UK Stock Broker Comparison | Sharia Analysis – IslamicFinanceGuru

Choosing an online stockbroker is essential to your investing journey but it is often a rather painful process to work out who to go for. In this article we’ve tried to take some of that pain away by doing a detailed comparison and sharing our personal experiences too.

To start investing, you need to decide on the broker that you will invest through. Once you have a brokerage account, you can transfer money in and out of it – like a bank account.

Below we have compiled a comparison between a number of different types of stockbrokers in the UK. This is not an exhaustive list but it does cover off the various different flavours of brokers you can get – from the large institutional types, to the no-commission challengers, to the high street banks.

Make sure you read the helpful pointers and tips in the sections below the comparison too!

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‘Investment ideas’- specialist resources.

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Real time figures – £4.50 per month

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$5 withdrawal fee.

Demo account available.

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£3 per month (stocks and shares ISA).

£9.99 per month (SIPP account).

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1.25% exchange rate for international trading.

Transaction and ongoing charge for funds.

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Max fee of 1% charged on currency conversion.

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Streaming prices and real-time portfolio management (£20 per month).

Currency conversion 1.5%

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Demo account available.

ISA/SIPP and Tax-Saving Considerations

Brokerage accounts are subject to Capital Gains Tax (on profits over £12,300 a year) and and Dividend tax (on dividend profits over £2,000 a year).

If you’re thinking of investing regularly and think you’ll exceed those thresholds in terms of profits, you may want to use an Individual Savings Account (ISA) or a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) rather than opening a brokerage account due to their tax advantages.

But bear in mind, each ISA is limited to investing £20,000 per year. On the other hand, there are no limits to how much you can invest in a SIPP but tax relief will only apply to a maximum investment limit of £40,000 per year and there are restrictions on how and when you can withdraw the money.

When a brokerage account is right/not right

If you want to purchase and manage your own investments, a brokerage account at an online broker is for you (and the comparison table above is for you). Other options you may want to consider is a managed brokerage account (where your money is managed for you- which you pay for) or a robo-investor/advisor such as Wahed Invest for those that want to be hands-off.

Sharia considerations: CFD Trading, Margin Trading

When opening an account, you may be given the option of a cash account, a margin account or an account that involves CFDs. Margin accounts allow you to borrow money (with interest) from the broker to make trades – this is of course haram so stick to the cash account. Any account involving CFDs (Contract For Differences) are also haram as CFDs enable profiting from price movement without ever owning the underlying assets.

Important Factors to Consider in a Broker

What will you invest in? What features are important to you? What will cost less in light of the aforementioned? If you are a beginner, you should also consider the ease of use, education support, and access to market research.

A few notes of caution

Remember: don’t invest money you need within the next few years because just as you can profit through investing, you can also lose money. How you’re taxed will depend on your circumstances, and the rules can change.

How to Learn Halal Investing Quickly

If you want more information on investing, be sure to  check out our course on halal investing for busy professionals. You can also use our own platform Cur8 Capital to find and invest in Sharia-compliant investments in Venture and Real Estate Capital.