £0.99 FX charge: 0.25% to 0.75%
The thing most reviews miss: every month Interactive Investor credits your account with £3.99 towards a trade. On the Plus Plan you get two of these. That means one or two UK or US share trades completely free every month. I do not trade frequently so I use these occasionally rather than religiously, but they are there and they are real money.
Does the flat fee actually make financial sense?
Most reviews skip this. Let me just run the actual numbers.
My combined balance across five accounts is approximately £77,000. My annual fee on the Plus Plan is £14.99 x 12 = £179.88.
A typical UK percentage based platform charges between 0.25% and 0.45% annually. Here is what that looks like on a £77,000 portfolio:
| Platform fee | Annual cost on £77,000 |
|---|---|
| 0.25% | £192.50 |
| 0.30% | £231.00 |
| 0.35% | £269.50 |
| 0.40% | £308.00 |
| 0.45% | £346.50 |
At £179.88 a year I am already cheaper than every realistic percentage based competitor at my current balance. And as my portfolio grows, my fee stays exactly where it is while theirs keeps climbing. That gap only gets more interesting over time.
One honest caveat: some platforms charge differently per account type or cap fees on certain wrappers like SIPPs. Run the numbers for your specific situation before deciding.
The fee you will barely notice: the £14.99 does not come out of your bank account. It comes out of your Interactive Investor cash wallet. I genuinely do not notice it going out each month. That is a small thing but it matters psychologically more than you might expect.
The SIPP with Interactive Investor
The SIPP was the first account I opened with Interactive Investor and it remains the most important one to me.
I came to it with three old pension accounts sitting with different providers, some barely remembered, dug out from old statements and paperwork. Consolidating them was not difficult but it was time consuming. How easy the transfer process is depends on where your old pensions are held. More modern platforms let you do it all online. Older ones involve more manual steps. Either way the effort of digging out the details was worth it. Everything is now in one place.
What managing the SIPP has actually been like over seven years
My approach has changed significantly, and being honest about that change is probably the most useful thing I can tell you.
In the early years I had the app on my phone. It was too easy to check. I was looking at my figures constantly, reacting emotionally to every dip, buying and selling more than I should have, and that fiddling was having a genuinely detrimental effect on growth. So I deleted the app. That one simple decision changed everything. I now check my SIPP once every two months at most, on desktop, with intention. The passive approach Ann Wilson taught me is working. The difference in growth since I stopped interfering has been phenomenal.
The thing about SIPP money that scared me at first
The money in a SIPP is locked until you are 55, or in my case 57 given current legislation. You cannot touch it. That was genuinely frightening in the beginning. I consolidated my old pensions, invested them, and then did not add a single penny more for a long time because locking money away felt like too much.
Instead I started putting money into my ISA, but I kept dipping into it because it felt like a savings account. It was there, it was accessible, and I used it. That money never had a chance to grow.
The turning point came when I accepted what the SIPP is actually for. It is a locked box for future me. Any money that goes in is gone until I am 57, and that is not a bug, it is the feature. Once I accepted that, I moved my excess cash from the ISA into the SIPP and started contributing monthly. The growth since then has been extraordinary.
The tax relief piece is worth understanding properly
Interactive Investor claims your 20% basic rate tax relief on SIPP contributions on your behalf. You do not need to do anything. It takes six to eleven weeks, and then one day your cash wallet simply goes up because the rebate has landed. That 20% addition makes a significant difference to your pot over time and the fact that ii handles it automatically is genuinely valuable.
If you are a higher rate taxpayer you can claim additional relief through your self assessment tax return. Please look into what applies to your own situation, but do not leave that money on the table unclaimed.
The ISA and Junior ISAs with Interactive Investor
The ISA
My ISA is currently dormant. I have a small amount sitting in it, a couple of hundred pounds, and I am not actively adding to it right now. My financial focus and my monthly contributions are entirely directed at the SIPP. I mention this because it is honest, and because it actually reinforces an earlier point: for me personally, the value of Interactive Investor is not the ISA in isolation. It is the whole system across multiple accounts under one roof.
The Junior ISAs
This is where it gets personal. And I think this is the part of my Interactive Investor experience that nobody else writing a review is going to tell you about.
My father gifted money to my two children. He asked me to put it into Junior ISA accounts for them. I said yes, opened both Junior ISAs with Interactive Investor, and the whole process took minutes. Straightforward from start to finish.
Then I made a decision that mattered. I did not just leave the money sitting in cash. I invested it. I chose the same index tracker funds that were performing well in my own SIPP, a US index tracker and an equities tracker. The logic was simple. I had conviction in these funds for my own retirement. Why would I apply different logic to my children’s money?
Was I scared? Yes. The thought of investing gifted money and potentially seeing the value go down was frightening. But I backed myself. I had been doing this for years on my own behalf. I could do it for them too.
Now I check the Junior ISAs on the same schedule as my SIPP. Every two months, no more. Most months those figures go up. They dip sometimes. That is investing. But the trajectory is upward, and one day I will hand over that money and say: your grandfather gave you this much. I invested it. Now it is worth this much (you’re welcome!)
Pros and Cons
Pros
Flat fee pricing that genuinely gets better value as your portfolio grows. At £77,000 across five accounts I am already paying less than I would on any realistic percentage based platform, and that gap widens every year.
Free regular investing. Set up a monthly amount, keep the cash wallet topped up, let it run. This is the passive investing mechanic that made me choose Interactive Investor in the first place and it still works exactly as it should seven years later.
Automatic 20% tax relief on SIPP contributions. Claimed on your behalf, lands in your cash wallet, takes six to eleven weeks. No paperwork, no chasing, no thinking required.
Monthly free trade credit. One per month on Core, two per month on Plus. Worth £3.99 each. Real money, regularly overlooked.
Five account types under one login. SIPP, ISA, Junior ISAs, Trading Account, all visible and manageable in one place. For anyone juggling family finances alongside their own retirement planning this is not a nice to have, it is genuinely useful.
FCA regulated, FSCS protected up to £85,000, part of abrdn. Solid, established, not going anywhere.
Cons
The portfolio performance chart is buried. There is a line chart showing your portfolio performance over time and when you find it, it tells you everything you need to know. But it is approximately four clicks deep from the default dashboard view. The default view is a table, which is functional, but I want that performance chart on the dashboard as standard. It should not take four clicks to see how your investments are doing at a glance.
No goal tracking feature. I want Interactive Investor to let me set a retirement target, input my expected retirement date, and then show me how close I am on a rolling basis. Something that says you are 67% of the way there, keep going. That kind of progress nudge would be genuinely motivating. It does not exist yet. I hope it is coming.
Weekend maintenance. Interactive Investor regularly takes the platform down on Saturdays. I understand platforms need maintenance windows and so far it has always been manageable. But it is worth knowing about before you open an account.
Is Interactive Investor Right for Women Planning Retirement and Family Finances?
Most Interactive Investor reviews are written by someone reviewing a platform. I am writing this as someone who used it to build a financial future for herself and her children simultaneously, while learning as she went, while being scared sometimes, and while making mistakes and correcting them.
If you are a woman in your forties, fifties, or sixties who has been putting this off, I want to say something directly to you: please stop feeling bad about starting late. I went through exactly that feeling. The regret, the “I should have done this twenty years ago,” the paralysis that comes from believing the window has somehow closed. It has not. The best time to start is today, whatever today looks like for you.
But do not go in blind. Get educated first. Read a book, take a course, understand what you are investing in and why before you put money anywhere. Ann Wilson’s work is a good starting point. There are others. The platform is just a tool. The knowledge is what makes the tool work.
Interactive Investor specifically suits the woman who is managing more than one financial goal at once: her own retirement and something for her children. One login, one flat fee, five account types. When you are already busy, that simplicity matters more than you might think.
And if someone ever entrusts you with money for your children’s future, back yourself to invest it well. You know more than you think you do.
Verdict
Would I choose Interactive Investor again today if I was starting from zero? Yes. Without hesitation.
It is a solid platform. Transparent. It gives you everything you need to make informed decisions and handles the admin of tax relief automatically. The flat fee structure rewards you as your portfolio grows. And having five accounts in one place, covering my retirement and my children’s futures, makes my financial life genuinely manageable.
The weekend maintenance is a minor inconvenience. The buried performance chart and the missing goal tracking feature are real gaps I would like to see addressed. But none of those things would make me leave. They are product feedback, not dealbreakers.
Interactive Investor has served me well for seven years. I expect it to serve me well for the next twenty.
The Referral Offer
This post contains a personal referral link for Interactive Investor. If you open an account using my link you will receive six months fee-free investing. I will receive £200. This has no effect on anything else you pay and it has not influenced my review. Everything I have written here is based on my own seven years of genuine experience with the platform.
FAQ
Can I open a SIPP with Interactive Investor?
Yes, it’s straightforward, you can consolidate existing pensions into it via the ‘Transfer-In’ function, choose what you invest your pension money into, tax relief is claimed automatically, and get access to your money when you turn 57 under current legislation.
How safe is my money with Interactive Investor?
Interactive Investor is fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is owned by abrdn, one of the UK’s largest investment companies. Your investments are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000 per person. That means if Interactive Investor were to fail, your money would be protected up to that limit.
Why is Interactive Investor so cheap?
It uses a flat monthly fee model rather than charging a percentage of your portfolio. The cost stays fixed regardless of how much you hold. At lower balances this can feel comparable to percentage fee platforms, but as your portfolio grows the flat fee becomes significantly cheaper. At £77,000 across five accounts I pay £179.88 per year. A 0.25% platform would charge £192.50 on the same balance, and that gap widens every year as my investments grow.
Which is the best investment platform in the UK?
There is no single best platform for everyone. The right choice depends on how many accounts you need, how frequently you trade, and what your balance is. Interactive Investor is particularly strong for investors holding multiple account types and for those with growing portfolios where a flat fee outperforms a percentage charge. For a single low balance ISA, a percentage fee platform may work out cheaper. Do your maths before you decide.
Is Interactive Investor better than Hargreaves Lansdown?
I looked at both before choosing Interactive Investor seven years ago. Hargreaves Lansdown is a well regarded platform with strong research and customer service. But Interactive Investor’s flat fee structure makes it more cost effective for investors with larger portfolios or multiple account types. For my specific situation, five accounts and a growing portfolio, Interactive Investor has been the better value choice. Your situation may be different.
Is Interactive Investor good for beginners?
It can be, with the right preparation. Interactive Investor is a self directed platform, which means it does not tell you what to invest in or manage your money on your behalf. If you go in without any investing knowledge it can feel overwhelming. I would strongly recommend doing a course or reading around passive investing before opening an account. Ann Wilson’s The Wealth Chef is a good starting point. Once you have a basic understanding of index funds and regular investing, Interactive Investor is actually very straightforward to use.
I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. This review reflects my own personal experience with Interactive Investor over seven years. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions.