Barclays smart investor removed platform charge

mr_accountant

Received an email from BSI to inform its free to hold investments on their platform from 31/5/26 and name is changed to Barclays Direct Investing

Rollinghome

Very interesting. More pressure on HL, Fidelity, et al to try harder.

Section62

Saves me transferring out what I last transferred in for cashback.

baabaa90

I think this makes Barclays Direct Investing pretty much the cheapest now if all you hold/ trade are funds. No Customer fee and no fee to buy or sell funds from their comprehensive selection. Regular investments are are also free including shares and ETFs. Only notable charges are £6 per trade for ad hoc individual shares, ETF's & Gilts deals and an FX fee for foreign investments. Combined with vey good telephone support and a full service broker makes for a compelling offering.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023280#Comment_82023280

Does they also offer SIPPs and ISAs with the same terms. Normally the very low cost platforms, charge more for a SIPP, as they are more costly to administer and/or they are farmed out to a 3rd party which is not ideal.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023292#Comment_82023292

It applies to their S&S ISA as well. They don't currently offer a SIPP product.

pochisoldi

Got the usual "marketing people not reading what they have written" here.

The email from Barclays on the one hand says "No new Customer fee will be generated from 31 May 2026 onwards." Then on the other says "Any Customer fee incurred before 31 May 2026 will still need to be paid and you will still see those in your statements."

I've got the usual email 1st notifying me of fees to be deducted on the 21st followed by a letter on the 3rd (via online banking) advising of fees to be taken on the 24th. (Nothing new here).

The question is - are those fees for the period upto 31st of May (which should be taken), or are they fees which are being dropped? (And !!!!!! didn't they make this clearer in their original email?)

granta

I wonder if this will spell the end of their generous cashback offers for future years.

My transfer out just completed the day I received the email about the fees. If I'd known earlier, I would have kept my holdings at Barclays.

Sam_666

Barclays platform is utter rubbish, compared to other platforms.
I would rather pay peanuts fee elsewhere, then deal with Barclays rubbish platform.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024649#Comment_82024649

I find it annoying when the site logs you out without warning, but other than that it doesn't seem too bad. Probably not quite as good as HL, but on a par with HSBC.

What aspects do you find are worst about Barclays?

granta

I had very little interaction with the platform other than to check the valuation as I'd transferred in assets from elsewhere.

It wasn't much worse than anywhere else but yes the rapid logout without warning is annoying.