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ii FX fee calculator

Buying a US share on Interactive Investor costs more than the £3.99 commission: ii also converts your pounds to dollars, and back again when you sell, keeping 0.75% of the trade each time. Enter a trade size to see what you actually pay — and how far the share has to rise before you're even.

£
UK shares (not ETFs) also pay 0.5% stamp duty on buys; not included.
£
%
Defaults are ii's published rates as of 2026 — change them for another broker.
Commission£7.98
FX charge£15.00
Total cost£22.98
Cost as % of trade2.30%
Rise needed to break even on a round trip+2.32%

A £1,000.00 US round trip costs £22.98 (2.30%). Bought and sold, the share must rise 2.32% before you make a penny.

How ii charges on US shares

Every trade pays a flat commission (£3.99 at ii's 2026 rates), whatever the size. On a foreign-currency share there is a second charge: the conversion. ii quotes you an exchange rate a little worse than the market rate, and that spread works out at about 0.75% of the trade value. You pay it when your pounds become dollars to buy, and again when the dollars become pounds after you sell.

So a US round trip costs 2 × £3.99 + 0.75% in + 0.75% out. On small trades the flat commission dominates; on large ones the FX charge does, and it never shrinks below 1.5% of the trade for a round trip. LSE-listed investments priced in pounds pay no FX charge at all (UK shares and investment trusts do pay 0.5% stamp duty when you buy, which this calculator leaves out; ETFs don't). That is why some investors get US exposure through a pound-priced fund instead of holding the US shares directly.

The break-even figure assumes the GBP/USD rate doesn't move while you hold. In practice it will — see the US stock return in GBP calculator for that.

Round-trip cost by trade size

Buy and later sell the same value, at ii's 2026 rates (£3.99 per trade, 0.75% FX each way), exchange rate unchanged. The GBP column is for ETFs; UK shares add 0.5% stamp duty on the buy.

Trade sizeUS share% of tradeLSE ETF (GBP)% of trade
£250.00£11.734.69%£7.983.19%
£500.00£15.483.10%£7.981.60%
£1,000.00£22.982.30%£7.980.80%
£2,000.00£37.981.90%£7.980.40%
£5,000.00£82.981.66%£7.980.16%
£10,000.00£157.981.58%£7.980.08%
£25,000.00£382.981.53%£7.980.03%

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More calculators: US stock return in GBP · Stop-loss after fees