@Kaplant You don’t pay the fees directly, they’re actually collected from the fund itself. ETF Issuers like Vanguard adjust the NAV (net asset value) of their fund on a daily basis. As an investor, you don’t see the expenses directly.
Think of it this way - the fees are deducted from the portfolio of the ETF itself which makes it worth fractionally less over time. If you invested £1,000 in an ETF with a total expense ratio of 0.5% & the ETF returned 0.5% that year, you’d get to keep all of the £5 profit because the TER (total expense ratio) is already priced in. However, If there was no TER, you’d have actually gotten a return of 1.0% - £10.