Interactive Investor www.iii.co.uk

I have kept Interactive Investor Account.It enables my consolidating

Shares in one place.

However the charges are high for the small amount of transactions I make.

Probably the main reason for the low satisfaction ratings.

I would be reluctant to recommend to family or friends because of the high

charges.

Wouldn't recommend any more

Been with them for over a decade, but wouldn't recommend them to anyone anymore. They were okay when I first joined, but over the years other brokers, particularly those in the US, have marched ahead by a long way.

Thankfully I don't have all my eggs in this basket and if it wasn't for my ISAs and SIPPs I would move everything elsewhere.

They are okay as long as your needs are very simple and you are not an active investor, but if you want to do anything like buy shares in a US company they are probably the worst UK broker around.

Amazingly, Interactive Investor takes TWO DAYS just to transfer dollars into pounds. This is something you can do instantly with any GOOD financial institution or any of dozens of online apps, but yet Interactive Investor will take your money, invest it for themselves on the money markets to earn themselves interest, and then give you it back two days later. I know this beggars belief and sounds like something from the 1980s, but it is true. Personally, I think this kind of thing should be illegal now, as it is absolutely inexcusable. This is something a mere mortal can do in two minutes online, so why it would take a professional financial institution TWO days is very questionable. I've asked why, but they refuse to tell you, and pretty much just say 'Because it does' (I am paraphrasing).

They are also a LOT more expensive than any other online brokers for buying shares from anywhere else in the world. You will be looking at fees of as much as £20, when Interactive Brokers, Tradestation, etc, would charge you less then $5 for the same transaction. That is over 500% more expensive.

And then there's the stop-losses. I can honestly say I have never seen a worse implementation of stop-losses on any system ever. It is as though whoever designed this system wasn't an investor.

With most brokers you just specify what you want the stop loss to be, and you can change it whenever you like. With Interactive Investor you have to actually place a trade order (e.g. sell Intel if price reaches £50). This trade order will only last a set amount of time (which I think it 60 days) so you have to remember to go in and place another order before that one runs or else you will no longer have a stop loss in place.

Any competent investor will tell you how important stop-losses are, but it seems Interactive Investor don't really care about them that much. There's absolutely no facility to have a trailing stop-loss (wow!) and if you do want to change the stop loss you have to (amazingly) go in and cancel the current stop loss trade order. Then wait until that trade order has happened, which you'd think would be instantaneous, but it isn't. I have had it where I've had to wait for hours for it to happen. I don't know whether that was a glitch or whether it was due to having to wait until the markets had re-opened, although why you'd need to wait until the markets were open who knows.

Then once you've managed to cancel that initial stop-loss order you need to place a new stop-loss order. Imagine having to do that for a few dozen stock holdings every two months. It takes MANY HOURS!!!

These are just a few of the issues. There are lots more such as the inability to buy/sell options (gosh you can do this with apps on your phone these days), and if you're expecting to do anything even slight 'advanced' such as bracket orders forget about it. Not a chance.

I think maybe the people who use Interactive Investor have very small, inactive portfolios, so some of these things won't be a problem (although a good stop loss habit is important for everyone). But for anyone who has a sizeable amount to invest, and wants a diversified portfolio, that is well organised with stop-losses and take-profit orders, and a truly first class service, Interactive Investor are definitely not your best bet.

Their customer service is okay, and they do have some pleasant staff, although it does often take several days to get a reply, and the replies are often very brief and require additional follow-up, which isn't ideal.

It seems that they grow through acquisition rather than through providing an excellent service, and they don't employ enough staff to best meet the needs of their clients (hence the long wait times), but alas, this is often the way these days.

My advice would be to checkout the other options.

Fees so low particularly with larger amounts invested.Good help given before transfers to ensure accuracy.Excellent information on various investments!

I have never had any problems with them, although honestly I have not had cause to deal with any problems. They are significantly cheaper and a fixed monthly payment so the more you ave with them the less it costs, a fraction of the fees with HL. I am a bit surprised at some of the feedback on this forum but they are a low cost provider so need to make some allowances. Their website is not as slick as Hl but it is functional enough.

I have experienced an on-going, still unresolved, problem relating to a Euro balance discrepancy with my Interactive Investor trading account following payment last July of a dividend denominated in Euros from a UK LSE main-market listed company (IAG). Incorrect Euro balance is stated in "trading history" section, with no mention of final dividend payment, while higher, correct Euro balance is stated in "cash balance" section. I have currently communicated, mainly verbally on the phone, with 10 staff members since August to try to get problem rectified. So far, after almost 5 months, this issue remains unresolved & seems to have been kicked into the long grass with a mixture of complacency, blame passing, incompetence and arrogance. Customer service would be more-accurately described as customer disservice. I have received a long string of apology & excuse, but no tangible remedy of the problem (blamed on third-party software company) that is very disconcerting to experience, troubling to see such a simple error and wearing to have had to deal with over such along time. So far, only a derisory offer of £50 goodwill payment has been offered (no doubt accepting no liability) and then only as written letter - in take-it-or-leave-it manner, with no prior verbal conversation. E-mail requests in last month to Interactive Help have simply been ignored, with no reply - adding to further discourtesy & impression of contempt towards customer. With aforementioned experience & recent introduction of higher monthly account fees (since June), seriously contemplating moving shareholdings, early next year, to competitor company offering much fairer, cheaper, less arrogant & more customer-engaged service.

This company was so much better in its previous incarnation, TD Waterhouse. Now it is beyond awful. Its bureaucratic processes are stupid and inflexible. Do NOT open an account with this firm.

I have been a happy customer for years but my patience is wearing very thin with the changes.

Latest problem is I can't add funds to my isa, apparently I have to input some details again as I didn't put in any funds last year which is fine. Unfortunately the option you are directed to to do this by customer services simply doesn't exist. The response to me pointing this out is total silence.

This is a basic requirement and it's beyond belief you cant add funds.

No one tested it before it went live clearly.

OK, but high fee's and slow to transfer

I have been a customer since 2010 and although they do the same as every other share dealer, I found their fee's to be quite high. II charge a quarterly fee of £20, so when I got the message saying it is rising again to £22.50 (totaling £90 per year) I decided to move to another company.

I found a new company to hold my shares and they requested to II to move my shares over, however this is where the slow process began. I contacted the customer services no less than 32 times to try and move the process along and finally after 14 weeks they finally got my shares moved over - It seems like they do all in their power to keep your shares, which is quite annoying to say the least.

At first they had told me that there was also a fee of £15 per set shares to transfer out. These fee's were stealthy imposed, although they are meant to notify you in writing, this was never done so (so just be careful you understand all their fee's before joining, as there are a lot). Eventually these were waived, but to be honest I would have rather paid them and had a quicker transfer out.

Generally I have found their fee’s quite high now that I have shopped around with the following applying;

£10 per trade (I just found iWeb do it £5).

£22.50 quarterly fee.

£15 Transfer out fee.

I recommend doing your research first, there are many better and cheaper companies out there.

Sorry for the negative review, but I hope this can help others in making the right choice....

Most disgusting BB for investors in the uk. More about right wing politics than shares. BB' full of obnoxious right wing views. Would never use this god awful site again.

The recent platform changeover has not gone smoothly but to some extent, a few problems were always likely to arise. What I find absolutely shocking is the inability to sell some of my investments and II's failure to deal with my urgent secure messages in a timely fashion. I have tried calling on at least 6 occasions and despite hanging on for 10 minutes each time, failed to get through. Sure, the fees are low but I now understand the reasons for this. I now want to transfer my investments but I'm concerned about the potential delays after reading other reviews.

If you are considering using this company, the only advice I can give you is 'DON'T'