Most Isa and Sipp investors should use a DIY investment platform. This allows you to hold a range of investments from different providers within your individual savings account (Isa) or self-invested personal pension (Sipp) tax wrapper. However, choosing a platform if you are starting out investing is difficult because you have to consider the funds held, the number of trades made and a whole host of other activity-related charges.
For investors who are finding it difficult to compare prices of investment platforms, the table below provided by The Platforum, an independent research firm that specialises in investment platforms, is the best indication of costs that we can find. It shows the costs of holding Isa and Sipp portfolios of differing amounts with 11 of the leading platform providers.
The £10,000 portfolio is an Isa only; the others are half Isa, half Sipp. For the £500,000 portfolio, the holdings are split 50:50 between funds and shares. The charges include the underlying funds’ annual management charges. The lowest costs for each portfolio size are highlighted in blue .
However, many investors hold a range of investments and the comparative cost of using different platforms may be significantly different to those illustrated below.
Platform cost comparison
| DIY investment platform | Size of portfolio (1) | |||
| £10,000 | £50,000 | £150,000 | £500,000 | |
| AJ Bell Youinvest www.youinvest.co.uk | £121 | £654 | £1,662 | £2,695 |
| Alliance Trust Savings www.alliancetrustsavings.co.uk | £206 | £790 | £1,598 | £2,407 |
| AXA Self Investor (4) www.axaselfinvestor.co.uk | £116 | na | na | na |
| Barclays Stockbrokers www.barclaysstockbrokers.co.uk | £116 | £579 | £1,737 | £3,178 |
| Bestinvest www.bestinvest.co.uk | £121 | £579 | £1,738 | £3,608 |
| Charles Stanley Direct www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk | £104 | £642 | £1,685 | £2,928 |
| Chelsea Financial Services www.chelseafs.co.uk | £141 | na | na | na |
| Fidelity (2) www.fidelity.co.uk | £116 | £579 | £1,737 | na |
| Halifax Share Dealing www.halifax.co.uk/sharedealing | £143 | £632 | £1,530 | £2,338 |
| Hargreaves Lansdown (3) www.hl.co.uk | £121 | £605 | £1,815 | £3,285 |
| Interactive Investor www.iii.co.uk | £161 | £648 | £1,456 | £2,265 |
| TD Direct Investing (5) www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk | £113 | £713 | £1,928 | £3,115 |
| The Share Centre www.share.com | £218 | £902 | £1,710 | £2,518 |