Yes, there are fees for using investment platforms, and different accounts from different providers come with differing costs. Broadly, fees fall into three groups: platform or custody fees, trading fees (which differ depending on the financial products you buy), and investment fees; but also, make sure you look out for potential exit fees if you’re transferring investments from other platforms and foreign exchange fees for oversees investments.
Fees may be structured as a percentage charge of your assets or as fixed fees, and may come with annual caps. We use a basket of £20,000 to assess the fees, but the devil is in the detail: how much you pay personally will depend on how much you want to invest and the type of financial products you want buy. It can be a headache but finding the lowest cost provider for your needs is worth it as high fees have an extremely corrosive effect on your returns over time.