Risk warning. Investing puts your capital at risk. The value of your investment can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you put in.
The short version
Wahed used to charge 1% a year with a £2.99 a month minimum sitting underneath it. The minimum is gone. You now pay a flat 1% a year on portfolios under £250,000, taken monthly, with no floor.
That single change splits everyone into two groups, and the dividing line is £3,588.
| Your balance | What the fee change means for you |
|---|---|
| Under £3,588 | You were paying more than 1%, sometimes far more. You now pay 1%. Wahed got cheaper for you, and the smaller your pot the bigger the improvement |
| Over £3,588 | Nothing has changed. You paid 1% before and you pay 1% now. The more you hold, the more it is worth pricing up lower cost routes |
Call it the £3,588 rule. The rest of this article shows you where that number comes from and what to do on either side of it.
Start with £50. Wahed adds £10.
Enter code ziyad when you sign up in the Wahed app. Shariah-screened portfolios, picked and rebalanced for you, and a Stocks and Shares ISA qualifies. Add the code before you finish sign-up, because it can't be added later. Capital at risk.
£10 paid once a qualifying account is funded with at least £50. Terms set by Wahed and can change. Ziyad Finance is a Wahed partner and may benefit when you use the code. Investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you put in.
What Wahed is, in plain terms
Wahed is a hands off option. That is the whole point of it.
You answer a few questions, you pick one of six risk levels from Very Conservative to Very Aggressive, and Wahed builds and runs a Shariah screened portfolio for you at that level. After that you set up a monthly payment and leave it alone. Wahed buys the funds, keeps the mix on track and rebalances it when it drifts. You do not choose the holdings, you do not place trades, and you do not decide when to buy.
Doing it yourself means opening a broker account, researching Shariah screened funds, choosing one, placing the order each month and watching the allocation yourself. Same destination. Different amount of work, and a different cost.
Two things to be clear on. It is not a share dealing account, so you cannot buy individual stocks. And it does not give advice. Wahed checks whether its service is suitable for you and then manages the money, which is not the same as someone telling you what to do with your finances.
Accounts available: General Investment Account, Stocks and Shares ISA, Junior ISA, personal pension and a business account. Wahed is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference 833225, and WealthKernel acts as custodian. The minimum to open is £50.
What Wahed actually invests your money in
Wahed does not pick individual companies for you. It builds each portfolio from a small set of Shariah screened funds covering five asset classes.
| Asset class | What it is | Role in the portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| Global stocks | Shares in Shariah screened companies across developed markets | The main growth engine |
| Emerging market stocks | Shariah screened companies in faster growing economies | Extra growth, more volatility |
| Alternative income | An income focused Shariah screened fund | Income without interest bearing bonds |
| Sukuk | Islamic asset backed certificates, the halal alternative to conventional bonds | Stability and lower volatility |
| Physical gold | Gold held in a vault, accessed through a fund | Diversification and a hedge |
There is also a small cash holding, typically around 1%.
The mix changes with the risk level you choose. As an indication, a Moderate portfolio sits at roughly a quarter in global stocks, a smaller slice in emerging markets, a large allocation to the alternative income fund, around a sixth in sukuk and a few percent in gold. A Very Conservative portfolio is almost entirely alternative income and sukuk with no equities at all. A Very Aggressive one is weighted heavily to global and emerging market stocks.
Allocations change over time, so check the portfolio pages on Wahed's site for the current split before you pick a risk level. One thing to notice while you are there: several of the funds used are Wahed's own. That matters, and we come back to it below.
Is Wahed halal?
Wahed's portfolios are Shariah screened, and Wahed retains Shariyah Review Bureau as its independent Shariah advisor. The structure avoids interest bearing bonds by using sukuk, and the equity funds screen out companies whose business or balance sheet fails standard Shariah criteria.
We are not a Shariah authority and we do not issue rulings. What we can do is tell you what to look at:
- The screening methodology behind each fund, published in the fund documents
- Whether the purification process, which deals with any small amount of non-compliant income, meets your standard
- Who sits on the Shariah board and what scope their certification covers
Read Wahed's Shariah documentation and, if you are unsure, put it to a scholar you trust. Anyone giving you a flat yes or no in a comment section is overreaching.
Where the £3,588 rule comes from
The old fee was 1% a year, but never less than £2.99 a month. That floor came to £35.88 a year whatever your balance was. So if 1% of your pot worked out at less than £35.88, you paid £35.88 anyway.
£3,588 is simply the balance where 1% happens to equal £35.88. That is the whole trick.
Here is what the old floor was costing people below it.
| Amount invested | Old annual fee | New annual fee | Old fee as a share of your pot |
|---|---|---|---|
| £50 | £35.88 | £0.50 | 71.8% |
| £250 | £35.88 | £2.50 | 14.4% |
| £500 | £35.88 | £5.00 | 7.2% |
| £1,000 | £35.88 | £10.00 | 3.6% |
| £2,000 | £35.88 | £20.00 | 1.8% |
| £3,588 | £35.88 | £35.88 | 1.0% |
| £10,000 | £100.00 | £100.00 | 1.0% |
| £20,000 | £200.00 | £200.00 | 1.0% |
1% stays the same percentage at every level, but the pounds do not. On £1,000 it is £10 a year. On £20,000 it is £200 a year, and it is charged on whatever the balance is at the time, so it grows as the pot grows.
The alternative is holding a Shariah screened fund yourself on a platform that charges no platform fee. Trading 212 is the one most people in this position end up looking at, since it charges no platform fee on its Stocks and Shares ISA and lets you hold Shariah screened ETFs directly. You would still pay the fund's own ongoing charge, but there would be no 1% management layer on top of it. We have covered how to set that up in our guide on whether Trading 212 is halal, and which funds qualify in our halal ETF guide.
Neither route is wrong. You are paying Wahed to do the work, and the bigger the balance the more that work costs you in pounds.
You are not locked in
Worth knowing before you decide, because it takes most of the pressure out of the choice.
- Since April 2024 you can open and pay into more than one Stocks and Shares ISA in the same tax year, as long as your total contributions across all your ISAs stay inside the £20,000 allowance for 2026/27
- You can transfer an existing ISA to another provider without losing the tax wrapper, though the receiving provider has to be willing to accept transfers in, so check before you commit
- Wahed has no exit penalty. You can terminate at any time and investments are normally sold within two business days
Starting with Wahed while the balance is small and splitting or moving later is a normal thing to do, not a trap you have walked into.
Not ready to invest yet?
That is fine. Investing is not for money you might need in the next few years. But do not leave it sitting in a current account earning nothing while you decide.
Halal savings accounts pay an expected profit rate rather than interest, and deposits are FSCS protected up to £120,000. We keep the current rates and providers updated in our halal savings guide.
What it actually costs
The 1% is Wahed's fee. It is not your total cost. There are two layers.
| Cost layer | What it is | Who charges it |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Wahed fee | Management and custody, charged monthly | Wahed |
| Investment fund costs | The charges inside the funds your portfolio holds | The fund providers |
The Wahed fee is tiered: 1% under £250,000, 0.75% between £250,000 and £1,000,000, and 0.5% above that. Run your own figure through the calculator on Wahed's pricing page rather than working off the 1% headline.
Wahed pros
| Strength | Detail |
|---|---|
| Screened for you | Portfolios are Shariah screened, with Shariyah Review Bureau acting as independent Shariah advisor to Wahed |
| Properly hands off | Pick a risk level, pay in monthly, and the buying and rebalancing is handled |
| Low entry | £50 to open, and no minimum fee eating into small balances any more |
| Proper UK wrappers | ISA, Junior ISA and pension in one app |
| Regulated | FCA authorised. FSCS covers up to £85,000 per person if the firm fails, correct as at August 2026 |
| No exit penalty | Terminate whenever you want, investments normally sold within two business days |
FSCS protection covers the firm failing. It does not cover your investments falling in value.
Wahed cons
| Weakness | Detail |
|---|---|
| 1% is not cheap | Holding a Shariah screened fund yourself on a platform with no platform fee will usually work out lower |
| Fund costs sit on top | The 1% is Wahed's fee only, not the total you pay |
| A disclosed conflict | The portfolios are built largely from Wahed's own funds. Wahed's client agreement states that clients "bear two layers of fees", and that those fund fees go to Wahed rather than to an external manager. Wahed discloses this itself as a potential conflict of interest |
| No control | Discretionary management means you do not choose the holdings and cannot hold individual stocks |
The conflict of interest point is not a scandal, and Wahed publishes it themselves. But now that you know the portfolios are mostly Wahed's own funds, you should also know that in those portfolios you are paying Wahed twice, once directly through the 1% and once inside the fund.
Who it suits
It is likely to suit you if:
- You have between £50 and a few thousand and want to start rather than research for another six months
- You want to pay in monthly and then not think about it
- You would rather someone else decided what to hold and when to rebalance
- You want an ISA, a Junior ISA or a pension in one place
It is likely not for you if:
- You already know which Shariah screened global fund you want to hold
- Your balance is comfortably above the break-even and 1% a year is a number that bothers you
- You want to see and control every holding, or hold individual stocks
- You enjoy the research and would rather keep the fee
Neither position is more correct. It is a trade between cost and effort, and the honest answer depends on which of those you have more of.
How to open an account and claim the £10
| Free £10 to start with Wahed |
|---|
| Code ziyad, entered during sign up in the app. Fund with at least £50 and the £10 lands once the account is funded. Works on a Stocks and Shares ISA. Terms set by Wahed and can change. Capital at risk. |
There is no sign up link for this one. The code goes in inside the app, so the order matters.
- Download the Wahed app from the App Store or Google Play
- Enter the code ziyad during sign up. It has to go in at that point, you cannot add it afterwards
- Complete ID verification. Passport or driving licence, usually a few minutes
- Answer the suitability questions honestly, because they decide what you are offered
- Choose your account type. A Stocks and Shares ISA qualifies, so pick that if you have allowance left this tax year
- Choose your risk level from the six options
- Fund the account with at least £50, then set up a monthly payment if you want it running on its own
Wahed has confirmed to us that the qualifying deposit is £50 and that a Stocks and Shares ISA counts. Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and tax rules can change.
Common questions
Can I have a Wahed ISA and another ISA at the same time?
Yes. Since April 2024 you can open and pay into multiple Stocks and Shares ISAs in the same tax year, as long as the total across all of them stays within the £20,000 allowance.
Can I take my money out whenever I want?
Yes. There is no exit penalty. You have 14 days to cancel after opening, and after that you can terminate at any time. If markets have fallen you will get back less than you put in.
Does the £10 bonus apply to an ISA?
Yes. Wahed has confirmed a Stocks and Shares ISA qualifies, with a minimum deposit of £50.
What is the code and where does it go?
The code is ziyad and it goes in during sign up inside the Wahed app. There is no link to click.
Not sure which side of £3,588 you are on?
If you are weighing Wahed against running an ISA yourself, or you are not sure which wrapper you should be using at all, that is exactly what a one to one call is for. Sixty minutes, your situation, no product pushing.
Disclaimer. Ziyad Finance provides educational information and is not a financial adviser. All investments carry risk. Shariah-compliance is based on our independent research; please verify with your own scholar if unsure. Figures correct as at 11 August 2026 and subject to change. Wahed Invest Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 833225. Ziyad Finance is a Wahed partner and may benefit when you use the code ziyad.
