We can open a basic account without a NI number, but freetrade does not lets you open an ISA without one. Why is that?
It is not mandatory as per the uk government website - Information you need from investors when they apply for an ISA - GOV.UK
If you’ve recently received a letter from your broker asking for your National Insurance number, best thing to do really is just provide it as soon as possible and put it down to the FCA’s regulatory requirements.
https://jhc.financial/insights/blog/nino-dob-concat
Under MIFID II’s transaction reporting requirements, financial institutions will be unable to initiate any deal on behalf of a client unless the subsequent transaction report contains a Natural Person Identifier (NPI). For UK nationals, the individual’s National Insurance number (NINO) is an acceptable NPI.
The way brokers report trading activity to the FCA (to make sure no one is doing anything dodgy) means they need to have a unique way to ID you across multiple different platforms and even countries!
National Insurance number is default code for any UK national (even if you use a broker elsewhere in the EU you should still provide your NINO.) This way all trade reports made to all EU financial regulators have the same code, so all your trading activity can be easily checked in case something suspicious happens.
In short it’s the requirement for all regulated brokers to now ask for this extra information.
I don’t mind sharing NI number. I have done the same for my account. But the thing is my wife does not work and when she applied for NI, they rejected it saying its not needed until she has to work.
How could she open an ISA in this case?
Note - We are not British nationals, but on Tier 2 General Visa.
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The website you’ve linked confirms a National Insurance number is needed. But it also says if you don’t need a National Insurance number the provider MAY accept confirmation that you don’t need one. Not that they have to.
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Yeah, noticed that. Its the reason why there seems to be no solution for cases like mine 
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