Dodl: The simplest, most scaled-down UK investing app

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.

Accounts

At Dodl, you can open any of the following accounts:

• Investment (Stocks and Shares) ISA
• Lifetime ISA
• Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)
• General investment account (GIA)

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:

• Big tech
• Full health (healthcare companies)
• The building blocks (infrastructure companies)
• The property tycoon
• Robo revolution
• Made of money (finance companies)
• The powerhouse (energy companies)
• Going for gold (the gold market)

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:

Always remember that past performance does not guarantee future performance.

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 fractional shares. For a low-cost, app-based investment provider that does support fractional shares, look at Freetrade.

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.

Mobile platform

The Dodl app is a joy. It’s well-designed so it feels high quality and super 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.

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:

• Funds have ongoing charges and transaction costs.
• UK shares have stamp duty (0.5%) which you’ll pay when you buy them.
• US shares will have an FX charge taken when you buy or sell them (0.75% for transactions up to £10,000).
• There are no fees to open an account or deposit money. And there are no inactivity fees which is great.

Interest paid on cash

Dodl doesn’t pay interest on any uninvested cash you hold in your account. So, make sure you either invest it all so you’re putting it to work or switch your cash to a provider that does pay interest. It’s pretty unusual not to get any interest on cash so shop around.

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.

Read more about Lifetime ISAs

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.

FX fee

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.

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:

• No P/E, P/S, P/B, P/C ratios or other key ratios
• No company news
• No analyst ratings, sentiments or forecasts
• And none of the advanced technical tools you’ll find on the main AJ Bell website

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.

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.

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:

• Behind Dodl is AJ Bell, one of the UK’s largest and most trusted investment platforms. It has more than 495,000 customers and looks after over £81 billion in cash and investments.
• AJ Bell is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• AJ Bell 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.

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.

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.

The three options for contacting Dodl are:

• In-app chat
• Web chat (going through a chatbot first)
• Email: hello@dodl.co.uk

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.

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).

Have a question about Dodl that we haven't covered? Ask it here and we will get back to you as soon as possible!