interactive investor

interactive investor, usually shortened to ii, is an investment platform: a place where you hold and manage investments yourself, online or through an app. It offers a Stocks & Shares ISA, a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP), a general Trading Account and a Junior ISA, and says it looks after investments for over 500,000 investors, holding over £100bn of investors' assets¹. It is one of the larger UK platforms and is known for charging a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage of what you hold.

The service is execution only. That means you choose the investments and ii carries out the instructions; it does not advise you what to buy, and none of the opinions it publishes count as a personal recommendation³. Its range runs from individual shares and funds to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), investment trusts, bonds and gilts, with access to 17 global exchanges¹.

Accounts at interactive investor: ISA, SIPP, Trading Account and Junior ISA

ii's main accounts are the Stocks & Shares ISA, the SIPP, and the Trading Account, which is an ordinary investment account with no special tax wrapper¹. Platforms commonly offer this spread: the tax wrappers (ISA, SIPP, Junior ISA) plus a general account for money outside any wrapper⁶. The Trading Account is sometimes called a general investment account elsewhere.

The Junior ISA can be opened for a child, and ii states it is free to open when you hold an ISA or Trading Account on its Plus or Premium plans⁷. If you are new to ii, you need to open your own account on the Plus plan before you can add a Junior ISA⁸. ii does not offer a Junior SIPP; its own guidance says that if you want one for a child you would need to open it with another provider⁹.

There is also a family arrangement: on the plans that allow it, family members added to the plan each get their own separate Stocks & Shares ISA and/or Trading Account, rather than sharing one pot¹. For a child's Junior ISA, the money belongs to the child and is normally locked in until they reach adulthood, which is the standard rule for Junior ISAs across all providers.

For background on the wrappers themselves, see the site's guides to ISAs and pensions.

What you can invest in, from funds and ETFs to gilts and Treasury bills

ii describes its range as running from individual shares to ready-made funds, with over 40,000 UK and global investment options to choose from¹⁰. The main categories are:

• Shares: individual company shares, with direct access to 17 global exchanges¹.
• Funds: pooled investments, including ii's Quick-start Funds, a shortlist intended to make choosing simpler¹².
• ETFs: ii says it offers over 1,000 exchange-traded funds, one of the widest ranges on the market¹⁰.
• Investment trusts: a wide range of popular investment trusts, which can be held in the ISA, SIPP or Trading Account¹⁴.
• Bonds and gilts: UK government bonds held directly.

One distinctive feature is direct access to new issues of gilts and UK Treasury Bills from the Debt Management Office. ii customers can buy these at the non-competitive auction price, which is the average accepted price for the gilt, with the result usually confirmed within 24 hours of the auction announcement. ii notes that no prospectus or offer documentation is released for these issues, so customers must weigh the risks and returns themselves¹⁵.

For ethical investing, ii is the only platform to provide a specialist list of recommended sustainable funds, the ACE40, according to independent guidance¹⁶, and ii says its customers have increased their ethical holdings significantly over the past four years¹¹. Its Managed ISA, where investments are looked after for you, is covered on its own page: interactive investor Managed ISA. General background is in the site's guide to investing.

A flat fee rather than a percentage: how the plans work

Most UK platforms charge a percentage of your portfolio each year, so the cost grows as your investments grow. ii's approach is different: a flat monthly fee that covers your ISA, Trading Account and Junior ISA, so the amount in pounds stays the same however much you hold⁸. ii's own pitch is that the more your investments grow, the more you save relative to percentage-charging platforms¹.

New customers choose a service plan, and the plans carry different charges³. ii also charges a quarterly fee to cover the administration of your funds¹². Once you have an account, you do not pay any more for adding an ISA¹², but a SIPP carries an additional monthly charge on top of the plan fee¹². The Junior ISA is free to open when you hold an ISA or Trading Account on the Plus or Premium plans⁷.

Because this page carries no fee figures, check ii's own site for today's plan prices and the current SIPP charge. The practical point of comparison is your portfolio size: a flat fee tends to cost a bigger share of a small portfolio and a smaller share of a large one, so the same price suits different people differently.

Dealing, foreign exchange and withdrawal charges

Beyond the monthly plan fee, there are transaction costs to be aware of. Independent guidance notes that platforms commonly charge each time you buy and sell a share, investment trust or ETF, while fees for trading traditional funds are less common¹⁸. At ii, additional trades beyond your monthly free trade carry a per-trade dealing charge, and ii publishes the current figure on its own site¹².

Buying investments priced in another currency involves a foreign exchange conversion. ii's FX charge is up to 0.75%, with lower rates on its higher-tier plans¹⁹. For comparison, independent guidance found platform foreign exchange fees on international shares and funds ranging from 0.45% to 1.5% on amounts up to £5,000¹⁸, so ii's rate sits within that range.

Withdrawing cash also carries charges in some circumstances. Urgent cash withdrawals are charged per withdrawal, with a different amount for each currency: for example, a withdrawal in pounds, US dollars, euros, Swiss francs, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, Singapore dollars, Hong Kong dollars or Swedish krona each has its own fixed charge, listed on ii's support pages²¹. A standard (non-urgent) withdrawal is the cheaper route.

One thing ii does not offer is fractional investing: you cannot buy a slice of an expensive share¹⁹. Some other platforms do offer it²⁰, so if you want to invest small fixed amounts into high-priced shares, that is a genuine difference between providers.

Regular investing: how the monthly service works

ii's regular investing service lets you set up monthly investments into a chosen list of investments and pay no trading fees on them¹⁰. The service is free, and ii also gives account holders one free trade per month to buy or sell any investment, including its Quick-start Funds¹². For a Junior ISA, the regular investing service also skips trade fees, with up to 25 monthly investments⁷.

The investments available for regular investing are shares of companies in the FTSE 350, a wide range of popular investment trusts and ETFs, and any funds listed in pounds sterling²². Regular investing takes place on either the 1st or the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and ii states this date is account-specific and cannot be changed²².

This suits people who want to build a portfolio steadily without watching the market, and it is the standard way to avoid dealing charges at ii. It does not remove the monthly plan fee, and it does not protect you from the investments themselves falling in value.

Who can open an account and how to transfer in

To open an investment account with ii you must be 18 or over and either a UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man resident¹². You will need your address details for the last three years, your National Insurance number and your debit card details¹². ii says opening takes less than 10 minutes, online or through the app²³.

Existing customers who want to bring money across log in and use the "cash & transfers" menu, then select "transfer in"²⁴. You can transfer pensions, ISAs and General Investment Accounts (Trading Accounts) to ii¹. For ISAs, you can transfer both cash and investments where possible, including moving money from a Cash ISA into the Stocks & Shares ISA¹. The transfer rules themselves are set in legislation: money subscribed to a stocks and shares ISA in the current and previous years can be transferred between ISA types belonging to the same investor, including into a Lifetime ISA or, for those 65 or over, into a cash account²⁵.

If you are transferring a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA, the same "transfer in" process applies once your own account is open⁸. Never simply sell up and withdraw to move ISA money: doing it as a transfer keeps the ISA status, and the ombudsman can look at complaints about how an investment company managed an ISA²⁶.

Using the app and online account

Day-to-day, ii is managed through its website and mobile app. The app includes a privacy mode that hides sensitive information such as your portfolio values, so you can use it in public, and you can control when you are logged out automatically, on switching apps or after a period of inactivity²⁷.

Contact is normally by secure message after logging in, which ii describes as the most secure way to contact it²⁸. If you do not have a mobile phone, you can still use your online account, though some changes will need an extra security check by phone²⁸. ii's official social media accounts are on X (@ii_couk), TikTok (@interactiveinvestoruk), LinkedIn and Facebook, but it states it will never get in touch with you through social media, only reply if you contact it first²⁸.

ii states it is rated "excellent" on Trustpilot¹¹, and describes its SIPP as a five-time Which? Recommended SIPP Provider¹. These are the firm's own claims about service reputation; the complaints data below gives an independent-adjacent view of where things go wrong.

interactive investor gives no advice

ii's service is execution only: it carries out your instructions but does not advise³. Its own words are plain:

ii, on its application terms³

The firm adds that it does not offer advice and that any decision to invest is based on your own personal circumstances¹², and it states it will never give unsolicited financial advice²⁸. This matters practically: if an investment performs badly, you generally cannot complain that you were sold something unsuitable, because you were not sold it, you chose it. Dealing in investments is a regulated activity, so platforms require FCA authorisation²⁹, but regulation of the firm is not the same as protection from market losses.

If you want help deciding what to do, regulated financial advisers exist for that, and independent guidance explains how to find one³⁰. Free, impartial guidance on pensions and other money questions is available from MoneyHelper.

Complaints: ii first, then the Financial Ombudsman Service

You can complain to ii three ways: by logging in to your account and sending a secure message, by calling 0345 607 6001, or by writing to Customer Services, interactive investor, 4th Floor, 3 South Brook Street, Leeds LS10 1FT³¹.

ii aims to respond to all complaints within 3 working days. For complex complaints not resolved in that time, it sends an acknowledgement by the 5th working day, and if a complaint cannot be resolved within 8 weeks it sends an update. Its final response confirms whether you are eligible to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and includes the FOS explanatory leaflet³¹. The ombudsman is free and independent, and can look at complaints about how an investment company managed your ISA²⁶.

ii publishes its complaints data, updated every six months, from the reportable complaints it submits to the Financial Conduct Authority. For the first half of 2026, it opened 411 SIPP complaints (3.03 per 1,000 accounts) and closed 3,451 investment complaints (4.18 per 1,000 accounts opened). Of the investment complaints closed, 50.59% were upheld, and 57% of SIPP complaints were upheld; the main cause of complaints opened was delays and timescales³¹. For context, the ombudsman's own data for the first quarter of 2026/27 recorded 61 complaints opened about investment platforms across the market³².

How your investments and cash are protected

Your investments are registered in the name of ii's nominee company or another approved custodian and held on trust for you as the beneficial owner, separately from ii's own assets, which helps protect them if ii were to fail²⁷. Cash is held as client money under FCA rules, with banks covered by the FSCS deposit protection scheme²⁷. Independent guidance confirms this is the standard arrangement: many platforms hold your money in separate client money accounts, usually with UK banks³³.

ii stresses it is an investment firm, not a bank: it does not lend your money and does not trade with your investments. It reconciles its records every day, and external auditors carry out independent assessments every year, each reported to the FCA to confirm safeguarding requirements are met³⁴.

Two limits matter. First, FSCS protection covers you if the firm fails, not if your investments fall in value: market losses are yours. Second, protection has ceilings, and the level of cover depends on the type of failure; ii's own FSCS page sets out what applies to its customers³⁴. The firm behind the brand, Interactive Investor Services Limited, is authorised and regulated by the FCA with firm reference number 141282, and its details can be checked on the FCA Register⁴. It is an active company, number 02101863, incorporated on 20 February 1987⁵.

When an account holder dies

When an account holder dies, ii updates all accounts that were in the sole name of the deceased and blocks them from trading, holding the funds while it awaits legal documentation and instructions³⁵. To register the death, ii requires written confirmation along with an original or certified copy of the death certificate; copies can be certified by an FCA regulated body such as a bank or solicitor³⁵.

The estate's representatives then send a court sealed copy of the Grant of Probate, or the Grant of Confirmation in Scotland, confirming the executors. Up to four executors can be named, and ii acts on signed written instruction from all of them once the grant is received³⁵. If there is no will, a close relative can apply for a Grant of Letters of Administration³⁵. Section 4 of ii's form, "Your Instructions", covers the options: selling stock and withdrawing cash, transferring assets, or withdrawing assets held. Any cash on the account can be sent by bank transfer, and where a share certificate cannot be issued for a holding, it must be sold or transferred³⁵.

The tax wrapper has its own rule: under the ISA Regulations, a deceased investor's account becomes a "continuing account" and must cease to be such an account at the end of a set period³⁶. ii has a bereavement team, open 7:45am to 5:30pm GMT, Monday to Friday³⁵.

Scams using the interactive investor name

Fraudsters impersonate well-known investment brands, and ii warns that investment scams using social media and WhatsApp are on the rise²⁸. ii sets out things it will never do, and each is a scam marker:

• Call from a number other than 0345 607 6001²⁸
• Ask for your password²⁸
• Give unsolicited financial advice²⁸
• Get in touch with you first through social media²⁸

More widely, an investment opportunity may be a scam if you are contacted unexpectedly, promised high returns with little risk, pressured to act quickly, asked to keep the offer secret, or told to transfer money before you have had time to check the firm independently³⁷. Be alert to follow-up scams too: criminals may contact you again pretending they can recover your money for a fee³⁷.

If you think you have been scammed, ii directs customers to Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via its website²⁸. More on the warning signs is in the site's guide to scams and fraud.