What is an Investment Account?
An Investment Account offers a flexible way to invest to help your money grow. You can choose from over 8,000 investments, including our Ready-made Investment funds.
There’s no upper limit to how much you can invest in, and you have the flexibility to withdraw your cash at any time. What’s more, any cash held in your Investment Account will automatically earn interest. Investments within this account aren’t sheltered from UK income or capital gains tax, so if you’ve already used your tax-free allowances, then an Investment Account could be a great option for you.
Four reasons to open an Investment Account
Low fees
One low annual fee, and no charge for many of our services including buying and selling funds online, withdrawing cash, and opening your account which keeps more money in your pocket.
Easy to manage
It’s easy to open an account, place a trade and check your investments anytime within Online Banking or the Barclays app.(1) If you need more support, we have a UK-based team on the phone to help.
Earn interest
Earn interest on cash held in your Investment Account.
Secure
We are a FTSE 100 listed business with 48 million customers worldwide. We’re the first bank to achieve BSI KITEMARK™ for Secure Digital Banking.
The value of investments can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invest. Smart Investor doesn’t offer personal investment advice so if you’re not sure about investing, seek independent advice.
Our awards
We were voted Best for Customer Service 2024 from Boring Money and Consumer Rated Value for Money 2024 from Boring Money(2), Best Stockbroker 2023 and Best SIPP Provider 2024 at The Online Money awards

A simple, low-cost fee structure
Customer fee
0.25% p.a.
up to £200,000
and 0.05% on investments over £200,000
Buying and selling shares online*
£6
per trade**
Free to invest in funds online
Activity |
Cost |
---|---|
Buying and selling funds online |
No charge** |
Regular investments (including shares) |
No charge |
Dividend reinvestment |
No charge |
Holding cash |
No charge |
Transferring investments |
No charge |
Cash withdrawal and account closure |
No charge |
*Including ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts
**£25 per trade by telephone. Taxes may apply when buying shares. A foreign exchange and an international brokerage fee will be charged when trading international shares.
Learn more about our fees and Interest rates on cash.
You can also use our simple cost calculator to understand the charges that would apply.
Get started with an Investment Account today
Important information
You need to be 18 or over and have a Barclays Current Account to use the app.(Return to reference)
We are one of multiple platforms to win Boring Money's value for money award which was based on a survey of investment platform customers from December 2022 to December 2023. Please note this does not guarantee profits or necessarily mean we are the cheapest platform available.(Return to reference)
Lines are open from 7:30am to 7:00pm Monday to Thursday, 7:30am to 6:00pm on Friday, and closed during weekends and public holidays. To maintain a quality service, we may monitor or record phone calls. (Return to reference)