Barclays share dealing review
- Price per trade
- Shares £6, Funds £0
- Min. initial deposit
- £50
Our verdict
Learn about Barclays share dealing investor service and find out what you can invest in, along with the drawbacks.
Barclays is a good choice for share dealing, especially if you already have a current account with it, in the interests of keeping everything in one place. Overall, it’s a robust place to put your money to work with a decent range of options to suit various investing styles.
The fact that it’s with a well-established and respected bank can give extra peace of mind. However, that doesn’t mean your investments will perform any better. Barclays’ fees and commissions are in line with other banks and top-tier providers, but it’s not the cheapest.
We like that there’s a decent range of assets and market available, and the automated regular investment service means paying no commission. The recent restructuring of the fees makes it more appealing at a flat 0.25% (for portfolios under £100,000), and free fund dealing is a huge upside, but individual investment commissions are still fairly high at £6 a pop.
Pros
-
No commission for regular investing
-
Large choice of assets and stock exchanges
-
No extra fees to hold an investment ISA
-
Ready-made investments for beginners
-
Free fund investing
Cons
-
Commissions aren't the cheapest
-
Limited learning resources and trading tools
-
User interface is dated and clunky
-
No fractional shares
-
Must hold a current account
How we rated Barclays's investment features
| Feature | Rating | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | 6.9 Standard | Barclays can be cheap depending on your investments but it’s best if you automate. |
| Investment choice | 8 Great | It offers a decent range of assets with access to major markets. |
| Safety and security | 10 Excellent | Barclays offers a secure and safe place for people to invest. |
| Account types and products | 9.2 Excellent | You can invest using all the major tax-efficient accounts. |
| Ease of use | 9.6 Excellent | Barclays offers a solid investing experience that most customers seem happy with. |
| Tools, resources and features | 8.3 Great | Barclays offers plenty of tools and resources apart from social features. |
Barclays “Smart Investor” is an investing service that lets Barclays account holders invest in a range of different ways. It has 2 choices for investors, based on how much you know about investing and how much help you want. Find out how Barclays investing works, what products it offers, and the drawbacks of its share dealing service.
How does Barclays investing work?
With Barclays, you can choose between 2 investment approaches depending on how much help you want with your investments.
Here’s a brief explanation of what each choice involves:
- New to investing. This option gives you a little bit of control, but not much. You can choose between 5 ready-made portfolios.
- Experienced investors. With this option, you’re on your own. You can create a portfolio yourself which includes whatever you want.
Barclays fees
| Fees score | 6.9 Standard |
|---|---|
| Platform fee | 0.25% (up to £100,000 and 0.05% after) |
| UK shares | £6 |
| US stocks | £6 |
| International shares | £6 |
| Funds/ETFs | £0 |
| Foreign exchange (FX) fee | 1% up to £5,000 0.75% £5,000 to £10,000 0.5% £10,000 to £25,000 0.25% £25,000 to £250,000 0.1% over £250,000 |
| Regular investing | Yes (from £50 per month, commission drops to £0) |
| Withdrawal/deposit fee | £0 |
| Inactivity fee | £0 |
Barclays isn’t particularly expensive in any single area. It’s not very cheap across the board either.
The commission costs and platform fees can work out lower than some of the legacy brokerages but they’re not cheap enough to compete with the new challenger brokers.
Barclays uses a percentage fee system for the platform charges. For portfolios under £100,000 it’s just a flat 0.25% fee and then over £100,000 the fee drops significantly to 0.05%. Barclays did have a different fee structure in the past and a £4 minimum monthly fee, but this has been removed.
To give you an idea of how much an account would cost you, if your portfolio was £500, you’d pay just £1.25 a year. Or if you had £10,000, it would cost you just £25 a year (or just over £2 a month) to invest using Barclays.
Barclays also made changes to its commission structure so that now it costs £6 to buy or sell investments, no matter whether the asset is from the UK or abroad. Also, fund fees have been removed so it’s now free to buy or sell funds on the platform.
If you can, it’s worth taking a look at the fund selection or making the most of Barclays’ regular investing service (starting at £50 a month) because this will reduce your trading commission down to £0.
Barclays investment choice and stocks
| Investment choice score | 8 Great |
|---|---|
| Asset options | 5+ |
| Markets | 4 |
| Number of investments | 2,500+ |
| Number of ETFs/funds | 230+ |
| Fractional shares | |
| Minimum deposit | £0 |
| Minimum investment | £0 (at least one share) |
Barclays has a decent selection of investments, assets and markets available to you. There’s no chance you’ll run out of investing ideas.
It’s also great that there’s no minimum deposit or investment amount, but because you can’t buy fractional shares, you need to buy at least one full share of any investment.
Whether you want to build your own portfolio or make use of the Barclays ready-made investment portfolios, Barclays gives you the flexibility to invest in a way that suits your style and goals.
The only downside is the fees that come with some investment types like individual stocks and shares.
If you’re in a position to set up a regular investment plan with Barclays, it immediately becomes a more attractive place to invest with no commission.
Is Barclays safe?
| Safety and security score | 10 Excellent |
|---|---|
| Biometric login/2FA | |
| FCA regulated | |
| FSCS protection | |
| SSL certificate | |
| Public company |
Barclays is one of the largest banks in the world and is well trusted by those who use Barclays for investing. It has several procedures and protocols in place to ensure that your money is kept safe and secure at all times.
Barclays is also regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is bound by its rules and regulations in the conduct of its investment business. Your investments are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which means your deposits are covered up to £85,000 if Barclays goes bust.
Along with being well-regulated as a bank, Barclays is a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a member of the FTSE 100 index.
Barclays account types and products
| Account types and products score | 9.2 Excellent |
|---|---|
| General investment account (GIA) | |
| Stock and shares ISA | |
| Self-invested personal pension (SIPP) | |
| Lifetime ISA (LISA) | |
| Junior ISA (JISA)/Junior SIPP (JSIPP) | |
| Business Account | |
| Interest on cash balances |
What products are available with Barclays?
With Barclays, you have three product options to choose from. Which one you go for depends on your investments in the current tax year and how long you plan to invest.
The products available with Barclays are:
- Stocks and shares ISA. This investment ISA lets you put your money to work without paying tax on most profits.
- Self-invested personal pension (SIPP). A type of personal pension that gives you more control over your retirement portfolio. Read self-invested personal pension (SIPP) to learn more.
- General investment account. A standard investment account with no tax benefits.
Barclays stocks and shares ISA
Barclays refers to this as an investment ISA and it comes with the same tax-efficient structure as other stocks and shares ISAs. It has the same characteristics as investment ISAs with other providers.
You can invest up to a certain amount each tax year without paying UK capital gains or dividend tax on your profits. The allowance for the 2024/2025 tax year is £20,000
Each year, you can open and pay into a new ISA or continue with the one you have, but you can’t pay into two of the same type of ISA in a single tax year.
Barclays SIPP
The self-invested personal pension (SIPP) lets you prepare for retirement. You make your own investment decisions and may be entitled to tax relief on the amounts that you pay in.
You can’t withdraw from your SIPP until you turn 55. This is set to rise to 57 in 2028.
You can invest in one of the ready-made portfolios or choose your own investments with the Barclays SIPP. You can also check out the Barclays funds list, which is a list of funds put together by Barclays experts.
Barclays general investment account
The general investment account (GIA) is usually chosen by people who have already used their ISA allowance for the year, or are already paying into a stocks and shares ISA elsewhere.
There are no limits on this account, but you may have to pay capital gains tax on your profits if you make more than £3,000, or dividend tax on anything over £1,000. So it takes a bit more thought than the ISA.
Barclays ease of use
| Ease of use score | 9.6 Excellent |
|---|---|
| Apple iOS rating | 4.8/5 |
| Google Play rating | 4.4/5 |
| Ways to contact customer service | Phone, email and in-app chat |
| UI/UX | Good |
| Desktop or mobile app | Both |
Barclays scored well in our ease of use assessment, and as you’d expect from a bank with plenty of resources, Barclays does a decent job of creating a smooth investing experience.
We think it’s great that there are multiple ways to contact the customer service team and you can invest using a desktop computer or mobile phone.
On the App Store, Barclays scores 4.8 out of 5, and on Google Play it has a slightly lower 4.4 out of 5 (as of November 2023). Keep in mind that these reviews are for the whole Barclays banking app and not just specifically related to investing.
One downside is that being such a large institution, some of the messaging and jargon used by Barclays is slightly confusing. The investing service isn’t its sole focus so the user experience doesn’t get the same kind of attention other platforms are able to provide.
Barclays customer reviews
| Reviews platform | Score |
|---|---|
| Trustpilot | 1.4/5 |
| Finder user reviews | 4.2/5 |
In our 2024 customer satisfaction survey, 87% of Barclays’ share trading customers said they’d recommend the platform. Reviews of Barclays were rather mixed: some customers praised the platform as “helpful” and supportive but a few were less positive.
One customer said: “The information they provide is very clear I always know what I’m putting in and what I’m getting out of it.”
But another complained about a lack of information.
Trustpilot reviewers gave Barclays a low 1.4 out of 5 from over 10,000 reviews – but this is for the whole service, not just the investment platform (last updated: April 2024).
Barclays tools, resources and features
| Tools, resources and features | 8.3 Great |
|---|---|
| Analysis features | |
| Tools for investing/trading | |
| Social features | |
| Learning resources | |
| Additional Features |
Barclays has a decent amount of tools and resources on offer for investors. The only area where it’s particularly lacking is the social investing aspect with no community forum or way for investors to connect and share ideas.
With Barclays, examples of some of the resources you can access include:
- Articles and guides
- ESG screening
- Plan and invest tool
- Fund research and guidance
- Popular investment lists
- News and research
- Podcasts
What you can invest in with Barclays Smart Investor
Through a Barclays Investment Account or an Investment ISA you can get access to the following:
| Investment type | Available with Barclays Basic? |
|---|---|
| Stocks | |
| ETFs | |
| Funds | |
| Bonds | |
| Forex | |
| Options | |
| Futures | |
| CFDs |
Barclays has insights and research from its team to help you make informed and confident decisions, as well as the latest developments and news in the global markets so you can keep up to date with the latest trends.
Who might Barclays suit?
For starters, this platform is only going to use those of you who are already a Barclays customer, or would consider opening a current out with them.
There’s a decent range of investments and Barclays has done a good job over the years of bringing down some of its prices and fees. That being said, there’s not any areas where Barclays particularly stands out or beats any of the UK’s best trading platforms.
If this doesn’t sound like it would suit you, why not compare share trading platforms to find the right fit to match your style.
Frequently asked questions
