Invest Direct Review (Formerly Jarden Direct)

Invest Direct Review (Formerly Jarden Direct)

If you have searched for Jarden Direct, you need to know one thing before anything else: the platform is now called Invest Direct. Jarden Direct has rebranded, and the page you are reading keeps the old name in the title because that is what people still type into search engines. The service itself is a do-it-yourself online share trading platform for New Zealand and Australian listed stocks.

That rebrand matters because it changes who the platform is for. This is not a full-service brokerage with a named adviser attached to your account. It is execution-only, and the pricing reflects that: a flat NZ$29.90 per trade up to NZ$15,000, then 0.20% on the portion above that. No account fees, no subscription, no ongoing charge.

The interesting part is the shape of that pricing. It is not expensive or cheap in the abstract. It is expensive for small orders and competitive for large ones, and the gap between those two facts is where most investors get it wrong.

How We Researched This Guide

We built this guide from the platform's own help centre, not from anyone else's summary of it. The NZ$29.90 NZX rate, the AU$29 ASX rate and the 0.20% and 0.30% marginal rates above the thresholds all come from Invest Direct's published fee material, dated April 2026. Where we could not confirm something from a primary source, we left it out, which is why you will not read here about who owns the platform, what it charges for US or UK markets, or what its currency conversion margin is.

One thing surprised us. The best rates are conditional on pre-funding: your cleared funds must be received and allocated to your account before you place the order. Deposits sweep at roughly 9am, 1pm and 3pm, and the platform cannot guarantee which sweep picks yours up. That is a real operational detail most write-ups skip. Tax rules in the comparison sections come from Inland Revenue, and the proposed change to the foreign investment fund threshold is set out on legislation.govt.nz as a bill that has not yet passed.

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The Quick Summary (60-Second Version)

Here is the short version if you are deciding right now.

• Jarden Direct is now Invest Direct. Same platform, new name, and the page keeps the old title because that is what people search for.
• NZ$29.90 per NZX trade up to NZ$15,000, then 0.20% above that. AU$29 per ASX trade up to AU$30,000, then 0.30% above.
• No account, subscription or ongoing fees, and opening an account is free.
• To get the best rates you must have cleared funds sitting in your cash account before you trade, not arriving after.
• On a $500 trade the fee is roughly 6% of the order. On a $10,000 trade it is about 0.3%. Same platform, very different value.
• It covers NZX and ASX only. If you want US shares, Hatch, Stake, Sharesies and Kernel are built for that instead.

What the Fee Actually Buys, and What It Does Not

The current version of this page describes a named adviser, a research desk and phone trading. We could not confirm any of that from Invest Direct's own material, so we are not repeating it. What we can tell you is what the platform publishes: it is a do-it-yourself service for New Zealand and Australian listed stocks, with no ongoing fees.

That is a meaningful correction, because the old framing compared Invest Direct against full-service brokerage. The honest comparison is against other execution-only platforms. On that basis, the fee buys you access to NZX and ASX, a cash account structure with daily sweeps, and settlement in at least two business days, which is standard. It does not buy advice.

If you want a person to talk through portfolio strategy or the tax consequences of a large sale, you are looking at a different service and a different cost. A fee-only financial adviser charges separately, and that separation is usually cleaner anyway.

The Pre-Funding Condition Is Not Optional

This is the detail that catches people. The discounted cash account rate requires cleared funds in your account before your order goes in. Money that arrives after the trade does not qualify. Because deposits sweep three times a day and the platform will not promise which sweep catches yours, you need to top up a day ahead if you want certainty.

How the Pricing Compares on Real Trade Sizes

Fee structures only mean something when you put a dollar figure against them. The table below uses published rates from each platform and shows what a single NZX trade costs at different sizes.

Read that table slowly, because it tells you who each platform is for. Invest Direct is the most expensive of the three on a $500 trade and the cheapest on a $20,000 one. ASB Securities has a flat $30 band between $1,000 and $10,000, which is punishing on a $1,500 order and reasonable on a $10,000 one. Sharesies caps at $25, which makes it the standout for small and frequent orders.

Where Invest Direct Fits, and Where It Does Not

There is a clear case for Invest Direct. If you place larger NZX or ASX trades and you are happy to pre-fund the account and trade less often, the marginal rate above the threshold is genuinely competitive. Above NZ$15,000 the charge drops to 0.20%, which undercuts ASB Securities at 0.30% above NZ$10,000.

The case against it is equally clear. On a $500 trade, NZ$29.90 is roughly 6% of your order. On a $1,000 trade it is about 3%. Paying that repeatedly on small amounts is the single fastest way to hand back your returns, and it is the mistake we see most often.

If you are somewhere in the middle, the practical move is to batch. Rather than buying $1,500 of a stock this month and another $1,500 next month, wait and place one $3,000 order. Two trades at NZ$29.90 is nearly NZ$60 for the same position you could have built for one fee, and the saving compounds every time you resist the urge to trade small.

What About Tax Paperwork?

New Zealand dividends come with resident withholding tax already withheld, and where you have given your IRD number the amounts are usually pre-populated in your automatic assessment. Australian dividends may carry imputation credits. Offshore holdings are where it gets harder, and that is a separate conversation from which platform you use.

Questions You Might Have

Is Jarden Direct still operating?

Yes, under a new name. The platform rebranded to Invest Direct, and the service, pricing and account structure carried across. If you had a Jarden Direct account, you still have an Invest Direct account. The old branding is what brings most people to this page.

Can I buy US shares through Invest Direct?

We could not confirm its US or UK market fees from a primary source, so we are not going to guess at them. What the platform publishes is New Zealand and Australian listed stocks. If US exposure is central to your plan, Hatch charges US$3 flat brokerage and Stake charges the same, and both are built specifically for that market.

Why is the fee so high on a small trade?

Because it is a flat minimum, not a percentage. NZ$29.90 is the floor regardless of order size, so the smaller the order, the larger the share of it you hand over. Platforms that charge a percentage with a cap, such as Sharesies at 1.9% capped at $25 per NZX order, handle small amounts far better. If most of your orders sit under a thousand dollars, that difference shows up in your returns far more than any feature comparison will.

Do I need to pre-fund my account?

For the best rates, yes. Cleared funds must be received and allocated before you place your order. Deposits sweep at roughly 9am, 1pm and 3pm, and the platform will not guarantee which sweep catches a deposit, so top up the day before if timing matters to you. Set a calendar reminder the afternoon before you plan to trade, and you will never be caught waiting on a sweep.

Is Invest Direct regulated?

Check the Financial Service Providers Register yourself rather than taking anyone's word for it, including ours. Any provider dealing with New Zealanders should be registered, belong to a dispute resolution scheme, and comply with anti-money-laundering obligations. The FMA also publishes warnings and alerts worth checking before you pay anyone.

What Matters Most

The rebrand is the headline, but the fee structure is the decision. Invest Direct is a large-trade platform wearing large-trade pricing. If your orders run into the thousands and you place them occasionally, the maths works and the ASX access is a genuine plus.

If you are investing a few hundred dollars at a time, it is the wrong tool, and no amount of platform features fixes a 6% entry cost. Sharesies caps at $25 an order. Hatch charges US$3 flat. Those structures exist precisely because small orders are common.

Compound interest rewards the patient, and the saving compounds every time you resist trading for its own sake.

Whatever you choose, check the provider on the register, read the fee table properly, and remember that fees come off your return whether the investment does well or badly. That is the part nobody can rebrand away.