Is Trading 212 a Scam? The Honest UK Answer

No, Trading 212 is not a scam. It is authorised and regulated by the UK FCA, your assets are held in segregated custody, and the Invest/ISA accounts are covered by FSCS up to £85,000.

Trading 212 makes money mainly from CFD spreads (a separate, risky product), securities lending on shares it custodies, currency conversion fees, interest spreads on uninvested cash, and a paid Plus subscription tier.

It is not selling your personal data, and EU/UK MiFID II rules effectively ban payment for order flow, so that common US suspicion does not apply.

The legitimate things to know: securities lending exposes lent shares to counterparty risk above the FSCS limit, CFDs are genuinely dangerous (around 75-85% of retail CFD traders lose money), and the FX spread on USD stock purchases is the real "fee" most people miss.