Insiders score
More info4.0out of 5
Smart Investor is Barclays' online direct investing service. It is designed to make investing accessible to those who are happy to make their own investment decisions.
31.7%
26.4%
31.7%
26.4%
Barclays Smart Investor is probably best-suited to:
If you're a happy Barclays customer, you could do far worse than choose Smart Investor for your
If you're not an existing banking customer, I don't see many reasons to choose Barclays Smart Investor over one of the low-cost specialist investment platforms such as AJ Bell, Fidelity or InvestEngine. The one place where Barclays stands out as a possible option that these providers, is in their ready-made portfolio performance which is an exception 50% over the past five years, compared to an industry average of 26.4%.
Accounts
Barclays Smart Investor offers its customers access to:
That's one of the widest selections of products for a high street bank investment service.
Under the Barclays brand umbrella (although not within the Smart Investor brand), Barclays also offers access to various
An investment ISA (Individual Savings Account) is a tax-efficient wrapper in which you can buy, hold and sell investments.
The Barclays investment ISA is a ‘flexible' ISA, meaning it's possible to withdraw funds from your ISA without it affecting your overall allowance. In other words, you can withdraw funds and repay them at a later day within the year without it counting as a separate, second payment.
Discover our best-rated investment ISAs
The Barclays SIPP isn't actually administered by Barclays – it's an AJ Bell product so you'll be subject to some additional third party fees. That's not a bad thing, however, as AJ Bell's SIPP is well-administered and you'll find plenty of investment choice. You'll still be paying Barclays prices for the SIPP, which is a shame as dealing fees are higher than AJ Bell's. Going directly through AJ Bell for the SIPP, therefore, might be the better option.
Discover our top-rated SIPPs
Barclays offers a wide range of cash ISAs – in fact, it's one of the largest ranges for this product type that I've come across. All can be opened with just £1 (or you can transfer an existing cash ISA in from elsewhere) and are either instant access or they allow you to make up to three withdrawals per year, to a maximum of 10% of your current balance each time.
Interest rates for the cash ISAs vary from 4.65% (1-year fixed-rate term) if you're a Premier account customer going for the 1-year Flexible Premier Cash ISA, to 1.66% AER on the first £10,000 (and 1.21% thereafter) on the Instant Cash ISA.
Assets
Barclays provides customers with access to over 8,000 different investments to choose from, including:
That is not a huge choice when compared to the likes of interactive investor, or Saxo, or even AJ Bell.
When you invest with Smart Investor, you will need to factor in the following costs:
Annual fees
Up to £200,000: 0.25% of your investment value
Over £200,000: 0.05% of your investment value
If you have a portfolio worth just over £200,000, this is one of the lowest rates you'll find anywhere. The 0.25% rate on sums under £200,000 is also very competitive – the same as is charged by AJ Bell.
Dealing fees
If you buy and sell shares, ETFs, investment trusts, bonds or gilts, you will pay £6 for each deal. If you plan to trade often, it's worth taking a look at a provider that offers zero commission on trading (like Trading 212, eToro or BestInvest if it's just US stocks you're buying) as, while £6 is cheap compared to Halifax's £9.50 per trade, Lloyds' £11 per trade, and HSBC's £29.95 per trade on international stocks, there are certainly far cheaper ways to trade in the markets.
See our Best trading platform page for the top options for regular traders.
FX fees
First £5,000: 1%
£5,000 – £10,000: 0.75%
£10,000 – £25,000: 0.5%
£25,000 – £250,000: 0.25%
Value over £250,000: 0.1%
These are high rates when you compare Barclays to many other investment providers. Having said that, it's not the most expensive – interactive investor, eToro and Halifax charge more for international trades as this chart shows:
Fund costs
These are levied by the fund provider and – unless you’ve chosen a Barclays-managed fund – the product costs don’t go to Barclays. Product costs vary and can be found in the Key Investor Information Document.
SIPP costs
Barclays'
Transfer costs
There is no fee for transferring investments.
Interest on uninvested cash
When you open a Barclays Smart Investment Account, you’ll gain access to the Investment Saver service. This means you can earn interest on any uninvested cash you're holding in your account.
Current rates of interest are:
Those rates aren't particularly generous, as you can see from this comparison chart:
The verdict
Barclays fares reasonably well compared to other high street banks and sits quite competitively among other non-high-street-bank providers too, unless you plan to trade non-UK assets.
The following three charts show how Barclays compares to its high street neighbours when trading (1) US stocks, (2) UK stocks, and (3) funds.
Yes, Barclays Smart Investor is safe. It is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) meaning that you could be entitled to compensation of up to £85,000 in the unlikely event that Barclays was so go out of business. More information on the safety of Barclays Smart Investor and whether this platform might be a good addition to your portfolio can be found here: Barclays Smart Investor: Company performance analysis
Barclays charges 0.25% for investing sums up to £200,000. Amounts over benefit from a reduced rate of 0.05%. That's very competitive. However, although funds are free to buy and sell, dealing fees for buying and selling shares, ETFs and bonds and gilts are comparatively expensive at £6 per trade.
Barclays'
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