AJ Bell vs flatex — which broker is better?

Pros

• Custody charge on shares, ETFs and investment trusts capped at GBP 3.50 a month in the Dealing account and ISA, and GBP 10 a month in the SIPP — GBP 42 and GBP 120 a year respectively
• GBP 1.50 online fund dealing is among the cheapest on any UK platform, and regular monthly investing is free from GBP 25
• Share dealing at GBP 5.00, falling to GBP 3.50 in any month following one with 10 or more share deals
• Listed on the London Stock Exchange under AJB as a FTSE 250 constituent, with published audited accounts and FCA regulation
• Which? Recommended Provider for eight consecutive years, 2019 to 2026 — the only investment provider to achieve that run
• Seven-day customer support: phone 08:00–19:00 on weekdays and 10:00–14:00 at weekends, plus live chat and secure message
• Free transfers in and out, free withdrawals, free cash holding with interest paid, and no inactivity fee
• 24 international markets and a deep menu — over 4,000 funds, over 3,500 ETFs, over 400 investment trusts, bonds, gilts, ETCs and warrants

Cons

• The 0.25% custody charge on funds is uncapped up to GBP 250,000, so a GBP 200,000 fund portfolio pays GBP 500 a year where a flat-fee platform charges under GBP 100
• Foreign exchange starts at 0.75% on the first GBP 10,000 of a trade, with a further 0.5% taken when overseas dividends are converted into sterling
• Six of the 24 international markets — Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa — are telephone-only with a GBP 10,000 minimum order, which effectively puts them out of reach for most retail portfolios
• No options, futures, spread betting, CFDs, direct crypto or fractional shares, and no demo account to test the platform first
• In-house research is thinner than Hargreaves Lansdown's: a favourite-funds list and Shares Magazine content rather than a full analyst desk with written coverage of individual holdings
• Sterling is the only cash currency, so a round trip in a US share crosses the FX spread twice with no way to hold dollars between trades

Pros

• EUR 5.90 flat commission on German, US, Canadian and other foreign orders with no percentage component up to EUR 40,000 — a EUR 10,000 trade costs the same as a EUR 1,000 trade
• All ETF and fund savings plans execute at EUR 0.00 commission with over 5,000 plans available and no cap on the savings rate
• No custody fee, no account fee, no inactivity fee, and free incoming and outgoing depot transfers
• Genuine spot crypto in around 25 coins at 0.6%–0.7% all-in, held inside the regulated German bank rather than as an ETN wrapper
• Full German banking licence under BaFin and Bundesbank supervision, with an MDAX-listed parent (flatexDEGIRO SE, ticker FTK) publishing audited accounts and over EUR 100 billion in customer securities under custody
• Tax-simple in both markets it serves: automatic German Abgeltungsteuer withholding and automatic Austrian KESt settlement at 27.5% on flatex.at
• Free foreign-currency sub-accounts, so USD or CHF proceeds can be held rather than converted back at a spread every time
• Fast onboarding — flatex advertises a five-minute fully digital account opening, and no minimum deposit applies

Cons

• 0.00% p.a. credit interest on cash balances. Competitors pay 1%–1.75% on the settlement or call account, so an investor holding EUR 20,000 in cash gives up EUR 200–350 a year that never shows up in any fee table
• Currency conversion costs an absolute margin of USD 0.0040 per euro — roughly 0.35% — which is worse than Consorsbank's published USD 0.0030 and far worse than a multi-currency specialist
• No Eurex or US options and futures trading at all. Certificates, knock-outs and Société Générale CFDs are the only leveraged instruments on offer
• Real-time quotes are metered: 25 free per month plus 10 per executed order, then EUR 0.01 per query, and the professional flatex trader 2.0 platform costs EUR 15–39 a month on top
• The EUR 5.90 floor makes flatex expensive for small orders — a EUR 300 purchase pays about 2% in commission before venue costs, where a EUR 1 neobroker charges 0.3%
• Direct foreign market access is narrow: US, Canada, Euronext, Vienna, Zurich and Milan (sell only). There is no direct London, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Nordic access, and stock savings plans cost 1.00% of the rate