Charges and fees
The value of your investments and the income from them may go down as well as up, and you could get back less than you invested.
Dealing fees
There is no dealing fee to buy and sell funds online with Bestinvest.
You will however pay an annual service fee which is charged monthly in arrears and a fund management fee which is set by the fund manager. For more information, visit our fees page.
If you would like to buy or sell any investment over the phone there is £30 transaction fee per deal. Buying or selling investments online is more cost effective if you are investing frequently so we would recommend using the online platform or mobile app.
Please note: if you are unable to buy or sell an investment online due to technical issues we can place the instruction for you over the phone and you will not be charged the telephone dealing fee of £30.
Service fees
The service fee is the charge we apply for using our investment platform. Our annual service fees are tiered, meaning the rate you pay is lower on higher balances. The charge is a percentage of the value of your investments in that tier and it is calculated and collected each month. What you pay may be different each month as your investments change in value.
Our service fee starts at 0.2% of invested assets for Ready-made Portfolios and 0.4% for other investments and reduces down in tiers (see the table below). If you have a SIPP there is also the minimum £10 per month service fee.
You can see more details on our fees page.
Ready-made Portfolios and US shares
|
Investing assets |
Service fee |
|
On £0 - 250,000 |
0.2% |
|
On £250,000 - £500,000 |
0.2% |
|
On £500,000 - £1 million |
0.1% |
|
Over £1 million |
No charge |
Other investments
|
Invested value |
Service fee |
|
On £0 - 250,000 |
0.4% |
|
On £250,000 - £500,000 |
0.2% |
|
On £500,000 - £1 million |
0.1% |
|
Over £1 million |
No charge |
Our Key Facts About Our Services And Costs document contains full details, including a breakdown of other fees you may incur with Bestinvest.
Fees are ring-fenced on the 20th of each month and collected on the 28th of each month.
To see all the fees you’ve paid in the past:
- Log in online or via the app
- Go to the account you want to check and click the ‘Transactions’ tab
- Use the transactions type filter and select 'Service fees' to see these fees only
By default, fees are collected from your available cash balance which you can find under the 'Manage cash' tab.
There are certain scenarios where we may collect fees through a different method:
- If there is not enough cash available to cover the fee we sell down the largest fund holding to make this available
- If there are no funds available to sell we collect the fee via direct debit using your nominated bank details
- If there is no fund to sell or bank details for direct debit collection, we sell down the largest share holding
If you would prefer to have your fees collected by direct debit automatically please contact our team and we can arrange this for you.
As our fees are taken a month in arrears this is usually the final charge on the account. This can also be an adhoc charge such as a LEI fee or SIPP minimum fee when account is all in cash.
If you see a transaction that you're unsure of please get in touch with our team and they can provide further explanation.
Account opening/transfer fees
No, there is no charge to open a Bestinvest account. There is a minimum investment of £50 so you have something in your account to get started once you log in.
When you transfer to Bestinvest from another provider, you may incur an exit fee. Before you initiate a transfer you should check what transfer fees you might incur.
If your existing provider charges an exit fee, we will refund up to £500 of the fees. The transfer has to be in-specie (transfer of stocks or shares, not cash) and over £50,000 in value. You will need to provide us with evidence of the exit charges from your provider before we refund you.