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Dabbl review
Dabbl aims to make investing easy and jargon-free. Find out what we thought.
What's in this review?
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Beginners
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US shares
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Social trading
What is Dabbl?
Dabbl is an app that lets you buy shares in brands that you use day-to-day, such as Coca-Cola, Gap and easyJet. Dabbl describes itself as “like Shazam for investing” due to a feature that allows you to identify brands with photos of products that you take within the app. It says its aim is to encourage more people to invest by making investing easy and jargon-free.
Dabbl was originally funded on Seedrs, which is a crowdfunding platform, and seems to have been inspired by the Seedrs approach to losing a letter in your brand name.
Is Dabbl any good?
In general, it’s pretty good. There are potentially some teething issues with the app showing the error message “Cannot connect to server” while you’re using the photo feature or searching for companies, but these are likely to be ironed out in the future.
Prices are relatively low, especially as you are able to “dabble” in investing with pay as you go (PAYG) before committing to a membership fee. Buying UK shares can cost as little as £1 for members and £4 for PAYG users.
The app is bright and minimalist, and is likely to appeal to anyone attracted to the ease of challenger banks offering good functionality without clutter.
How Dabbl works
You can start off by watching companies to keep an eye on how they’re doing. The app keeps track of how the share prices move from the date you started watching them.
If you decide to invest then you have two membership options: pay as you go or member.
Pay as you go
Pay as you go has no monthly cost, but you will spend more on each individual investment. The prices are outlined below.
| PAYG | UK trades | Non-UK trades |
|---|---|---|
| Dabbl Now | £7 | £10 |
| Dabbl Later | £4 | £7 |
Member
It costs £2 per month to be a member which reduces the costs of individual investments and gives you 3 commission-free trades per month.
| Member | UK trades | Non-UK trades |
|---|---|---|
| Dabbl Now | £5 | £8 |
| Dabbl Later | £1 | £1 |
Once you’ve decided to invest in a company, the process is quick and easy.
How you’re charged depends on your membership type and when you want the purchase to be finalised – the options are Dabbl Now and Dabbl Later.
Dabbl Now
Choosing Dabbl Now means that your purchase is finalised instantly. As the information on screen has a 15-minute delay, you are given a real-time price before you proceed with the purchase.
Dabbl Later
Dabbl Later is a cheaper option at £1 for Members per UK investment and £4 for pay as you go users per UK investment. If you opt for Dabbl Later then the transaction goes through at 3pm GMT. If you buy shares after 3pm then the purchase will go through the following day at 3pm. The share price is not locked down, so it can fluctuate throughout the day. You can cancel the purchase before it goes ahead.
Is it safe to use?
Dabbl is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). All investments are covered up to £50,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This means that your investments are covered if Dabbl was to fail.
Investing is always a risk. You could end up with less money than you started with.
How does Dabbl make money?
There are three main ways that Dabbl makes money:
- Membership fees
- Charges for buying shares
- Additional fees, such as for priority payments and telephone trades
Trades are cheaper for members (at a cost of £2 per month). There is an admin charge on all purchases, which is not included in the transaction cost.
Setting up your account and adding money
There are plans to add card payments to the app in the future. For the time being you add money via a bank transfer using a sort code, account number and a reference. Funds take two hours to show on your account.
There’s no minimum amount, so you can start off relatively small before making too much of a commitment. The maximum you can invest is £5,000.
Pros and cons of Dabbl
Pros
- Photo feature is a nice touch
- No hidden fees – all charges are laid out on the website
- Can start small – allows you to dabble without too much commitment
Cons
- App has a lot of errors
- No stocks and shares ISA
- Can’t add funds with a debit card
- Difficult to compare as the prices are all in different currencies
Our verdict
Dabbl is a low-cost option for investing and allows you to try it out without much commitment. Its photo feature is a nice touch and allows you to find brands with only a photograph of the product. It outlines important information about the companies which allows you to make a more informed decision.
If you’re looking for an investment app that gives you a lot of detail then you may want to consider other options such as opening a stocks and shares ISA or you can check out our guide to the best trading apps.
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All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Capital is at risk.
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