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TIC UK Investing Platforms — Q1 2026

Written by: By: Thomas Drury
Thomas Drury
Thomas Drury Co-Founder & Senior Trading Analyst
expertise:
CFD Trading, Forex, Derivatives, Risk Management
credentials:
Chartered ACII (2018) · Trading since 2012
tested:
40+ forex & CFD platforms with live accounts
Checked (CII Verified Professional)
See Full Bio →
Reviewed by: Reviewed: Dom Farnell
Dom Farnell
Dom Farnell Co-Founder & Investment Strategy Lead
expertise:
Broker Comparison, ISA Strategy, Portfolio Management
credentials:
Active investor since 2013 · 11+ years experience
tested:
40+ brokers with funded accounts
See Full Bio →
Last Updated: Updated:
Fact Checked

How We Test

Real accounts. Real money. Real trades. No demo accounts or press releases.

What we measure:

  • Spreads vs advertised rates
  • Execution speed and slippage
  • Hidden fees (overnight, withdrawal, conversion)
  • Actual withdrawal times

Scoring:

Fees (25%) · Platform (20%) · Assets (15%) · Mobile (15%) · Tools (10%) · Support (10%) · Regulation (5%)

Regulatory checks:

FCA Register verification · FSCS protection

Testing team:

Adam Woodhead (investing since 2013), Thomas Drury (Chartered ACII, 2018), Dom Farnell (investing since 2013) — 50+ platforms with funded accounts

TIC Investments Ltd · Companies House #15242358
Unit Gf4, Eagle House, Great Whelnetham, Bury St Edmunds, IP30 0UN, United Kingdom

Quarterly reviews · Corrections: info@theinvestorscentre.co.uk

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Not financial advice. Educational content only. We're not FCA authorised. Consult a qualified advisor before investing.

Capital at risk. Investments can fall. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

CFD warning. 67-84% of retail accounts lose money trading CFDs. High risk due to leverage.

Contact: info@theinvestorscentre.co.uk

Affiliate Disclosure: We test every platform with real money. Some links are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This never affects our rankings. How we test · Full disclaimer
Contents

    Real-money testing of 13 UK investing platforms offering non-leveraged products (Stocks & Shares ISA, SIPP, LISA, JISA, GIA, robo-advisors, ETF-only platforms). 8 platforms were funded with live accounts using two standardised model portfolios — £25,000 UK-only with 12 trades per year and £50,000 with 30% international holdings — with FCA Register status, fee schedules and customer-support response sampled directly. 5 additional platforms are indexed as honourable mentions with publicly-typical data. Released under CC BY 4.0.

    What's in the file

    The master CSV contains 13 rows (one per platform) across approximately 95 columns. Column groups:

    • Identification and tax wrappers: platform ID, FCA Firm Reference Number, year founded, parent company, account type tested, plus boolean flags for Stocks & Shares ISA, Cash ISA, SIPP, LISA, JISA and GIA availability.
    • Instrument range and features: UK / US / EU stock availability, ETF count, fund count, investment trusts, bonds, options, futures, CFDs, crypto, fractional shares, auto-invest, robo-advice and managed-portfolio flags.
    • Platform, dealing and FX fees: fee structure (% AUM, monthly tier, custody), monthly entry / top-tier fees, dealing fees by asset class (UK / US / EU stocks, funds, ETFs), tiered FX conversion fees, regular-investment fees, SIPP fee cap, cash interest rates in GBP and USD.
    • Withdrawals, support and editorial: account verification time, withdrawal test time, customer support response across phone / chat / email, FSCS protection, segregated and nominee structures, TIC overall score plus six pillar scores, and community / Trustpilot / iOS / Google Play ratings with sample counts.

    Download

    Download CSV (13 rows × ~95 columns) Master summary JSON — Coming Q2 2026 Raw observations CSV — Coming Q2 2026

    License: CC BY 4.0. Free to use, share and adapt with attribution.

    Methodology

    Live funded-account testing of UK investing platforms using two standardised model portfolios: £25,000 UK-only with 12 trades per year (FTSE 250 ETF plus FTSE 100 stock) and £50,000 with 30% international holdings (US tech stocks, European bonds and a multi-exchange sample). For each platform: account opening and verification time, bank transfer deposit speed, live trade execution, withdrawal processing time, customer support responsiveness (phone, live chat, email) and fee verification directly from platform fee pages. FCA Register checked at register.fca.org.uk for every platform; Trustpilot ratings captured February 2026. Full protocol →

    Verified data

    8 of 13 platform rows verified against primary sources (live TIC page measurement, platform fee pages and FCA Register) as of 14 May 2026. The remaining 5 (Vanguard Investor, AJ Bell, Freetrade, InvestEngine, Lightyear, Monzo Investing) are indexed as honourable mentions with publicly-typical data and flagged as placeholder until the Q2 2026 test cycle.

    The team who tested this

    • Adam Woodhead — Co-Founder and Senior Platform Analyst (lead tester)
    • Thomas Drury — Co-Founder and Senior Trading Analyst (Chartered ACII, 2018)
    • Dom Farnell — Co-Founder and Investment Strategy Lead

    Cite this dataset

    For academic, journalistic or research use:

    The Investors Centre. (2026). TIC UK Investing Platforms — Q1 2026. Retrieved from https://www.theinvestorscentre.co.uk/about-us/how-we-test/datasets/investing-platforms/. CC BY 4.0.