AJ Bell Dodl: Investing App

I have transferred my Cash LISA into a Stocks & Shares LISA as I have been using a Stocks & Shares ISA with success (I use common & popular ETFs). I use Trading 212 which has plenty of options & tools to use to make investment decisions. I expected to have plenty of options for investment as I have heard good things about AJ Bell however there is an extremely poor choice of options with performance data so poor that it might as well not be there as it barely provides any detail. I have noticed that the app is not able to add up my investments properly & give the correct investment change percentage. This is very concerning as that is something that is very basic. They clearly state that there will be reminders for the charges on the account however, I have not received any & have chased up about it yet I still don’t receive the reminders. The only good thing I can say about this platform is it has low fees, otherwise please avoid using Dodl!

Really like what the app does. It’s easy to choose what to invest and they give you plenty of choices to pick from that align with your risk appetite. You can also quite easily see how your money is doing over time. Now the not so good, as a UX Designer this app is quite difficult to get your head around. You don’t always know how to invest monthly. Took me ages to get used to it and to be honest, I’m still not. When the money will be reinvested is not clear and how you go about it isn’t clear either. You expect to put them one in and it’s done on your behalf. But if you don’t actively do it, then it just sits in your pot. I think for one-off this makes sense, but monthly you’d expect it’s done automatically for you. Almost like a direct debit for your investment choice.

Pros: (1) Best value for money DIY investment LISA for those of us who want to control our investment choice but with zero commissions (2) 0.15% account platform fee significantly undercuts the likes of the Roboadvisers like Moneybox and Nutmeg, and competes with Vanguard’s 0.15% platform fee (3) Simple and no frills investing. You won’t be tempted to check the app too often as it isn’t gamified with live pricing, instant trades or price alerts (4) Educational. The copy writing is friendly and does try to make investing understandable (5) Can invest individual US shares from the NYSE and NASDAQ Improvements I’d like to see: (1) Benchmark the 0.75% overseas shares FX fee down to 0.50% to compete with fintech rates like Freetrade’s 0.45% (2) Portfolio graph visual (3) The option to pay the account fee by direct debit, not just floating available cash (4) An iOS widget. (5) Instant trades. Overall, happy to rate Dodl a 4.5/5 based on the LISA account. There’s some easy wins to make to get it to a 5/5 from me.