Choosing an Investment Website (“Platform”)
I have spent a huge amount of time reviewing around 25 platforms, i.e., websites on which you can set up pensions, ISAs and other investments. Some are dreadfully expensive and offer what I consider to be a terrible range of investments. Most are a bit clunky, limited or expensive.
A handful of them offer a good range of investments, tax-efficient investment accounts and don’t charge too much. On this page I go through how I selected the ones I like.
On this page:
Introduction
How I scored the different platforms
Calculating the overall scores
My full review of 20+ platforms
Introduction
To see the results of the full, in-depth review, including the platforms I’d happily use and those I’d never touch, you’ll need to buy a copy of the book. I have to do it this way to pay for the website and the year of my life I’ve spent putting all this together without a salary.
With that in mind, please also note that there are no external adverts or sponsorships on anything relating to this site and its partnership social media sites. Also, you have to take up a Which? subscription of at least £8 to get their less in-depth review of platforms. I reckon that £15 for the entire book, the 100+ funds I recommend, the full platform review, the free audiobook and the risk and budget forms is pretty good value.
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How I scored the different platforms
I started with the platforms that Which? magazine and its website have reviewed. I also then considered a few that came up a lot in my research.
The Which? review of platforms is good as far as it goes (you have to pay for a subscription to access it). But the folk there are not investment specialists and nor do they claim to be. Their reviews don’t address the fees incurred with specific investments as this is beyond their remit. For me, this is the most important factor, hence my reviews differ from those of Which?
My review of investment platforms covers everything relating to my concept of “How to invest without being ripped off”.
I assessed each platform according to criteria specified below.
Fund range
50% of the overall platform score
This is much the most important criterion as far as I’m concerned.
If the platform doesn’t offer sufficient low-cost funds for me to build my investment portfolio then that platform is of no use to me.
To be clear, the platform doesn’t necessarily have to have huge numbers of funds to get a good score. It has to offer enough of my 112 qualifying low-cost funds for me to be able to build my low-cost portfolios.
For example, there is a huge variation in the number of funds being offered by the handful of platforms that made it onto the short list of platforms that I like.
One offers around 4,000 funds. The vast majority of these are of no use to my portfolios because they either don’t cover the asset classes I want or they’re too expensive.
By contrast, another offers around 700 funds but manages to cover most of the needs of my portfolios, albeit with a couple of limited selections.
The actual score achieved reflects the percentage of my qualifying funds that the platform offers. For example, if the fund offers 56 of my roughly 110 funds (i.e., half of my qualifying funds), it gets a score of 50%.
There is an obvious weakness in this scoring: if a platform offers half of the funds on my list but only bond funds, then it’s not much use. However, while one or two platforms had weak spots, none of them was quite that tragic.
Where there were blind spots, I mention them in the accompanying notes and included it in my judgment as to the final rating I awarded each platform.
Tax-efficient offerings for UK investors – 30% of the overall platform score
ISA offered – 15% of the overall platform score
SIPP offered – 15% of the overall platform score
The next most important fact for me is whether or not I can have a tax-efficient investment account i.e., either a SIPP or ISA. (I explain what these are and their respective pros and cons in Section 6).
The point being that I don’t want to have to pay tax on any money my investments make if I can possibly avoid it.
As far as my scoring is concerned, the platform either does or doesn’t offer ISAs or SIPPs. They were awarded 100% if they did offer an ISA or SIPP and 0% if they did not.
Low platform fees
12% of the overall platform score
I’ve largely focused on portfolios whose total value is up to £50,000 to keep things simple. Things get complicated quickly with platform fees because they all have different fee structures and rates, and some of them make it difficult to work out what you’re actually going to pay.
I calculated it by estimating what the costs would be on each platform allowing for a reasonable number of trades each year (e.g., one trade per investment type/asset class in each portfolio per year). I identified the platform charging the highest fee and gave it the lowest score of 0%. The other platforms were awarded scores according to how much lower than that their fees were.
This only contributes 12% to the overall platform score because it’s less important than the preceding factors.
East of use
8% of the overall platform score
This is more of a “nice-to-have” than an essential. The best-performing platform on this score for me was Halifax. It was a joy to use; simple, responsive, and easy to follow. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough for it to earn it a place in my top selection of platforms because it didn’t score highly enough in the preceding factors.
As a side note, I did not consider the existence of mobile phone apps for the respective platforms for the simple reason that I want to forget about the investments. Having an app simply invites repeated viewings and worry about investments.
Notes
This is the section in which I add comments on why platforms scored the way they did. It also allows me to include background to the bald numbers which, on their own, don’t tell the whole story.
For example, one or two platforms earned high scores but did not make it onto my “Yes” list for reasons I explain in the notes for the respective platforms.
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Calculating the overall scores
I rated each platform according to the preceding factors and then applied the weighting to each factor. I then added them up to generate a final score.
Here’s how this worked in practice.
Example 1 – One of the platforms that I like
| Score | Weighting | Score x Weighting | |
| Range of funds | 79% | 50% | = 79% x 50% = 39.5% |
| ISA offered | 100% (i.e., offered) | 15% | = 100% x 15% = 15% |
| SIPP offered | 100% (i.e., offered) | 15% | = 100% x 15% = 15% |
| Platform fees | 34% | 12% | = 34% x 12% = 4.1% |
| Ease of use | 70% | 8% | = 70% x 8% = 5.6% |
| Total | 79.2% | ||
Example 2 – One of the platforms I don’t like
| Score | Weighting | Score x Weighting | |
| Range of funds | 26% | 50% | = 26% x 50% = 13% |
| ISA offered | 100% | 15% | = 100% x 15% = 15% |
| SIPP offered | 0% (not offered) | 15% | = 0% x 15% = 0% |
| Platform fees | 0% (not offered) | 12% | = 0% x 12% = 0% |
| Ease of use | 80% | 8% | = 80% x 8% = 6.4% |
| Total | 34.4% | ||
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My full review of 20+ platforms
You can just use the ones I mention in step-by-step examples one and two of setting up investments. But if you already have an investment account on a website, you might be moving money from one website to another unnecessarily. Also, if your money is on a really bad platform, it could save you a lot of money being aware of that and considering moving money to what my research and analysis recognizes as a decent platform.
I’ve included the full review of all the platforms I researched and analysed in the book. Please consider buying it. This is my only revenue source to pay for the months of unpaid work I’ve put in and to cover the costs of the website etc. It’s only £15 and you also get the audiobook, the advisor questionnaire and other information for that as well.