Vanguard Stocks & Shares ISA review 

Vanguard solely sells its personal funds, however it’s a terrific platform for novices

Vanguard is a widely known funds platform. It solely sells its personal funds however it affords a Shares & Shares ISA to put money into, and you’ll select between a number of ready-made portfolios, appropriate for newbie traders or select all of your funds your self. There’s additionally a completely managed model, which is the place a portfolio is created for you. 

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Right here at Be Intelligent With Your Money, we’re not regulated to present you monetary recommendation. We goal to provide the details a few supplier or funding however it’s as much as you to determine if it’s appropriate for you. In the event you’re on the lookout for extra personalised steering, discover a monetary adviser who can provide you particular recommendation. Keep in mind that your capital is in danger when investing — don’t make investments greater than you are ready to lose. 

What’s the Vanguard Shares & Shares ISA?

The Vanguard Shares & Shares ISA is an account that’s obtainable to put money into. Which means you need to use your tax-free allowance of £20,000 per yr and wouldn’t need to pay any tax in your earnings. 

There’s no extra cost for the ISA, in contrast to another funding suppliers. 

Plus, if you have already got another ISAs with another suppliers, you’ll be able to switch them into your Vanguard ISA. This may be carried out with out the cash counting as a brand new deposit on this tax yr. Any current investments will probably be offered earlier than the switch after which reinvested into the funds you select with Vanguard. 

Any uninvested money in your Vanguard ISA will get an rate of interest of two.2% — not nice, however it’s higher than nothing. 

Different Vanguard merchandise

Vanguard additionally affords a Junior ISA for investing for the little ones, a Common Funding account for while you’ve used your ISA allowance already, and a Self-Invested Private Pension for investing on your retirement. 

What you’ll be able to put money into with Vanguard

Vanguard doesn’t have the identical investments as different suppliers, because it solely sells its personal funds. It has a fairly big selection, although, with 85 funds obtainable to put money into.

The funds are organised properly and it’s very easy to seek out what you’re on the lookout for. You may filter the funds by the chance profile, the areas they’re invested in and the way they’re managed. You may see what number of investments are in every fund and a breakdown of how they’re invested. 

This lets you put collectively your portfolio with some confidence and allows you to select funds that match the way you’d like to speculate. 

A few of the funds on supply are the 5 “LifeStrategy” portfolios and eleven “Goal Retirement” funds. 

The ready-made portfolios are designed by specialists, so that you simply have to put money into one in all them to get a diversified mixture of investments. You may select which portfolio to decide on based mostly on how dangerous it’s. This determines how a lot fairness is within the portfolio.

Fairness is one other title for firm shares and is often a riskier funding. Which means riskier portfolios could have the next portion of fairness, whereas these thought-about low threat could have a bigger portion of bonds. 

Listed here are the portfolios obtainable with Vanguard:

Full novices also can go for the absolutely managed possibility. That is the place you reply some questions on how a lot you need to make investments and the way you are feeling about threat and Vanguard will give you a portfolio that’s bought a stability of fairness and bonds that fits you. It’s much like the ready-made portfolios, besides it’ll be absolutely managed and rebalanced to swimsuit you, and will have a barely completely different proportion of equities for you. Nevertheless, it’ll value you extra for this.

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Vanguard account charges

Vanguard’s account charges (mainly the platform payment) are fairly easy, however they’re barely completely different relying on how your portfolio will probably be managed.

Self-managed portfolios

These are the account charges while you select your personal funds to put money into. They elevated in March 2025 to a minimal £4 a month, making it fairly costly for these with lower than £32,000 in comparison with earlier than.

There are additionally fund administration prices of between 0.06% and 0.79%, relying on which funds you go for.

Absolutely managed investments

These are the charges you’ll pay if you happen to select to put money into the managed portfolios. There’s no minimal month-to-month quantity by way of this route. The administration payment was lowered from 0.3% in March 2025.

Vanguard options for newbie traders

Vanguard affords a superb Shares & Shares ISA for newbie traders because it affords ready-made choices and particular person funds for selecting your personal portfolio, plus absolutely managed investments for individuals who desire a fully “hands-off” method.

Even the self-managed portfolios are fairly suited to novices, because the funds are well-organised with plenty of easy-to-understand details about the funds. 

Vanguard additionally has a terrific vary of investing training guides to elucidate the way it works and the way to decide on your personal funds if this can be a route you’d wish to go down. 

Is Vanguard protected?

Vanguard is a significant fund supplier and is FCA-regulated within the UK. Any cash you deposit is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Which means if Vanguard (or any of its companions which might be holding your cash) had been to go bust and also you lose cash in consequence, then as much as £85,000 is protected.

The way to open a Vanguard Shares & Shares ISA

You may open a Vanguard Shares & Shares ISA on its web site. It has a cellular app, however you’ll be able to’t open an account with it. 

You begin by deciding whether or not you need to start with a cost – this may be £500 initially or you’ll be able to switch an current ISA. 

You’ll then select between self-managed ISAs or managed ISAs.

In the event you select the managed possibility, Vanguard will ask you some questions on how a lot cash you propose to speculate, how your funds are and your angle to threat. It’ll then current you a plan based mostly in your solutions.

You’ll have to have ID, your Nationwide Insurance coverage Quantity and a debit card handy.

In the event you select a self-managed ISA, you’ll be directed straight by way of the sign-up course of, and can be capable of select funds as soon as your account is open. 

Execs and cons of Vanguard

Execs

• No further value for ISA
• Nice platform for novices
• Affords absolutely managed and ready-made choices
• Has a cellular app

Cons

• Not the most cost effective platform
• You may solely put money into Vanguard funds

Vanguard critiques

Over on our sister web site, Good Cash Individuals, Vanguard clients have rated it 4.53/5. Constructive reviewers discover the platform very easy to make use of, they suppose the customer support is great and suppose it’s cost-effective. 

Damaging reviewers aren’t a fan of the latest rise in charges and really feel that it takes the customer support staff quite a lot of time to reply primary queries. 

Read customer reviews of Vanguard

Is Vanguard any good?

Zoe’s evaluation

Vanguard is a very respectable funding supplier for these on the lookout for a Shares & Shares ISA, particularly novices or these not within the faff of selecting investments. You solely need to undergo a small questionnaire to have a portfolio created for you. 

You don’t get to put money into another varieties of investments or funds, with solely Vanguard’s personal funds obtainable. Which means if an investor desires to attempt shopping for some shares, they’d want a unique supplier to do that. 

By way of value, it’s definitely not the most cost effective one obtainable, particularly for the managed ISAs, however it’s not the costliest both. The brand new set £4 per thirty days payment for as much as £32,000 makes it a fairly costly possibility for the self-managed possibility — there are many different platforms for a lot decrease charges which have a wider vary of funding choices. 

And if you happen to really need Vanguard funds in your Shares & Shares ISA, you’ll be able to really purchase lots of them on different platforms – which might work out less expensive.