My ISA setup: the accounts I use and why
I'd say the ISA is the single most useful wrapper available to UK investors like me. Growth and income inside are both completely tax-free, withdrawals are flexible, and there is no reporting requirement. For anyone building wealth in the UK outside of a pension, ISAs should come before anything else.
The annual allowance is £20,000. Across all ISA types combined, that is the total you can put in per tax year. I have been filling the allowance every year since I started earning seriously, which means the pot has had time to compound. What follows is a breakdown of where those contributions have ended up.
The current setup
I currently hold three active ISA accounts, sitting at a combined value of roughly £269,000 as of April 2026. Given my outlook in investing I solely have Stock and Shares ISAs so I can let my investments compound.
Trading212 (£157,000)
Trading212 is my largest ISA by a significant margin. The platform is commission-free, supports fractional shares, and offers one of the more competitive interest rates on idle cash. The main drawback really is the spread when you invest and the FX fee as I tend to focus a lot on the U.S market.
I'd say Trading212 is where I keep my risky portfolio. Given my pension is invested in an all world index here is where I try to beat the market with my insights (sometimes work and sometimes doesn't). Overall I'd say I've been outperforming the bencharmk (all world in my case) but unforunately due to the nature of my job I am unable to actively trade here so I just have a current portfolio that I can't touch and once in a while I'll add some all world to it.
InvestEngine (£73,000)
InvestEngine is a UK-based ETF platform focused entirely on low-cost index funds. It does not support individual stock picking, which is by design from their side and, depending on your view, a feature rather than a constraint. Fees are among the lowest available for an ISA wrapper.
I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket and saw this platform when it was up and coming so I decided to add it in (I believe I was one of the first 100k customers!)
At some point I wanted to run an experiment to see if I could grow my Trading212 ISA through stock picking over my all world/SP500 index investing so this was meant to be the benchmark.
AJ Bell (£39,000)
AJ Bell is a more traditional stockbroker.
Literally the only reason I have this one is for the Lifetime ISA. I opened this was when I was young and didn't realize I wouldn't be able to buy any place in London given the allowance. I don't really invest in it as I plan to retire well before 60 but I don't want to take the penalty when withdrawing.
What happened to the others
The current three are not where this started. The early years were messier.
Freetrade was one of the first commission-free apps in the UK and I used it when it launched. The account now sits at zero. I moved the balance out when I moved to a company where this was not part of the approved brokers.
Fidelity was an early default because that's all I had heard when I was young.
Vanguard was similarly an early choice too and it was popular in the bogleheads community. The main issue for me was the fee structure and customer service so I moved out.
Future Choices
I am writing with a bit hindsight and can say I used my £20k allownace on Revolut's ISA. I've been a customer for years and have comission free trades with them so I'll see how it is!