Key features of the Dodl general investment account
Contents
What’s this about?
The key features tell you the most important details of the Dodl general investment account (GIA). It’s important to read them before you open an account, to make sure it’s right for you. You can remind yourself of the key features anytime at dodl.co.uk
Though they're important, they needn’t be scary! If there are any features you don’t quite understand or need more details on, chat to Team Dodl in the app or email them at hello@dodl.co.uk – it’s what they’re here for.
Dodl GIA aims
- To let you make one-off or monthly payments into your GIA with no maximum limit on the amount can save and invest.
- To give you the opportunity to grow your savings by investing them. Your GIA investments may be subject to tax.
- To give you the option to transfer any cash or investments you may have in another general investment account into your Dodl GIA.
- For you to have complete control over how your savings are invested, from Dodl’s straightforward range of funds, themes and shares.
- To give you the flexibility to withdraw your money if needed.
Your commitment
- Before opening your GIA, you’ll need to understand its features, benefits and risks - to check it’s what you expect and need.
- You’ll decide and manage how your GIA is invested.
- You understand and agree to the Dodl GIA terms and conditions and its charges, which may change in future.
The risks
Go in with your eyes open. Some risks to know about before opening a Dodl GIA.
- Investments should be held for the long term (5+ years) as their value, and any income they make, can go down as well as up. And you could get back less than the amount you originally invest.
- The past performance of your investments doesn't predict how they'll perform in future. This means there are no guarantees over how much your GIA will be worth when you come to withdraw it.
- Dodl doesn’t offer investment advice. But you’ll find plenty of information about your options in the app or at dodl.co.uk. This information is there to help you make your own investment choices but mustn’t be treated as a recommendation or advice.
If you feel unsure about the risks involved with a GIA, you should talk to a financial adviser. It’s also worth checking out MoneyHelper, the government’s free money guidance service.
Questions and answers
Before opening a Dodl GIA
What is a GIA?
It’s a particularly flexible type of investment account – there’s no upper limit on how much you can pay in, and you can withdraw money easily if you need to. But, unlike an ISA or pension, any growth or income from your GIA investments is subject to tax.
Could a GIA be right for me?
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Have I used up my ISA allowance for the current tax year?
- Am I looking to build a portfolio of investments?
- Do I understand that investment growth isn’t guaranteed?
- Do I want to choose my investments from a straightforward range of funds, themes and shares, and manage these easily through an app?
- Do I want to have easy and flexible access to my money?
If you answered ‘yes’ to every question, then the Dodl GIA could be right for you. These key features should give you all the details you need to decide, but if you still feel unsure, you should speak to a financial adviser about this.
Can I have a GIA?
You can have a GIA if you’re aged 18 or over. You’ll also need to be a UK resident and UK citizen only.
What are the charges?
You'll pay the Dodl account charge for your GIA
|
How much is it? |
How is it calculated and collected? |
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0.15% a year (min £1 a month) |
The charge is calculated based on the total value of the investments in your GIA, and it’s collected in monthly instalments from your available cash. |
Quick example of how the Dodl account charge works
For a Dodl GIA with an investment value of £10,000, you’d pay:
0.15% of £10,000 over the course of the year – that’s £15 overall, taken in instalments of £1.25 a month. Just remember the minimum account charge is £1 a month (or £12 per year).
You can calculate what your Dodl account charge may look like using our handy charges calculator.
Any other charges?
Though there are no dealing charges when you buy/sell your investments (including when your monthly investments are bought), there will be investment charges paid separately to your Dodl account charge. These include fund ongoing charges, stamp duty for UK shares and foreign exchange charges for US shares. Find out more about these charges.
What about interest?
Currently you earn 0% interest from cash held in your GIA. That’s why it’s important to invest your cash as soon as possible. Though remember to leave a small amount of cash uninvested, to cover your account charge each month.
A little more info about interest: Banks do pay AJ Bell for the total money held with them for all AJ Bell customers, including Dodl customers. The amount a bank pays varies, depending on the total cash held with them and the market interest rates. For now, AJ Bell expects these payments to be between 1.15% below and 0.15% above the current Bank of England base rate – but it could be higher or lower if interest rates are changeable. These payments are kept by AJ Bell to help keep your Dodl charges low.
What other terms and conditions apply?
The Dodl GIA terms and conditions and those of the Dodl app are included in the full terms and conditions.
Can Dodl offer me advice?
Dodl can’t offer you advice and isn’t authorised to provide advice on tax, investments, or any other financial matter. If you think you might need advice, you should contact a suitably qualified financial adviser - who should also let you know about the cost of advice.
If you decide to look for an adviser, moneyhelper.org.uk is a good place to start.
Paying into your Dodl GIA
Who can pay into my GIA?
Only you can make payments into your GIA, and they’ll need to come from a UK bank account which has your name on it (it can be a joint account).
Are there any minimum or maximum amounts I can pay into my GIA?
To get started with a one-off payment to your GIA, you'll need to add a minimum of £100. If you're setting up a direct debit to automate adding cash to your account every month, that's a minimum of just £25.
There’s no maximum amount you can pay into your GIA – it's one of its key features!
How can I pay into my GIA?
You can make quick one-off payments to your GIA at any time in the Dodl app using Google/Apple Pay, debit card or an easy bank transfer. Or set up a direct debit to add cash, automatically, at the start of every month. You can edit or cancel your direct debit at any time in the app too.
Transferring into or out of your Dodl GIA
How do I transfer another GIA into my Dodl GIA?
You can transfer any GIA (sometimes called ‘dealing’ or ‘general’ accounts) you have with another provider into your Dodl GIA.
You’ll need to have opened your GIA first, then you can give Dodl the details of the account you want to transfer in and how you’d like to transfer it.
You can choose to transfer your GIA as cash or, if it has investments which are in the Dodl investment range, these may be transferred as they are - so you can keep hold of them.
Once you've entered all the transfer details and submitted them, Team Dodl will handle the rest. No need to contact your existing provider to let them know you’re transferring either – they'll do this for you too.
Can I transfer my GIA to another GIA provider?
You can transfer your Dodl GIA to another provider at any time. You can transfer your GIA as cash and/or investments. If you want to transfer your investments, you’ll need to check your new GIA provider can accept these first.
Investing within your Dodl GIA
What can I invest in?
Choosing investments can be scary. That’s why Dodl doesn’t overcomplicate things. You can pick from a straightforward range of funds, themes and shares, designed to make investing easier. That includes:
- AJ Bell funds – built and balanced by the experts at AJ Bell to make investing as simple as possible. Just choose the risk level which suits you, then you’re away.
- Themed investments – build an investment portfolio with funds which reflect your values. Invest in the trends you believe in, including specific sectors and regions, or responsible investments.
- Shares – own a portion of a big-name brand by investing directly in a UK or US company.
You can browse the investment range on the website to view your options in more detail.
How do I invest?
First you need to choose:
- What you want to invest in? Dodl offers a streamlined range of funds, themes and shares to keep things straightforward.
- How much you want to invest? If you invest in shares, it'll need to be enough to buy at least one (Dodl doesn't offer fractional shares).
- How often you want to invest? You can invest on a one-off basis or automate your investing journey with monthly investments.
Choices made, you're ready to place your order in the app. As you're doing this, read and make sure you're completely happy with your investment details, including all charges. And if you're investing in US shares for the first time, you'll also need to complete a W-8BEN form. Then you're all set to go ahead and submit your order.
Once you’ve submitted your order, Dodl will handle the rest. Orders are processed once a working day and the daily cut-off time for submitting them is usually 3pm. If your order's submitted after this, it'll be processed the next working day.
After your investment has gone through, a contract note (like an order receipt) is sent to your account. Shares will usually arrive in your account shortly after this, but funds can take a little longer – usually around 2-3 working days later.
Do I pay tax on any profits or income my GIA investments make?
Because there’s no tax benefits of a GIA (unlike a pension or ISA), you may have to pay tax on any income and/or profits your investments make. Whether you pay tax, and how much you’ll have to pay, depends on your personal circumstances.
The total income (‘dividends’) which your GIA investments make will only be subject to tax if it exceeds the dividend allowance, which is currently £1,000 a year. Any amount you make above the allowance each year is taxable. The rate of tax you pay on dividends which exceed the allowance depends on your other income e.g. your salary.
| Income tax rate | Dividend tax rate |
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Basic |
8.75% |
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Higher |
33.75% |
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Additional |
39.35% |
When you sell investments in your GIA you may have to pay capital gains tax on any profits you make. But you also get a tax-free allowance for this and it's currently £6,000 a year. This means you can make up to £6,000 in investment profits before you pay any tax. The level of tax you pay above this amount depends on your total taxable income.
This all sounds a bit fiddly but don’t worry, you’ll be sent an annual tax summary for your GIA, to help you understand any tax you owe. Dodl won’t report this to HMRC for you – that’ll be your responsibility. Find out more about reporting your capital gains to HMRC.
How do I get a valuation of my GIA?
Just log in and view your GIA. You’ll be able to see how each investment in your portfolio is doing and the overall value of it. You’ll also get quarterly statements for your GIA uploaded to your documents area of the app.
Withdrawing cash from your Dodl GIA
When can I withdraw cash from my GIA?
You can withdraw cash from your GIA any time. If all your cash is invested, you’ll need to sell some investment(s), or some units/shares in your investments, to make cash available to withdraw.
You can withdraw the full balance of available cash in your GIA, or part of it, without paying any charge. Just bear in mind, it may take up to five working days for the cash you withdraw to reach your bank account.
What happens to my GIA if I die?
Your GIA investments and cash will be classed as part of your estate. Dodl will be in touch with those who are handling your estate and help them to take the steps needed to sell your investments and close your GIA.
Other important questions
How safe is it to hold my cash and investments with Dodl?
Dodl is part of AJ Bell, one of the UK’s largest investment platforms with 490,000 customers who trust AJ Bell to keep their investments and cash safe. They’re authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which means that the products and services AJ Bell offer, including your Dodl GIA, are under constant review to ensure you and your cash and investments are kept safe.
You’ll also be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS provides an additional layer of cover for customers of FCA authorised firms and will provide compensation if a claim made against an authorised firm can’t be met.
For any cash you hold in your Dodl GIA, this’ll be protected by the FSCS up to a maximum of £85,000. For your investments, if a fund manager were to go bust and you lost money as a result, you would also be covered by the FSCS up to a maximum of £85,000. But shares aren’t covered, and if a fund failed due to poor performance, that wouldn’t be covered either.
You can find more information about the FSCS compensation arrangements at fscs.org.uk.
What if I change my mind?
You can cancel your GIA application within 30 days of receiving your GIA ‘welcome email’ from Team Dodl. By cancelling your application, you’ll have any payments you’ve made returned to your bank account and your GIA will be closed. You can also cancel any transfers into your GIA, again, as long as you do this within 30 days of the team letting you know your transfer is complete.
If you’ve bought any investments before you cancel, and your investments have fallen in value, you may get back less than the amount you paid or transferred into your GIA.
To cancel either your GIA application or a transfer, you’ll just need to contact the team, either in the app or at hello@dodl.co.uk, and let them know what you want to cancel.
How do I complain?
If you ever need to complain about the service you receive from Dodl, then the first thing to do is to contact Team Dodl – they’ll try their best to help you with this. You can contact them in the app or via email at hello@dodl.co.uk.
If you don’t feel satisfied with Dodl’s final response to your complaint, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. But before you do, help is also available from MoneyHelper, which can advise you on how to complain and may be able to help resolve the matter without involving the Ombudsman. The contact details for MoneyHelper and the Financial Ombudsman Service are below.
MoneyHelper
120 Holborn
London
EC1N 2TD
0300 123 1047
moneyhelper.org.uk
Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR
0300 123 9123
financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Important notes
The information in this key features document is provided based on our understanding of current law, practice and taxation which may be subject to change.
Full details of the legally binding contract between you and Dodl are included in the Dodl terms and conditions, which can be viewed from the Dodl app or website anytime.
The law of England and Wales will apply in all legal disputes.
If you’d like a copy of this or any other document in large print, Braille or in audio format, the team will be happy to arrange this for you. Just contact them in the app or via email at hello@dodl.co.uk.
All Dodl documents and any future communication to you will be in English.
