Endorsed by Which? and Boring Money for over 5 years
“It's a great way to save for my future. I just wish I’d invested earlier in my life!”
What is a General Account?
It’s an investment account that lets you save for your future – and there’s no upper limit on how much you can invest. That makes it a useful option if you’ve already used up your ISA and pension allowances.
Unlike a Stocks and Shares ISA or Personal Pension, any returns or income from your investments will be subject to tax. How much tax you’ll pay will depend on your circumstances.
You pick the funds for your General Account. You can choose from our wide range of Vanguard funds, including index funds, active funds and ready-made fund portfolios.
Why choose our General Account
Straightforward
Our range of funds gives you a low-cost and easy way to diversify. And opening an account takes just 10 minutes.
Value
Our funds are good value, which means you can keep more of your returns.
Over 45 years of experience
We’ve been taking a stand for investors for over 45 years. Now over 50 million clients worldwide invest with us for their future.
Open an account in 3 steps
1. Enter a few personal details
We just need some basics, including your National Insurance number.
2. Choose your funds
Pick your investments from over 85 Vanguard funds or choose a ready-made portfolio.
3. Decide how much to invest
Start investing from £100 a month or a one-off £500.
Choose how to invest
Build your own portfolio
If you’re a hands-on investor you can build your own portfolio using our individual funds. You can choose from a wide range of fund types to suit your investment style and attitude to risk.
Ready-made portfolio
Keep things simple and pick one of our ready-made portfolios. Each portfolio balances risk and reward by mixing bonds and shares. Pick the one that suits your goal and attitude to risk.
The cost of investing
How much you’re charged depends on the value of your invested balance and the fund charges.
Our fees
|
Balances under £32,000 |
Balances of £32,000 and over |
Account fee
|
£4 a month (£48 a year) |
0.15% a year (max £375 a year) |
Fund management cost |
0.06% to 0.79% a year |
0.06% to 0.79% a year |
You can find our fund management cost for each fund on our fees and charges page
What this could mean for you if you invested:
If you invested £10,000 in a LifeStrategy Fund
Account fee £48 a year |
+ |
Fund management cost £26 a year |
= |
Total £74 a year |
These examples are only to give you an indication. We assume you invested into one of our LifeStrategy Funds. We’ve shown average fund management cost, which may vary depending on your portfolio.
Need to know
Anyone who’s a UK resident and at least 18 years old can open a General Account with us. All we need is your:
- name, address and mobile phone number
- date of birth
- debit card details (if you’re making a lump sum payment)
- bank account details (if you’re making a regular payment by Direct Debit)
- National Insurance number
Unlike a Stocks and Shares ISA or Personal Pension, gains you make on an investment in a General Account are subject to Capital Gains Tax when you sell it.
The Capital Gains Tax allowance is currently £3,000 per tax year, meaning you do not have to pay any tax on gains less than that amount.
From 30 October 2024, the rate of tax you pay once you have gone over your allowance rose from 10% to 18% for basic rate tax payers, and from 20% to 24% for higher and additional rate tax payers. You'll pay this through completing your Self Assessment tax return.
If you have losses from previous tax years, you can often carry those over to offset against future gains. If you receive dividends from your investments these will be subject to Income Tax. The dividend allowance is currently £500 so you do not have to pay tax on any dividend income less than that amount.
The advantage is that there's no upper limit on the amount you can invest. And, for accounts with a value above £250,000, there's no annual account fee - effectively capping the fee at £375.
Yes, if you invest in a General Account with us, you'll receive an annual tax statement and a summary of the distributions on your investments. You can use this to help you complete your tax return.
Additionally, the GBP share classes of our Ireland-domiciled funds and all of our ETFs have "UK Reporting Fund Status", which means they publish their UK Excess Reportable Income data six months after the year end. You may need to include this information in your tax return. Learn more about tax reporting
Information for your tax return
View current and previous tax year reports and a list of our reporting funds for self-assessment.
Important documents
Read these documents carefully before you apply to open an account or invest.
Have another question?
Search our FAQs, ask our chatbot or send us a message.
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