Is your ISA provider ticking the boxes?

Are you happy with your ISA provider? Is it really the best home for your money? In this article, we suggest some things you might want to reflect on to help you determine if your ISA provider is right for you. And - if not - we point you to some expert picks and award winners that may be a better fit!

Does your ISA provider have good customer reviews?

What do other customers think of your ISA provider? Are they keeping account holders happy? Or do other investors like you think there are improvements to be made?

According to Boring Money’s Online Investing Report 2024, 43% of savers and investors say good customer reviews and feedback are important features when choosing the best investment platform.[1]

If you’re not sure how your ISA provider measures up to the competition, it can be useful to check out customer reviews to see what everyone else thinks. This can give you a good gauge of overall satisfaction on everything from user-friendliness to costs to customer service – and help you spot if a provider is failing to keep its users happy.

Boring Money’s Platform Investor Tracker found that in H1 2024, the investing platforms with the overall highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) recommendation were Vanguard, Moneybox and Trading 212.[2]

Every year, we collate thousands of real customer reviews to help you understand what everyone thinks of your ISA provider. To see what others have to say, head to our ISA comparison table, select your provider and scroll down to the ‘customer reviews’ section.

Is your ISA provider good value for money?

Is the price you pay to invest important to you? According to Boring Money research, cost and value for money are consistently cited as the most important features when selecting an ISA provider. 54% of all savers and investors cite a “low annual cost” as the most important factor when deciding who to go for.[3] But how do you know if you’re paying a reasonable amount for the service you’re getting?

The world of investing doesn’t exactly make it easy to understand what you’re paying for and whether or not this constitutes “good value”. The two main types of fee you may encounter when investing with an ISA are the “platform fee”, which is what you’re charged for having an account with your chosen provider, as well as separate “dealing charges” you may incur when you buy or sell assets within your ISA account.

This is complicated even further by the different variations of these fees you may come across. Some providers will charge a flat monthly platform fee, for example, while others may charge a percentage of the amount you have invested.

All of this can get even more complex for the providers which have a tiered system, whereby customers are rewarded for having more money invested on the platform, reducing the platform charge as the pot of money goes up. 

The table below helps to break it down:

It can all get very confusing! Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all way of comparing fees across the ISA market. However, we’ve got a handy calculator tool which can help you estimate the cost of investing with the main ISA providers. Simply enter your chosen investment amount and search to find how much it would cost you on each platform.

Alternatively, if you’re just looking for the absolute cheapest on the market, we can help you here too! Every year, our research team comb through the T&Cs and check dozens of live accounts to filter the cheapest ISA providers in the UK for portfolios of different sizes. Click the links below to see:

• Cheapest ISA providers for accounts <£50,000

• Cheapest ISA providers for accounts >£50,000

Is your ISA provider easy to use?

Ease of use is super important when it comes to finding the right ISA provider for you. After all, you don’t want to be fiddling with a glitchy app or getting lost in a dense and confusing website when you just want to check on your account.

Whether a provider is “easy to use” is highly subjective. For some investors, this will mean it has a great app that’s quick and intuitive for checking your portfolio on the go. For others, this will mean the website is easy to navigate with lots of educational resources to help flesh out your investing knowledge.

On the whole, “ease of use” tends to incorporate factors such as:

• Is it easy to set up an account?

• Is it easy to log in/out?

• Is it easy to navigate the website/app?

• Can you use it on the device you prefer – desktop or mobile?

• Are any tools/calculators easy to use or confusing?

If your ISA provider is giving you grief over any of the above issues, it can be frustrating and add unnecessary stress to the whole process. They might not be make-or-break issues, but you may want to consider shopping around to find if there are other options out there that would be a better fit.

Are you considering switching your ISA provider? Why not check out the winners of our coveted Best Buy ISA award, the firms we think offer the very best ISAs on the market. Click the link below to see this year’s winners.

Does your ISA provider have good customer service?

Good customer service is often overlooked when selecting an ISA provider but can make a world of difference if anything goes wrong!

Only 16% of savers and investors consider having “someone on the phone to walk me through it” an important feature. However, priorities often evolve over time and older individuals list good customer service as a more important consideration than their younger counterparts. Among over-55s, 20% of this age group say this would be an important feature to them.[4]

Customer service differs across the ISA landscape – some providers have comprehensive offerings, with 24/7 online chat, an email address and a telephone line you can ring to get in touch with a representative. Others have fewer or just one of the above, although most providers do have an ‘FAQ’ section on their website or app which can address some of the most common queries.

If customer service is a top priority for you, or even if you just want to see how your current ISA provider fares, why not check out the winners of our Best For Customer Service award 2024? Our research team test a range of features to select the winners, including:

• Call centre answer & opening times

• Customer ratings on service

• Customer recommendation scores

• Feature analysis of webchats

• FAQ sections

• Secure messaging functionality

Is your ISA provider regulated and trustworthy?

According to data from National Trading Standards (NTS), 73% of UK adults – or 40 million people – have been targeted by scams. 35% - or 19 million – of these have lost money because of it.[5] 

In 2024, fraud and financial scams are widespread and more convincing than ever. The NTS found the average amount lost by victims is £1,730, but fewer than a third (32%) actually report the crime to the authorities.[6] 

With this in mind, it’s important to ensure that you can trust the company you decide to put your money into. Here are a few things you may want to take into consideration: 

• Is your ISA provider properly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)? You can search the Financial Services Register to see if your provider is fully registered and authorised by the Regulator. 

• Does your provider have FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) protection? You may have protection up to £85,000 with each provider in the event it goes out of business and is unable to meet your claim. Use the FSCS Checker to check if your investments are protected by the FSCS.

• Is your ISA from a well-established and trusted brand? According to Boring Money research, 91% of investors would prefer to invest with an established company than a new and innovative provider. This preference spans across the age groups, with even the youngest investors saying a big, well-known brand would be their preferred investment route.[7] This is not to say that new brands are in any way less legitimate or trustworthy, but if you’re on the nervous side and would sleep better at night knowing your money is backed by a big brand, then this could be an important thing to consider.

What do the experts think of your ISA provider?

Finally, if you’re still on the fence about whether your ISA provider is really right for you, it might help to hear from the experts for their take. Our Founder & CEO Holly Mackay has worked in the investment world for over 25 years and shares her view on dozens of companies to help you understand whether they’re really any good. To see which providers Holly thinks are best for you, click the link below.

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[1] Boring Money, Online Investing Report 2024, March 2024

[2] Boring Money, Platform Investor Tracker H1 2024, July 2024*

*The Net Promoter Score (NPS) uses the answer to the question "On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is “not at all likely” and 10 is “very likely”, how likely are you to recommend [name of provider] to a friend or colleague?” and is calculated by subtracting the proportion of Detractors (those rating 0-6/10) from the number of Promotors (those rating 9 or 10 /10).

[3] Boring Money, Online Investing Report 2024, March 2024

[4] Boring Money, Online Investing Report 2024, March 2024

[5] National Trading Standards, ‘19 million lose money to scams but fewer than a third report’, October 2023

[6] National Trading Standards, ‘19 million lose money to scams but fewer than a third report’, October 2023

[7] Boring Money, Online Investing Report 2024, March 2024