Transferring an ISA to Trading 212: check what you hold first

Trading 212's help centre explains how to start an ISA transfer. It says little about your current provider: whether it can hand your investments over without selling them, and what it charges you to leave.

To find out, search for each of your holdings in the Trading 212 app and read your provider's charges page.

Never withdraw the money yourself

If you sell, withdraw the cash and pay it into Trading 212, it counts as a new subscription. gov.uk says that if you withdraw yourself, "you will not be able to reinvest that part of your tax-free allowance again" (gov.uk ISA transfers).

Start the transfer from the Trading 212 app instead. Trading 212 asks your old provider for the money or the investments, and they stay inside an ISA throughout. Transferred money does not count towards this year's £20,000.

Transfer as shares or as cash

Trading 212 accepts two kinds of transfer (Trading 212 help centre):

• As shares. Your shares and ETFs move across without being sold, so you stay invested the whole time. The industry calls this an in-specie transfer
• As cash. Your old provider sells everything and sends the money. You buy again once it arrives

Moving as shares is usually the better choice when it is available. Trading 212 only takes investments it offers itself, and "only whole shares can be transferred", so fractional holdings are sold to cash and follow later.

With a cash transfer you are out of the market from the sale until you buy again. Hargreaves Lansdown, for example, puts typical transfers at two to six weeks. When shares move across, HL says any dividend paid after the transfer starts is forwarded to your new provider. On a cash transfer, a dividend that goes ex after your shares are sold is not paid to you at all.

Check every holding is on Trading 212

Trading 212's list of instruments contains shares, ETFs and warrants, and no funds, as at 6 October 2026. An OEIC or unit trust, such as Vanguard's LifeStrategy funds or most funds bought through HL, cannot move as shares. It has to be sold and sent as cash.

An ETF with a similar name is not always the same product. Vanguard's LifeStrategy 80% fund is a sterling fund with a 0.20% ongoing charge (HL fund page, as at 31 August 2026). The LifeStrategy 80% ETF is priced in euros, is listed in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Milan with no London listing, and charges 0.25% (justETF). Every purchase in a sterling ISA pays Trading 212's 0.15% currency conversion fee.

Before you start, search for each of your holdings in the Trading 212 app. Anything that is not there will arrive as cash.

What your current provider charges to leave

None of these providers charges to transfer UK holdings out. These are their own published charges, checked on 6 October 2026:

Trading 212 charges nothing to receive a transfer. If your provider is not listed, its charges page will say, usually under "transferring out" or "exit fees".

Money you have added this tax year

Since 6 April 2024 the law has allowed you to transfer part of an ISA, including money paid in during the current tax year (SI 2024/350). Providers are not obliged to offer it. Vanguard says "any money paid into it in the current tax year must be transferred in full".

Trading 212 staff confirmed on its community forum in August 2026 that you can choose individual holdings to transfer. One user moved their ETFs and investment trusts across from HL as shares and left their funds behind.

How long it takes

HMRC's guidelines are 15 working days for a cash ISA and 30 calendar days for a stocks and shares ISA (gov.uk). Trading 212 aims for 30 days on stocks and shares transfers.

Users on Trading 212's community forum report share transfers completing in about two weeks, with the cash from any sold fractions arriving a few days after the shares. Some brokers cannot transfer shares to Trading 212 at all, so ask yours before you choose.

Your cost price after the transfer

Shares that arrive by transfer show the price on the day they arrived as their average cost, according to users on Trading 212's forum. Your profit and loss, and the yield you are earning on what you paid, will read wrong in the app.

No tax depends on it, because there is no capital gains tax inside an ISA. You lose your record of what you paid, though, so download a statement of your holdings and their book cost from your old provider before you close the account.

Worked example: Tom and Priya

Tom and Priya are hypothetical. Their fees are the providers' published charges.

Tom is a retired engineer in Leeds with £120,000 in a Hargreaves Lansdown ISA. All of it is in UK shares and ETFs that Trading 212 also offers, so they can move across as shares and he stays invested. HL charges 0.35% a year on shares and ETFs, capped at £12.50 a month since 1 March 2026, so he pays the £150 cap. He also places about two trades a month at £6.95 each, which is £166.80 a year. Trading 212 charges neither, so moving saves him £316.80 a year.

Priya is a nurse in Bristol with £45,000 in a Vanguard ISA, all in the LifeStrategy 80% fund. Vanguard charges 0.15% a year on her account and the fund costs 0.20%, so she pays £157.50 a year.

Trading 212 does not offer the fund, so Vanguard sells it and sends the £45,000 to Trading 212 as cash. When the cash arrives, Priya puts all of it into the closest match Trading 212 offers, the LifeStrategy 80% ETF. The ETF costs 0.25% a year, which is £112.50, and buying it costs a one-off £67.50 in currency conversion. From then on she saves £45 a year. Her money is uninvested from the day Vanguard sells to the day she buys the ETF, which can be up to a month.

After five years Tom is £1,584 better off. Priya is £22 behind at the end of the first year, because the currency fee costs more than one year's saving, and £158 ahead after five.

A month out of the market can move £45,000 by more than £158 in either direction, so for Priya the transfer is close to neutral. If she wants to keep a sterling fund, she can reasonably stay at Vanguard.

Is it worth moving?

Moving paid off for Tom because his shares and ETFs moved across without being sold and his platform fee was a percentage of a large pot. Priya had to sell a fund and buy something slightly different, which left little to gain.

To decide for yourself, add up what you pay now from your annual statement. Then work out what you would pay at Trading 212 for the investments you would hold there.

Cash ISAs from April 2027

From 6 April 2027, under-65s can pay at most £12,000 a year into a cash ISA, within the same £20,000 overall limit. Transfers from a stocks and shares ISA into a cash ISA will no longer be allowed, though cash ISA to stocks and shares ISA transfers will still be possible (gov.uk factsheet).

Frequently asked questions

How do I transfer an ISA to Trading 212?

Start the transfer from the Trading 212 app and give it your current provider's details. Trading 212 contacts the old provider for you. Do not withdraw the money yourself, because money taken out of an ISA loses its tax-free status and cannot be put back as a transfer.

Does it cost anything to transfer an ISA to Trading 212?

Trading 212 does not charge for transfers. Most large providers do not charge to leave either: Hargreaves Lansdown, Vanguard and interactive investor all say they charge no transfer-out fee. Freetrade charges £17 for each US holding transferred out. Check your own provider's charges page before you start.

Can I transfer my shares without selling them?

Yes, if Trading 212 offers the same shares or ETFs. That is an in-specie transfer. Only whole shares move, so any fractions are sold to cash. Funds and unit trusts that Trading 212 does not offer have to be sold and transferred as cash.

How long does an ISA transfer to Trading 212 take?

HMRC's guidelines are 15 working days for a cash ISA and 30 calendar days for a stocks and shares ISA, and Trading 212 aims for 30 days. Users on Trading 212's community forum have reported share transfers completing in around two weeks.

Does an ISA transfer use up my £20,000 allowance?

No. Transferred money keeps its ISA status and does not count towards this year's allowance. Only new money you pay in counts.

Can I transfer only part of my ISA?

The rules have allowed it since April 2024, including for money paid in during the current tax year. Providers do not have to offer it, though. Vanguard, for example, requires money paid in this tax year to be transferred in full.

The takeaway

Start the transfer from Trading 212 and never withdraw the money yourself. Before you do, look up each of your holdings in the app, because anything Trading 212 does not offer will be sold and sent as cash.

The saving is largest for a big pot of shares and ETFs on a percentage platform fee. For a fund that has to be sold and replaced, the saving can be a few pounds a year.

This is illustrative, not financial advice. Charges change, and the figures above are each provider's published charges on 6 October 2026. Check your own statement and charges page before you move.