Insiders score
More info4.0out of 5
NatWest is one of the major four UK banks. The NatWest Group also includes Royal Bank of Scotland, Coutts, and Ulster Bank. NatWest Invest offers a stocks and shares ISA, Junior ISA, and general investment account.
11.1%
10.6%
11.1%
10.6%
Stocks and shares ISA
An investment ISA (Individual Savings Account) is an investment account with a ‘tax wrapper' around it, protecting all your holdings and returns from income tax and Capital Gains Tax. (By contrast, a general investment account does not have these protections.) The government sets limits on how much can be saved into an ISA every year. In the tax year 2024/25, the annual allowance is £20,000.
Some investment ISAs are described as ‘flexible' meaning you can withdraw and repay your cash without it being counted twice towards your annual allowance. NatWest's ISA is not, however, a ‘flexible' ISA.
Junior ISA
JISAs must be opened by a parent or legal guardian, although anyone can make contributions into a child's JISA. When the beneficiary reaches 18, ownership of the JISA transfers to them. The NatWest Junior ISA accepts transfers from other Junior ISAs as well as Child Trust Funds (CTFs). However, as I discovered, while NatWest does accept CTF transfers from other providers, it only accepts them for children born before 2009. I have never come across this before and I'm not quite sure why this would be the case as the cohort of children who received government CTFs stretched from 1 September 2002 until 2 January 2011. But it makes this JISA a no-go if your child is 14+.
Cash ISA
Offered by NatWest rather than NatWest Invest, the cash ISA offers a disappointing rate of interest – currently 1.59% on savings up to £25,000 and 2.96% AER on balances over £25,000 – and is certainly not competitive when compared to the top payers, although credit where credit's due, it's better than most other high street banks as you can see here:
Visit our Best Cash ISA page for all the top rates.
Lifetime ISA
NatWest does not offer a
Assets
NatWest offers a choice of five ready-made portfolios known as ‘Personal Portfolio Funds', which are a mixture of funds selected by professional investment managers at Coutts, and which are designed to align with the following different risk profiles:
You cannot add individual stocks and shares, funds or ETFs – the portfolios are complete solution, designed to take away the fear factor of selecting investments. There is also help, in the form of a robo-advice service costing just £10, to choose the portfolio that is best suited to your goals and risk profile.
As these funds were only launched in July 2023, we do not have a great deal of data on which to assess their historical performance. However existing customers are likely to be pleased with first full-year averages coming just above the industry averages. For more details, visit our Ready-made portfolio performance page.
NatWest Investing makes the following charges:
Platform fee
The platform fee varies depending on how much you invest:
These figures are highly competitive. To my knowledge, the only other platforms that offer a top end fee of just 0.15% are Vanguard and AJ Bell's beginner's brand, Dodl. Some other platforms do offer zero service fees on certain amounts over £500k, so if your portfolio falls in this category, it's a good idea to review your other options. AJ Bell, for example, charges no service fees on amounts over £500k, and Hargreaves Lansdown, does not charge service fees on amounts over £2m.
You can pay your platform fee directly from your investment or from a Royal Bank of Scotland bank account.
Fund fees
The fund fee is taken directly from the fund on a daily basis by the fund manager, and varies according to which fund you choose to invest in.
Minimum deposit
You can start investing with £50, or opt for a monthly top-up from as little as £10.
Yes, NatWest is considered to be a very safe place to hold money and investments. It is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and your deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) meaning that you could be entitled to compensation of up to £85,000 in the very unlikely event that NatWest was so go out of business.
NatWest is the cheapest of all the big banks we've analysed. It's annual fee of just 0.15% is far lower than Barclays' 0.25% and
No, the stocks and shares ISA offered by NatWest is not flexible. That means, if you withdraw money you've deposited in your ISA and intend to repay it again within the same tax year, it will count twice towards your annual allowance. Ideally, ISA investments should be seen as long-term investments, however, rather than savings accounts you withdraw from regularly.
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