Trading 212

Trading 212's SIPP launched in 2026 and matches the ISA pricing: no SIPP account fee, no custody fee, no trading commission and no transfer fee. The only charge is the 0.15% FX fee when currency conversion is needed inside the pension. That puts it in a dead heat with InvestEngine — the platform I previously told you to pair with Trading 212 precisely because it had the free SIPP Trading 212 lacked.

What you get:

• Tax relief, claimed for you. Trading 212 claims basic-rate relief from HMRC automatically — a £100 net contribution becomes £125 gross, usually landed in your account within 6–11 weeks. Higher- and additional-rate taxpayers claim the extra 20%–25% through self-assessment. The standard pension tax relief rules apply.
• A £60,000 annual allowance. Or 100% of your UK relevant earnings, whichever is lower — the usual SIPP limit.
• Full investment range. Thousands of stocks and ETFs, plus ready-made Pies from Vanguard Global, BlackRock Core and WisdomTree Core if you'd rather not pick. ETNs and anything outside the SIPP's risk appetite are excluded.
• Multi-currency support. You can hold balances across supported currencies inside the pension, though all deposits and withdrawals are GBP only.
• Access from 55, rising to 57 from 2028 — standard across the market.

The one real limitation: personal contributions only. Trading 212 does not yet accept employer contributions or third-party payments. If you're consolidating a workplace pension with an employer match flowing in, this SIPP cannot replace that arrangement. For everyone else — self-employed, consolidators, higher-rate taxpayers topping up — it removes the single biggest reason to keep a second platform.

For how a SIPP stacks up against an ISA on the tax maths, see our guide to the SIPP vs ISA decision, and the compound-interest numbers behind workplace pension vs SIPP fees. For independent pension guidance, MoneyHelper offers free Pension Wise appointments.

The fee structure is cleaner than the marketing suggests. According to Trading 212's fees page, the only fee Trading 212 itself charges on Invest, ISA and SIPP accounts is the 0.15% FX fee. Trading commission: free. Custody: free. Withdrawals: free. Inactivity: free.

Buy £10,000 of a US-listed ETF and that's £15 on the conversion. Sell it later — another £15. It compounds over years of global-ETF investing, and it's the reason a 'free' platform still makes money off you. As a percentage it's competitive: Freetrade charges 0.39%–0.99%, and traditional brokers 0.5%–1.5%. But 0.15% is a fee, not free — and you'll pay it on nearly every non-GBP trade.

The costs Trading 212 doesn't charge, but you'll still meet:

• Stamp Duty Reserve Tax of 0.5% on London-listed share purchases. ETFs, gilts and bonds are exempt; most AIM stocks are too.
• PTM Levy of £1.50 per trade on orders over £10,000 (both buy and sell).
• Exchange and tax fees on foreign listings — a $0.00206-per-share SEC fee and FINRA fee on US sales, and a 0.4% French financial transaction tax on large-cap French purchases.
• Card deposit fee of 0.7% once your lifetime card deposits pass £2,000, per the funding fees page. Bank transfers are always free.

On uninvested cash, Trading 212 pays interest — and the Cash ISA tracks the Bank of England base rate at base minus 0.15%. With the Bank of England base rate at 3.75% — unchanged since December 2025 — that's 3.60% AER, paid monthly. Interest on cash is also available across the Invest, ISA and SIPP accounts, with balances held in banks or qualifying money market funds. Compare that to NS&I Premium Bonds at 3.80% tax-free — a higher headline, but the median saver earns far less.

On a £20,000 DIY portfolio, Trading 212 and InvestEngine both cost £0 before FX. Vanguard's £4/month flat fee works out at £48 a year, AJ Bell's 0.25% at £50, Fidelity's 0.20% at £40, Hargreaves Lansdown's 0.35% at £70, and interactive investor's £5.99/month at £72. Add 0.15% FX to half your Trading 212 portfolio (£10k × 0.15% × 2 for buy and sell) and you're still at £30 a year — the cheapest all-in on the table.

The share-lending story has changed for the better — and it's still worth opting out of.

Trading 212 now splits lending income 50/50 with you, per its share-lending explainer. The old 'you get nothing while Trading 212 pockets the fee' framing is out of date: when your shares are borrowed by a short-seller, you receive half the daily lending interest. It applies to Invest accounts only — ISA and SIPP holdings are not lent.

But three things haven't changed:

• You lose voting rights on any share that's out on loan. Want to vote against a fat pay package? Too late — the borrower holds your vote.
• Dividends arrive as 'manufactured payments' from the borrower rather than from the company, which can carry different tax treatment outside an ISA.
• You're still the exit liquidity for short-sellers. Your shares help someone bet against the companies you own.

The fix is the same as before: disable it in the Interest-on-shares dashboard. The difference is that now you're declining real income rather than giving it away for free. For a long-term holder in an ISA, the voting-rights point matters more than the £×.xx of lending income — but the decision is now yours to make with a number attached, rather than being made for you silently.

None of the above changes the core structural point. Trading 212's CFD arm — contracts for difference, where 78% of retail accounts lose money — remains the dominant revenue engine. The investment platform functions as a funnel: the app moves you seamlessly between Invest/ISA/SIPP mode and CFD mode, and one wrong tap lands you in leveraged derivatives instead of an ETF order.

The platform itself is legitimate. Trading 212 UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA (FRN 609146), client money sits in segregated accounts at major banks, and assets are protected under the FSCS — up to £85,000 for investments and £120,000 for eligible cash. Your money is as safe here as at any UK broker.

The question is cultural. If you're a 30-year buy-and-hold investor, do you want your platform's profitability to depend on people making the opposite bet? The SIPP launch doesn't change that calculus — it just means the answer no longer has a practical consequence for most people, because there's now no fee or feature forcing you to keep a second account.

Trading 212 vs InvestEngine: both are now £0 for DIY investing, with a free SIPP each. The split is clean — InvestEngine is ETFs-only (860+ funds) and charges no FX; Trading 212 offers thousands of individual stocks plus ETFs and pays interest on cash, but takes 0.15% FX on non-GBP trades. Want to own shares? Trading 212. Want a pure, currency-clean ETF portfolio? InvestEngine.

Trading 212 vs Freetrade: Freetrade has a SIPP on all plans and access to mutual funds, and it doesn't push CFDs. But its FX runs 0.39%–0.99% against Trading 212's 0.15%. On a global-ETF portfolio that differential compounds into real money. Freetrade's edge is the all-in-one wrapper and the cleaner business model; Trading 212's edge is the price.

Trading 212 vs the traditional brokers: Hargreaves Lansdown charges 0.35% plus £3.95–£6.95 a deal; AJ Bell 0.25% plus £3.50–£5; interactive investor a £5.99/month flat fee; Fidelity 0.20%–0.35%. All four offer funds, investment trusts, SIPPs and research that Trading 212 doesn't. On cost, none of them can touch it.

The bottom line: Trading 212 is still the cheapest UK platform for a Stocks & Shares ISA holding shares and ETFs — and now that the free SIPP is live, that's true across the ISA and pension wrapper. What changed is the reasons to choose elsewhere: they're now about investment range and business model, not price. For a deeper teardown of two traditional rivals, see our Bestinvest review and the Bestinvest vs AJ Bell fee breakdown.

For the same ETF-only ISA portfolio and a closer look at what changes the choice, read the Trading 212 vs InvestEngine comparison.

Open an account if:

• You want the cheapest ISA and SIPP on the market — £0 platform fees on both, 0.15% FX the only friction
• You hold individual shares as well as ETFs — Trading 212's range beats every other free platform
• You want interest on uninvested cash, including a Cash ISA at 3.60% AER tracking the base rate
• You're starting small — fractional shares from £1 and Pies make £50/month investing painless
• You're happy opting out of share lending and ignoring the CFD tab

Look elsewhere if:

• You want mutual funds or investment trusts — still shares and ETFs only
• You need employer pension contributions — the SIPP is personal-contributions only
• You want a platform whose revenue doesn't depend on leveraged-trading losses
• You value research, phone support and hand-holding — Hargreaves Lansdown and interactive investor serve that market
• You want zero FX on a global ETF portfolio — InvestEngine wins there

For the full landscape, start at the platform comparison hub before you open anything. For the broader strategy, our investing guides and ISA hub cover the wrappers and the approach.

Trading 212 has gone from 'brilliant ISA tool, but bring your own pension' to a genuine all-in-one for the cost-conscious DIY investor. That's a real shift. What hasn't shifted is who pays for it — and you should decide with that firmly in mind.