Interactive Investor foreign exchange fees - UK guide (2026)

If you’re planning on investing in global stock markets, you’ll need to know about foreign exchange fees.

In this guide, we’ll give you the lowdown on foreign exchange fees with Interactive Investor, a popular online platform for UK investors.

We’ll also show you how to minimise or avoid them altogether, using multi-currency solutions such as Wise.

➡️ Learn more about the Wise account

When investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to future change. The content of this article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, any form of personal advice.

Investments in a currency other than GBP are exposed to currency exchange risk. Currency exchange rates are constantly changing, which may affect the value of the investment in GBP terms. You could lose money in GBP even if the stock price rises in the currency of origin. Stocks listed on overseas exchanges may be subject to additional dealing and exchange rate charges, and may have other tax implications, and may not provide the same, or any, regulatory protection as in the UK.

What are Interactive Investor’s foreign exchange fees?

Alongside monthly plan costs and trading fees, Interactive Investor also charges foreign exchange fees. These vary depending on the value of the trade, transaction or conversion, with better rates for larger amounts.

Let’s take a look:¹

Does Interactive Investor have any other fees?

Yes, alongside foreign exchange fees, Interactive Investor also charges flat monthly fees and trading fees.

Monthly fees are between £4.99 and £21.99 depending on which account type you hold and your total investment limit.¹

Trading fees are £3.99 per transaction for UK & US shares, funds, ETFs, bonds and gilts, and £9.99 for other international shares.¹

When would I be charged a foreign exchange fee when investing?

In most cases, investment platforms in the UK offer accounts denominated in British pounds (GBP). If you want to buy or sell investments in other countries (such as to buy US stock, for example), a currency exchange will be required.

This will usually mean having to pay a foreign exchange fee, as your GBP will be converted to USD (for example) or vice versa.

A foreign exchange fee may also apply if you hold funds in a multi-currency account with your chosen investment platform and want to convert or withdraw them, or if you receive dividends from an investment in another currency.

It’s really important to check foreign exchange fees before joining a platform and starting to buy shares or other investments. This fee may only seem small, but alongside other fees it can make a big difference to the overall cost of investing.

How to avoid Interactive Investor foreign exchange fees

There are a few ways to potentially avoid or at least minimise foreign exchange fees when using Interactive Investor to manage your investments.

The first is simply to avoid investing in overseas products. If you only buy FTSE 100 shares for example, these should already be in GBP so no currency conversion will be needed.

If this is too limiting, you can invest in global products - but you’ll need to make sure you’re paying for your transaction in the same currency as the product.

Interactive Investor offers multi-currency wallets, which allow you to hold a number of major currencies such as GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and CHF, among others.

This gives you the benefit of controlling how and when the currency conversion takes place. However, Interactive Investor’s foreign exchange fees will still apply when you convert funds from one currency to another. You can potentially limit these by converting a larger sum at once, which will give you access to lower FX rates.

But the best way to avoid foreign exchange fees altogether on Interactive Investor is to use a solution such as Wise.

Don’t let currency conversion trip you up when trading - use Wise

If you’re planning to invest in overseas stocks - whether its NASDAQ, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) or Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) - you’ll need to watch out for extra costs for currency conversion.

Wise offers a way to avoid or minimise foreign exchange fees when investing.

Open a Wise account and you can access local account details in USD, EUR, GBP, AUD and more. This means you can hold funds in your chosen currency until you’re ready to invest, then use your Wise account to fund your transaction on Interactive Investor or your chosen investment platform. You can even withdraw from Interactive Investor into your account.

You can even set up exchange rate alerts so that you can wait for the time and the rate that suits you.

💹 Set up rate alerts

Use your local account details with Wise to withdraw money from Interactive Investor - directly in that currency to save on conversion fees.

To convert currencies within Wise, you’re guaranteed mid-market exchange rates and low, transparent fees starting from just 0.33%*.

This gives you full control over FX, and could end up saving you money.

➡️ Learn more about the Wise account

sources used:

1. Interactive Investor - fees & charges

Sources last checked 09-Dec-2025