[tim_nn]

Understood. Good answer! I think the minimum is £1 per pip, yes. There's an unpopular company called Finspreads (I would not have anything to do with them myself!) that allows you smaller stakes just for the first 8 weeks. And there are several excellent ones (including CapitalSpreads, the best IMHO) where you can have "demo accounts" with "play money" to get practice in, if you wish. But it may not be what you're looking for, of course.

For what it's worth, I have certainly not heard anything terrible about Oanda, which is actually more than can be said for a lot of the competition! But I agree entirely with you about all the personal information, and so on. I think the usual story is that "regulations require us to ask for all this info". One never knows how true this is, of course, unless one looks at every firm's requirements and/or tries to find out from the regulator(s) what is _actually_ required!