Insiders score
More info4.5out of 5
Launched by AJ Bell in 2022, Dodl is designed to meet the needs of investors who are looking for a jargon-free, easy-to-use app. It’s particularly suited to those looking to meet investment goals such as saving for a house deposit, holidays or retirement.
Capital at risk.
34.1%
24.8%
34.1%
24.8%
August 2024 Dodl raises interest on uninvested cash within their stocks and shares ISA and Lifetime ISA to 5% – the highest rate on a LISA currently.
Dodl’s approach is to avoid over-complicating things. For that reason, it’s a good match for those who are investing for the first time, wanting to start small and build confidence. The language used on the app is tailored to beginners with plenty of plain English explanations, and for those who don’t want the responsibility of choosing where to invest their money, there’s a choice of AJ Bell’s most popular ready-made portfolios.
Dodl’s reduced menu of products and assets takes away some of the anxiety that comes with lots of choice. There’s plenty of guidance, too, on what might be right for different risk profiles, helping to remove some of the fear factor.
The small list of funds, ETFs and just 80 shares, will be too limited for more confident investors. They will feel more at home on the main AJ Bell investment platform, or one of the other Best investment platforms *INSERT LINK.
For those with large sums to invest, a provider like InvestEngine could work out better value. Dodl’s ultra-low, percentage-based pricing will suit those with smaller budgets.
3.0out of 5
Accounts
At Dodl, you can open any of the following accounts:
That’s a good selection, although, don’t forget you can only pay into one of each type of ISA per tax year. You can, however, have GIAs and SIPPs open with multiple providers if you wish.
Here’s how Dodl compares to other investment providers:
Assets
Dodl offers a small selection of funds, themed investments and shares from the wider AJ Bell range. At its current size, it’s probably the smallest range among those I’ve reviewed. If you're looking for greater choice when it comes to your investments, Dodl might not be for you. Instead, you may want to explore AJ Bell's full range of investment options, or a similar app-based provider such as Freetrade or robo-advisor such as Nutmeg.
Shares
Dodl offers around 80 of the most popular UK and US shares. They span industries such as finance, tech, health, travel, retail and utilities and you can toggle between UK only, US only, and UK & US stocks when searching the app.
The limited list is welcome if you’re not sure where to start but you still want to build your own portfolio of investments and are happy to do some research into which to pick. But for more experienced investors, this limited list of companies will be far too narrow.
Themed investments
Dodl offers the chance to invest in funds that focus on specific sectors and regions, as well as those which offer responsible investing. As with AJ Bell’s funds, they’re designed for those who want to benefit from the expertise of the fund managers who are choosing the specific assets within the portfolio. But you’ll still need some confidence in choosing which area to focus on, so some independent research is required.
Choices for themed investments are:
Ready-made options: AJ Bell funds
For those who want to start investing but aren’t sure where to start, Dodl offers a range of seven funds. These are ready-made investment portfolios put together by the experts at AJ Bell. All you need to do is choose the risk level that suits you. The selection ranges from ‘cautious’ to ‘adventurous’ and there’s a ‘responsible’ portfolio too if sustainable and ethical investing is important to you.
I put £100 (the minimum you can deposit in one lump sum for Dodl) into the AJ Bell ‘balanced’ fund. I was really impressed by the amount of information available to help me discover what ‘balanced’ means – and how well-designed that information is. With the click of a button within each choice, I can see a breakdown of the investments that are held within that fund, fund performance data and information on the charges I’ll incur because, don’t forget, on top of your 0.15% account fee, there will be separate fund fees to pay. For each of the six risk-rated ‘growth’ funds, that was 0.31%. For the ‘responsible’ fund, that was 0.45%. There’s no hunting around to find the Key Investor Document and Factsheet, everything is made very clear and easy to find. I really appreciated that.
Paying for my investment was made similarly easy with a choice of bank transfer, debit card, and Google/Apple Pay for deposits.
Of course, while past performance is not a guarantee of future returns, it's a good idea to check out the relative performance of AJ Bell’s ready-made portfolios before investing. We've made that data available for you, here.
Important: With investments, your capital is at risk. Pensions can go down in value as well as up, so you could get back less than you invest.
Joint account
You can’t invest with a partner or spouse at Dodl.
Corporate account
You can’t invest as a limited company with Dodl.
We conducted in-depth fund performance research gathering data from 160 different funds across 24 different providers. Here’s how the range of AJ Bell ready-made portfolios offered by Dodl, performed – and how they compare to the industry average:
Of the 7 AJ Bell ready-made funds offered by Dodl (the main AJ Bell platform offers two more AJ Bell income funds), 6 of the 7 have been around for five years or more, which allows us to assess their average five year performance.
Figures to 31 May 2024 show AJ Bell Dodl funds performing above the industry average – an excellent result. However, there is some variation within the different funds which means it's always digging below the headline figure. The more adventurous and Global Growth funds are performing well above the industry average. However, the more cautious funds are performing well under the industry average.
Of course, it's important to remember that past performance does not guarantee future performance and that you should not, therefore, base decisions entirely on this analysis.
3.5out of 5
As I’d expect from a large regulated provider, Dodl doesn’t charge you for administering your shareholder rights. If a corporate action applies to any of your investments, Dodl will contact you with all the details and let you know what you need to do (if anything).
If the action involves converting a foreign currency to £, there’ll be a foreign exchange charge of 0.5% of the value. Again, this is all as I’d expect and comparable with other providers.
Some corporate actions payout new shares to shareholders. If you’re on the company’s share register when this happens, Dodl will ensure you are allocated an exact number of shares. Unfortunately, the precise amount will be potentially rounded down to the nearest whole number because Dodl doesn’t support
Dividends
Some companies pay a portion of their profits to their shareholders, usually twice a year for UK companies.
These payments are called dividends. If you invest in a company which pays dividends, you’ll see these boost the cash balance of your account every so often. Any dividends due to you will be paid in sterling, “as soon as possible” after Dodl receives them. You'll receive a secure message whenever they are paid. My experience is that Dodl pays these quickly – either on the payment day itself or one working day later.
You can choose whether to leave your dividends in cash or to reinvest them.
4.5out of 5
Mobile platform
The Dodl app is beautifully simple. It’s well-designed so it feels high quality and smart, even though it’s very basic in terms of what you can actually do (see ‘Research & Tools’).
That said, it does what most of Dodl’s investors will want it to do, and it does those things exceptionally well. I encountered zero problems making investments, transferring cash to my account, keeping an eye on my portfolio, and contacting customer services through the in-app chat. I appreciated the notifications which came up on my app home screen to let me know about the progress of my transactions. It felt reminiscent of a social media platform. There are lots of emojis and a playful but slick design.
The app is available on both iOS and Android and you can enable biometric authentication for easy logins and tight account security.
On the Google Play Store, the Dodl app scores an impressive 4.6 out of 5 stars from 10k+ downloads.
As one Google Play Store reviewer puts it: “This is the easiest investment app that charges the cheapest monthly cost. Though limited in variety, it is fit for purpose, if you find the exact fund to invest in.”
Web platform
There is no option to log into your account on the web. It’s an app-only service for now.
5.0out of 5
Account charge
Dodl likes to keep things simple so their fee model is similarly straightforward: you’ll pay one account fee of 0.15% per year on the value of your invested money (min £1 per month). It’s collected from the cash in your account once a month, so it’s spread over the whole year.
Dealing fees
There are no dealing charges to buy and sell your investments. But bear in mind the investments you choose will have their own charges to buy/sell or hold them:
Interest paid on cash
Dodl pays the highest interest rate on uninvested cash of any
Transfer fees
There are no fees for transferring in or out of your Dodl account.
Deposit fees
There are no charges for depositing money into your Dodl account.
Minimum deposit
The minimum amount you can deposit into a savings account is £100 if you want to make a lump sum payment, or £25 for regular deposits via Direct Debit.
Withdrawal fees
There’s no charge for withdrawing your cash from your Dodl accounts. Though it’s important to invest over the long term, you can withdraw cash anytime from your general investment account and Stocks and Shares ISA (but remember you can only pay back the amount that is unused from your annual ISA allowance.)
You can withdraw cash from A Lifetime ISA, charge-free, when you're buying your first home or from age 60. Otherwise, you'll have to pay the 25% government withdrawal charge on the amount you withdraw.
You can’t withdraw cash from your Dodl pension as the account is designed to build your pension savings only.
It can take up to five working days for the cash you’ve withdrawn to reach your bank account.
A foreign exchange charge is levied when trading in an international currency. Dodl’s FX fees are pretty competitive: 0.75% for the first £10,000, 0.50% for the next £10,000, and 0.25% on values over £20,000.
Managing your accounts
Dodl will send you an annual tax summary for your GIA after the end of the tax year (usually around the end of April to early May).
The verdict?
Dodl’s fees are about as low as you’re likely to find anywhere, with the possible exception of Freetrade’s basic account. (Read my comparison of the two brands here.)
Low account fees and zero dealing fees make this platform a very attractive option. Of course, the ‘price’ you pay is limited investment choice, but if the platform has the stocks and funds you want, that’s not a problem.
Please note: all published fees are correct at time of publishing. However, we suggest checking Dodl’s website for the most up-to-date figures.
1.5out of 5
I was expecting Dodl to be pared down when it comes to research capabilities, but I was a bit surprised by just how pared down the research tools are.
There’s a nicely designed stock screener which allows you to peruse and select different stocks to explore. However, the information within each stock file is limited to just a very short summary of the company, its latest share price – although that is always at least 15 minutes out of date – and a chart showing the stock’s performance over the past 3M, 6M, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y.
That means, there’s:
I realise that Dodl is designed for those who are new to investing, and the limited choice is designed to take the fear out of getting started, however, even a beginner should be employing some level of due diligence when selecting stocks and to do that, you’ll definitely need to leave the Dodl platform. That said, it isn’t hard to find the kind of data that’s missing elsewhere for free. It just feels a bit remiss of AJ Bell not to provide something more as there’s always the danger that those choosing investments through Dodl will not realise how much other – key – data is out there, and make decisions that aren’t fully informed.
1.5out of 5
On the main AJ Bell platform, you can choose between an at-best order, limit order and stop loss order. Dodl has again taken the view that fewer options equals less effort for its users as there’s nothing to choose from when placing an order to buy shares on Dodl. All orders are at-best orders. That means missing out on the option to automatically buy and sell when the share price reaches your target, something even Freetrade offers if you pay for an upgraded account.
The interface for buying and selling assets is clean and easy to understand.
I guess the takeaway message is: Dodl is very basic. That might suit you if you just want to get into investing and don’t want any decisions other than where to put your money.
If you’re at all interested in learning how to use different order types to make smarter investment decisions and manage risk, then Dodl will be too basic for you.
5.0out of 5
When selecting a provider for your investments, it is very important to first ensure they meet certain minimum safety standards. We judge Dodl to meet the threshold for a ‘safe’ provider because:
Account safety
AJ Bell uses biometric authentication to secure mobile app login, and two-factor authentication whenever you login using a new device or browser.
Remember always, though, that investing involves risk. The value of your investment can go up as well as down, and you could get back less than you put in.
5.0out of 5
AJ Bell’s new ‘Learn to Invest’ hub contains a mountain of helpful information and insights on useful topics. There are detailed investment guides, a ‘jargon buster’ feature, and two podcasts: the Money & Markets podcast; and the Money Matters podcast aimed at closing the gender investment gap with advice tailored to women.
It’s all delivered in a welcoming and easy-to-digest format. As AJ Bell, describe it: it’s the “hows, whys, and whats of investing, from the basics to the nitty gritty.” Perfect for beginners.
There are also some fantastic live webinars pitched at beginners and those keen to build their investment knowledge and strategy.
3.5out of 5
The three options for contacting Dodl are:
Because Dodl is a low-cost, app-only provider, there isn't a telephone number to call. But the lack of phone support doesn’t seem to be a major issue for Dodl customers as the provider still manages an excellent score of 4.5 stars on Trustpilot (at the time of writing). There aren’t yet a huge number of reviews currently, but most are overwhelmingly positive and many mention how easy it is to use and well-suited it is for beginners.
When I contacted them myself, I received a reply to my web chat enquiry almost immediately. I was given an AI chatbot response while I waited with the human agent elaborating and giving me a more focused answer to my specific question. An outcome I was more than happy with.
5.0out of 5
Account opening
Part of the appeal of Dodl is just how easy it makes investing. Opening an account is no different. It’s a completely digital process and took me just 5 minutes and my personal details, including my National Insurance number, to get my account up and running.
Watch this video to view the Dodl account opening processes:
*Video is in Loom
Closing your account
It can take up to 10 days to close your account which seems a little long and you can’t do it yourself through the app; you’ll need to email hello@dodl.co.uk to let the team know that you'd like to close your account, which seems a bit unnecessary for an app that boasts simplicity.
Your account will need to be empty before it can be closed so you’ll have to sell any investments you have and wait for the cash to arrive in your account which can take up to four working days, then withdraw your cash, which can take one to three working days to arrive in your bank account.
Transferring accounts
Transferring into Dodl is, well, a doddle. Once you’ve gone through the account opening process, simply hit ‘transfer an account’. My experience of making a transfer was that it took 6 weeks for my investments to transfer across. Cash-only transfers typically take 2-4 weeks (although up to 6 weeks if your old provider insists on using paper forms).
Both Freetrade and Dodl are ‘neobrokers’ offering a low-cost, low-effort investment app and access to a
Freetrade feels like a step up in terms of your options as an investor. There are more stocks to choose from – UK, US and EU stocks compared to Dodl’s UK and US only – and other types of investment opportunities such as IPOs, ETFs and REITs. There are more order types to choose from (Dodl doesn’t give you a choice), and more comprehensive data to help you research different stocks and funds. Freetrade also offers
Freetrade, launched at the end of 2018 and has more than a million customers, which is testament to its popularity and cheapness.
So, how do the two compare on fees? There’s the option to have a free account with Freetrade, something you can’t get with Dodl, but Freetrade’s currency conversion fees on non-GBP stocks are higher than Dodl’s at 0.99% for a free Basic account (0.59% for a Standard account, 0.39% for a Plus account) vs Dodl’s FX fees of 0.75% – 0.25%.
Here’s how the costs work out in a couple of different scenarios. All fees are per annum. (If paid monthly, Freetrade’s fees would be 17% higher.)
Dodl does work out cheaper than Freetrade in some limited circumstances – if you have an ISA or SIPP, for example, and therefore need to subscribe to a paid account with Freetrade (£4.99 for a Standard, £9.99 for a Plus account), but have under £2k invested and are invested entirely in non-GBP investments so need to pay FX fees. Otherwise, Freetrade is cheaper.
Wondering about the difference between opening a Dodl account and opening an AJ Bell account?
Well, despite the latter being owned by the former, there are some quite big differences between the two brands.
All the shares and funds you can trade on Dodl are taken from AJ Bell’s full menu of tradeable assets – there are just far fewer of them. That’s the first major difference; the amount of investment options you have. Think of a Dodl as a beginner's, streamlined version of AJ Bell. Great if you’re new to investing and don’t know where to start: not great if you want to invest in some under-the-radar Asian stock you think will go on to achieve great things. You won’t have access to anything other than seven AJ Bell funds, and the most popular US and UK stocks with Dodl.
Because of that simplicity, however, you’ll pay less to invest through Dodl. Dodl’s annual account fee is just 0.15%, whereas the minimum you’ll pay to invest on the main AJ Bell platform is 0.25%. Of course, there are fund fees to add on top for both, but the other major advantage of Dodl is the absence of dealing fees. You’ll have to pay these separately with AJ Bell.
Trade execution tools and research tools are very basic on Dodl. As basic as they can be. AJ Bell has all the research capabilities and different order types you’d expect from a large, well-established investment house.
Think of Dodl as a platform to build confidence as you learn what kind of investing works for your future. You may choose to graduate onto AJ Bell or one of its competitors in time, or you may decide Dodl suits your needs just fine.
The Dodl brand was created by AJ Bell for those looking for an ultra-low-cost, app-only investment solution. Dodl offers a reduced selection of the stocks, ETFs and funds offered by AJ Bell, and charges fees of just 0.15% compared to AJ Bell’s 0.25% plus dealing fees. There are no dealing fees on Dodl.
Dodl is considered to be a safe provider as it is regulated and authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Dodl is owned by AJ Bell, which looks after over £81 billion in cash and investments. Dodl is part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). That means, in the unlikely event that something were to happen to AJ Bell, your money would be protected up to a maximum of £85,000 per eligible person and claim.
Yes, Dodl offers a small selection of ready-made portfolios including seven AJ Bell funds and a choice of themed investments from the wider AJ Bell range.
Have a question about Dodl that we haven't covered? Ask it here and we will get back to you as soon as possible!