IG Minimum Deposit 2026: UK Bank Transfers and Card Limits

IG does not publish one minimum deposit that applies to every account, payment method and currency. For a standard UK trading-account bank transfer, IG's September 2026 help says there is no minimum transfer amount. The GBP card threshold is less clear: a current UK help entry displays £1 per transaction, but another IG UK help page and IG's international comparison still show £250. Treat that discrepancy as unresolved and confirm the amount shown in the funding screen for the exact account before transferring money.

This distinction replaces the old statement that the IG minimum deposit simply starts at £250. That amount appears in some official card and regional schedules, but it is not a universal opening balance. Opening an account, making a payment and holding enough free margin for a forex or CFD position are three different requirements.

Review update

What's New Since Our Last Update

The previous guide presented £250 as a general IG starting deposit and treated regional payment options as interchangeable. Current official funding material requires a more precise answer.

• Separated opening from funding: a bank transfer can have no published minimum even when a card transaction has its own threshold.
• Flagged conflicting UK card figures: the September 2026 UK help lists £1 for a GBP card transaction, while another UK page and IG's comparison still list £250. Neither is presented as a guaranteed client-specific limit.
• Corrected regional and product scope: Swiss and French-language card schedules, UK Apple Pay availability and separate Smart Portfolio funding rules are not automatically terms for a UK forex account.
• Replaced blanket fee and speed claims: processing delays, currency-conversion costs and payment eligibility now appear alongside practical funding steps.

What is the IG minimum deposit in the UK?

For UK clients considering IG spread betting or CFD trading, the clearest current answer is by funding method, not by a single account-wide figure. IG's UK deposit-limits help, dated 8 September 2026, explicitly says bank transfers have no minimum or maximum deposit amount. Its GBP card row shows £1 as the minimum per transaction. However, a different IG UK funding-limits page still lists £250 for GBP card payments. The international offering comparison also lists a £250 UK minimum without explaining the bank-transfer exception.

Practical conclusion: there is no published UK bank-transfer minimum in the current help article, but the GBP card minimum cannot be settled confidently from the public pages alone. The logged-in payment screen and the applicable account agreement should determine the live limit. A £1 displayed in help is not a recommendation to fund a leveraged trading account with £1, nor proof that such a transaction will pass.

UK funding method	Published threshold or availability	How to interpret it
Bank transfer	No published minimum in the September 2026 UK deposit guide.	A payment limit is not a trading-margin requirement; transfer processing can take several business days.
Debit or credit card, GBP	Conflicting official figures: £1 and £250 per transaction.	Do not rely on either amount until the payment screen for the UK account confirms its accepted minimum.
Card, another currency	The September UK table lists, for example, €300 in EUR and $50 in USD.	These are currency-denominated transaction figures, not a GBP account-wide requirement or currency-converted equivalents.
Apple Pay	Listed in the UK how-to-deposit guide.	The guide does not establish a separate universal Apple Pay minimum. Confirm the available limit in the account.
PayPal	Not listed among methods in the current UK how-to-deposit guide.	Do not assume it is a UK CFD or spread-betting funding option because it appears in another region's help.

The £250 card figure should therefore not be used to tell a bank-transfer customer they must deposit £250. Equally, the £1 row should not be used to promise a £1 card funding option when IG's own UK pages disagree. Account type, client eligibility, currency and payment rail all matter.

Does opening an IG account require a deposit?

Account approval and account funding are separate stages. IG's UK day-trading guidance says a minimum deposit is not required simply to start the account journey, but sufficient money is needed before opening leveraged positions. An application may still require identity and suitability checks, and a particular investment product can have a separate initial-investment rule.

For example, a Smart Portfolio is not a forex CFD account. Its UK investment-funding guide requires an initial deposit above £500 before automatic investment can begin, then specifies £50 bank-transfer and £250 card minimums for later deposits. Those portfolio thresholds must not be copied into a spread-betting or CFD minimum-deposit table.

Why IG deposit limits differ between countries

IG is a trading brand used by several contracting companies. For the UK, IG's legal disclosures identify IG Markets Ltd for CFDs and IG Index Ltd for spread betting; investment accounts are supplied by IG Trading and Investments Ltd. The named company, product, country of residence and payment method determine which disclosures and services apply. UK FCA oversight of named UK companies does not transfer unchanged to a separate overseas IG company.

The regional source documents in the original comparison illustrate why the minimum cannot be lifted from one market to another:

Regional help example	What it actually says	Why it is not a universal IG minimum
IG Switzerland	Swiss help, 20 September 2026: no bank-transfer minimum; CHF 300 minimum card funding. Some new clients verifying by document upload must first fund by bank transfer.	Swiss onboarding and card limits apply to the Swiss service, not automatically to UK applicants.
IG French-language help	Regional funding table, 20 September 2026: no bank-transfer minimum; £250 for GBP card/PayPal transactions, €300 for EUR transactions, with a stated €1,000 first-deposit condition for EUR.	A currency-specific threshold and a first-payment condition on a regional page cannot settle an individual UK account's funding limit.

Do not infer PayPal access, an initial-funding exception, a fee waiver or the protection available to a UK retail client from the Swiss or French-language table. A client should confirm the local IG website, named issuer and account-opening documents rather than rely on the group brand alone.

How much should you actually deposit to trade forex?

A transaction minimum is only the smallest payment a method accepts. It says nothing about whether that balance can support a position. The amount needed to open a trade depends on the instrument, position size, leverage or margin rate, current spread and any other costs. It also needs to leave room for adverse price movement and ongoing margin requirements.

Illustrative margin example: a £2,000 notional position with a 5% margin requirement needs £100 of initial margin before costs or losses. That is arithmetic, not a claim about IG's actual margin rate for a particular currency pair. The same position could require a different amount under the rate and product shown on the order ticket. Funding only the initial margin would leave little room for adverse price changes.

For a smaller account, compare the smallest permitted deal size, likely spread, overnight funding charges and cash available after required margin. A method that permits a very small transfer is not necessarily suitable for trading. See the related IG fees guide for a separate cost discussion, and confirm the currently displayed contract charges before placing an order.

How to deposit money into an IG account

1. Confirm the account and company. Check whether the approved account is a UK spread-betting account, CFD account or a different investment product, and review the legal company named in its documents.
2. Sign in to the IG account dashboard. Under the relevant live account, select Add funds or Deposit funds as described in IG's UK instructions.
3. Select the funding method and currency. The available menu may include bank transfer, debit or credit card and Apple Pay. Corporate accounts are restricted to bank-transfer funding under the cited UK guide.
4. Check the live minimum and total cost. For cards, use the accepted amount shown on the payment screen, particularly while the public £1 and £250 GBP figures conflict. Check any conversion or intermediary fees.
5. Pay from an eligible account in your name. IG requires matching customer details and does not accept third-party funding. For bank transfers, copy the destination details and payment reference from the relevant live account rather than from an old article.
6. Wait for cleared available funds and check margin. Confirm that the balance has been credited before trading and that any chosen position leaves sufficient available margin.

Deposit times, currency conversion and payment costs

Card deposits: IG's September 2026 UK funding guide says successful card payments are credited immediately. An attempted payment can still fail verification or bank approval, so it is not sensible to promise an instant result for every user or method.

Bank transfers: IG's UK deposit-limits guide says funds can take three to five business days to appear. Its more detailed deposit instructions describe international or converted transfers as typically taking one to three working days, depending on the bank. These are distinct processing contexts, not a guaranteed settlement deadline. Do not send a last-minute margin payment on the assumption that bank funding will settle instantly.

Currency conversion: IG's UK deposit instructions publish a 0.8% standard FX conversion fee for applicable conversions. That is a potential cost of moving between currencies, not a deposit-minimum amount. The effective rate and fee treatment should be checked on the relevant account and currency pair. An external sending bank, card issuer or intermediary can apply its own charges. The old article's blanket claim that every deposit channel is free is not sufficiently supported for every customer.

IG minimum deposit: who does the policy suit?

For a UK client who prefers bank transfers, the absence of a published minimum is useful when adding funds in planned amounts. The drawback is that bank funding may take several business days, so it is unsuitable as a reliable emergency margin remedy.

For a UK client who needs instant card funding, the published documents are inconsistent on the GBP card minimum. The sensible decision is to verify the card amount and eligibility in the payment screen rather than choose IG on the basis of an unconfirmed £1 or £250 claim. Anyone using non-GBP funding should also account for conversion costs.

For a beginner, a low transfer threshold does not make leveraged forex trading low-risk. The better measure of affordability is whether the intended position size, margin requirement and potential loss fit a budget that can be lost without financial harm. Account-opening guidance is covered separately in the IG account-opening guide.

Risk warning: Spread bets and CFDs are complex leveraged products and can cause rapid losses. Margin requirements and trading losses are separate from the minimum payment a funding method accepts. Retail protections depend on the client, product and contracting legal entity; do not assume an overseas IG offering has UK terms. Professional clients can face losses greater than their deposits. Only trade with money you can afford to lose and review the current risk disclosure for your account.