Fee calculator
Don’t let investment fees get in the way of your returns. Use our calculator to make sure you’re on track.
With investing, your capital is at risk
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Portfolio value minus fees for InvestEngine
Portfolio value minus fees for Hargreaves Lansdown
Fees
InvestEngine
Hargreaves Lansdown
£4,298
You would earn more with InvestEngine
£8,461
InvestEngine final portfolio value
£4,163
Hargreaves Lansdown final portfolio value
Portfolio value minus fees for InvestEngine
Portfolio value minus fees for Hargreaves Lansdown
Fees
Platform | InvestEngine | Hargreaves Lansdown |
|---|---|---|
Total fees | £0 | £3,704 |
Total contributions | £7,000 | £7,000 |
Investment growth | £1,461 | £-2,837 |
Portfolio value before fees | £8,461 | £8,461 |
Final portfolio value | £8,461 | £4,163 |
Capital at risk
Assumes a fixed annual return throughout, in practice this will likely vary. The value of your investments may go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. Inflation is assumed to be 2%. Calculations are estimates provided for illustrative purposes only.
How Our Investment Fee Calculator Works
Quick, Simple Inputs
Simply enter how much you’re investing, how long for, and the expected annual return. We’ll then calculate the fees.
See Fee Impact on Growth
Fees can make a big difference over the long run. See how much your returns could be affected.
Compare Different Fee Scenarios
We’ll compare your fees with other platforms, so you can check you’re not overpaying elsewhere.
Clear, Actionable Results
See how much you could save in fees by taking a DIY approach to your investing.
Why Investment Fees Matter
Understanding the impact of investment fees is crucial. Even small differences in fees can significantly reduce your returns over time. Here’s why fees should never be ignored:
High fees = smaller investments
Every pound spent on fees is a pound not invested. Over time, higher fees can take a huge chunk out of your total portfolio value.
Fees can vary dramatically
The difference in fees from one investment platform to another can vary much more than you’d expect - check you’re not overpaying.
Small percentages, high impact
Even a 0.1% difference can be hugely impactful over a long-term investment horizon. See the difference with our calculator.
Understand costs before you invest
Our fee calculator helps you see exactly how much fees can cost you over time, so you can make informed, smarter investment choices.
Compare Fee Impact: InvestEngine vs Others
| Platform | ISA Fee | Dealing charge per trade | Returns lost to fees in 10 years | Portfolio value after 10 years | Returns lost to fees in 20 years | Portfolio value after 20 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Free | Free | £0 | £286,528 | £0 | £850,171 |
Vanguard | 0.15%1 | Free | £2,434 | £284,094 | £10,133 | £840,038 |
Interactive Investor | £4.99 p.m. | £3.99 | £4,266 | £282,262 | £12,658 | £837,513 |
AJ Bell | 0.25%2 | £5.00 | £4,845 | £281,683 | £14,405 | £835,776 |
Fidelity | 0.35%3 | £7.50 | £7,697 | £278,830 | £22,839 | £827,332 |
Hargreaves Lansdown | 0.45%4 | £11.95 | £10,843 | £275,684 | £32,192 | £817,979 |
1Vanguard: capped at £375 a year. £4 p.m. on account balances up to £32,000.
2AJ Bell: capped at £3.50 p.m.
3Fidelity: capped at £7.50 p.m.
4Hargreaves Lansdown: capped at £3.75 p.m.
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Investment Fee FAQs
Does the calculator include fund fees and hidden charges?
No, the calculator does not include fund fees, it only takes into account platform and trading fees. ETFs come with small fees, which do apply on the InvestEngine platform. There are no ‘hidden’ fees on InvestEngine to take into account.
What fees does InvestEngine charge?
InvestEngine has a simple and transparent charging structure. You’ll also find it hard to beat!
The fee we charge depends solely on the portfolio type you choose — zero for a DIY Portfolio and just 0.25% a year for our Managed and LifePlan portfolios.
The ETFs in your portfolio have their own costs — low annual charges (built into the performance of the fund) and buy/sell market spreads — which InvestEngine makes nothing from.
And we have no account fees — whether your portfolio is in an ISA, General or Business Account (though with our Business Account, there may be a Legal Entity Identifier or LEI charge after your first year).
We do not charge for opening, closing or administering your account, or for withdrawals. There is no stamp duty on ETFs and all the ETFs available through InvestEngine are denominated in £s, so we do not charge an FX fee.
Please note: promotional bonuses may be clawed back from your withdrawal, as per the terms and conditions of the promotion, if you have not maintained the minimum contribution amount for the minimum required duration (this is not a fee).
How do I set up the Savings Plan feature?
You may easily set up a Savings plan even with the Autoinvest feature already enabled and if you have submitted orders which are still pending on your account. To do that, follow these steps:
- Sign up or log in to your existing account.
- Navigate to a Portfolio page, select ‘Options’ and simply select the ‘Set up a Savings Plan’ button to get started.
- Choose the frequency of your recurring payments (weekly, fortnightly, or monthly).
- Enter the day you want your first and subsequent payments to be collected.
- Enter the amount you want to invest with each payment.
- Authorise the recurring payment directly with your bank via OpenBanking*.
- Confirm and activate your ‘Savings Plan’.
*Please note: not all banks currently support recurring payments. If you bank does not support this feature, then we will direct you to set up a Direct Debit instead.
See also: Which banks support Savings Plan (Variable Recurring Payments)?
Can I choose the frequency and amount of my recurring payments?
Yes, you have the flexibility to select the frequency of your recurring payments, such as weekly, fortnightly, or monthly*. Additionally, you can choose the amount you want to invest with each payment, starting from as little as £20 for weekly and fortnightly payments and £50 for monthly payments.
*Please note: certain banks may only support monthly payments due to their direct debit infrastructure. This limitation is directly tied to the implementation of Open Banking payment technology. Not every bank supports Open Banking infrastructure.
What is the advantage of ETFs over shares and other stock market investments?
How best to invest in the stock market? There are many different ways to put your money to work in the markets: shares, ETFs, and other types of funds like unit trusts and investment trusts.
If you’re struggling to choose between these different investment types, here’s a quick comparison to help you decide which is best for you:
Shares
If you want to invest in a particular company, whether Tesla or Tesco, then buying their shares is the obvious route.
Most shares are traded on a stock market with prices that constantly change throughout the business day.
You’re backing a specific business and returns can be high. As well as potential increases in the value of the shares, many companies also pay their investors a dividend, generally twice or more a year.
But, make no mistake, investing in a company’s shares is risky. Share prices of individual firms can be very volatile. Sharp falls in short periods of time are always a possibility and, at worst, you can lose all your investment if the company goes bust.
ETFs
Rather than picking individual companies to invest in, with an ETF you’re generally investing in a whole market.
Most ETFs aim to closely track the performance of a specific stockmarket index such as the S&P 500, which comprises the 500 biggest companies in the US.
Typically they do this by spreading your money across the shares of all the companies in the index according to their percentage weight within that index. With the S&P 500, for example, this gives you access to the likes of Apple, Amazon and Tesla in a single investment.
As well as share indexes, there are ETFs that seek to track the price of gold and other commodities or bonds. There are also ETFs that focus on specific investment themes such as cybersecurity and climate change.
ETFs are bought and sold on the stock market like shares, hence their full name of exchange‑traded funds. But as funds that hold a spread of different investments, they’re less risky than buying individual shares.
Compared with other types of investment funds, ETFs can also be very low cost — with annual charges of as little as 0.05%, or just 50p per £1,000 of investment.
And, unlike with purchases of shares in the UK where you have to pay 0.5% stamp duty (as well as any dealing commission), there’s no stamp duty to pay on ETFs.
However, because most ETFs are designed simply to track a market index, you don’t have the potential to outperform the index and, when the market falls, so will the value of your investment.
Unit trusts and investment trusts
Unit trusts (and their close cousins ‘OEICs’) and investment trusts are also types of investment funds. Like ETFs, they hold a spread of different shares or other investments.
But unlike ETFs, in most cases these funds are trying to beat the performance of their chosen market.
They do this by buying investments they think will do well, and avoiding those they think will do badly.
Some of these ‘actively managed’ funds outperform, but most don’t — particularly over time. They also tend to have higher charges than ETFs.
Unit trusts/OEICs are simpler than investment trusts. The former can only be bought once a day through their fund manager, there’s no stamp duty to pay and generally no dealing commission.
Investment trusts, on the other hand, are bought and sold in the stock market like shares or ETFs. They can increase their investment exposure using borrowed money (called ‘gearing’).
Shares of an investment trust can also diverge from the value of their underlying portfolio of investments, and may trade at a ‘discount to net asset value (NAV)’, or at a ‘premium’.
Both gearing and changes in an investment trust’s discount/premium can enhance or detract from the performance of the underlying investments.
And like other shares in the UK, purchases of most investment trusts are subject to 0.5% stamp duty.
At InvestEngine, our focus is on ETFs. Their low costs and diversification, along with wide choice and ease of buying and selling, make them an excellent option for investors’ portfolios. Find out more about why we love ETFs.
How does the AutoInvest feature work with Savings Plan?
The AutoInvest feature automatically allocates your recurring payments to the preselected ETFs in your 'Savings Plan.'
Once you activate the plan, InvestEngine will handle the investment process for you, making it easy and convenient.
AutoInvest can still be used independently of Savings Plan, read more about AutoInvest here.
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With investing, your capital is at risk, ETF/ETC costs apply.