The Best Junior Stocks & Shares ISA in 2024
Our top picks
Broker | Annual Fee | Trading Fee | Other Fees | Minimum Investment | JISA Rating* |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hargreaves LansdownHargreaves Lansdown | £0 | £0 | £0 | £100 lump sum or £25 per month | 9.3 |
Fidelity | £0 | £0 for index funds | £0 | £1,000 lump sum or £25 per month | 9.2 |
Vanguard | 0.15% (capped at £375) | £0 | £0 | £500 lump sum or £100 per month | 8.2 |
Interactive Investor | Free with Investor plan (£11.99 per month) | Free trading credits provided in Investor plan | £0 | £25 per month | 7.9 |
Our top pick for a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA is Hargreaves Lansdown, also known as HL.
They’re an obvious standout pick because they are an established, reputable company and they currently allow you to invest for your child without any additional fees whatsoever.
Note: their fees for adult investors are relatively high — they’re our top pick for Junior ISAs only.
We gave Hargreaves Lansdown a JISA rating of 9.3 out of 10.
While their low fees are amazing, their platform is slightly fiddly to use at times. To help with this, we’ve published a tutorial on how to set up your Junior Stocks & Shares ISA with HL. This will help you avoid the common issues we faced.
Despite finding their system slightly tricky to get to grips with, their customer service team were fast and responsive in helping us work through our problems.
Close behind in second place is Fidelity, with a JISA rating of 9.2. They offer similar fee-free options as long as you exclusively stick to investments in index funds — ETFs and share purchases will incur fees.
Vanguard’s fees are on the lower side compared to much of the other competition in the industry. They also provide the funds, which is one of the many reasons they’re such a reputable and trusted company. We gave Vanguard a JISA rating of 8.2.
Our other top choice is Interactive Investor, with a JISA rating of 7.9.
Interactive Investor’s Junior Stocks & Shares ISA could be a good choice if you’re already a paying customer.
Their monthly £11.99 ‘Investor plan’ fee compares favourably against Vanguard if you have £10,000 or more invested. Their £19.99 ‘Super Investor’ plan, while cost-effective for investments over £16,000 versus Vanguard, can be quite expensive for smaller monthly or annual investments.
We wouldn’t use…
Below are a selection of brokers or investment platforms that we wouldn’t use if we were opening a new Junior ISA today.
We believe in covering why we don’t use certain brokers; it’s just as important as explaining why we do use others. It also helps you to see the full list of brokers we considered during our research.
For most brokers, there is only one main reason that we wouldn’t use them. This usually comes down to cost, but fees are not the only consideration you should have when choosing a broker. The most important question you should ask yourself: “do I trust this broker with my money?”
Please remember that you’re in control of your own investment decisions, and these are just the opinions of the Financial Interest team.
Broker | What We Don’t Like |
---|---|
AJ Bell | 0.25% annual fee on funds is higher than all of our top picks for balances above £6,000, plus additional fund dealing fees (£1.50) and share dealing fees (£3.50 to £5). |
Bestinvest | 0.4% annual fee on DIY portfolios and up to 0.6% on ready-made portfolios are higher than many leading brokers. |
Charles Stanley Direct | 0.35% annual fee (which can be lower over time via their loyalty programme) is higher than many leading brokers. |
Moneybox | 0.45% annual fee (charged monthly) plus £1 monthly fee is quite high. |
Moneyfarm | 0.45% annual fee on DIY portfolios and 0.75% on managed portfolios are very high. |
Nutmeg | 0.45% annual fee on passive investments and 0.75% on managed portfolios are very high. |
Wealthify | 0.6% annual fee is very high compared to managed services from many leading brokers. |
We are not qualified financial advisors and this is not financial advice. Investments can rise and fall in value. Capital at risk.