Discount Brokers Discussion Area

[MSE Dan]

This thread is to discuss the new

Discount Brokers: Get more investment for less money article

including the new Buying Funds calculator, showing how much you can save by using a discount broker

Please click reply to discuss

[Savila60]

Choosing a discount broker also depends on responsiveness when you have questions or need help setting up or switching an investment, and on the quality of investor information they supply, online or in paper form, to help you make the important decisions on which funds to choose. Allenbridge are excellent on both counts, and I wouldn't use anyone else.

[chris_o]

I have some stocks and shares ISAs going back a number of years that were purchased through brokers that discounted the initial fees but did not rebate any of their ongoing annual commission. I'm not sure that any of them did at the time. I distinctly recall seeing somewhere that some brokers were providing an easy way to transfer your investments to them and rebating part of the annual commission. I've done a bit of hunting around and it seems that Elson Associates provide such a service. Anyone know any others?

[ps2659]

Originally Posted by chris_o

I have some stocks and shares ISAs going back a number of years that were purchased through brokers that discounted the initial fees but did not rebate any of their ongoing annual commission. I'm not sure that any of them did at the time. I distinctly recall seeing somewhere that some brokers were providing an easy way to transfer your investments to them and rebating part of the annual commission. I've done a bit of hunting around and it seems that Elson Associates provide such a service. Anyone know any others?

I have always used commshare and received 1st class service they pay annual commision direct to my bank, hope this is of use to you.

[chris_o]

Excellent, thanks.

[paulyd2k]

hi, wanting to do a funds isa, and have been doing a lot of research, but it`s a minefield out there, am thinking of doing a vantage isa with h&l, just wondering if anyone has heard any reports on this company or isa, many thanks paul

[dunstonh]

Originally Posted by paulyd2k

hi, wanting to do a funds isa, and have been doing a lot of research, but it`s a minefield out there, am thinking of doing a vantage isa with h&l, just wondering if anyone has heard any reports on this company or isa, many thanks paul

Do a search in this section for lots of references to them.

[njf]

Most of my ISA investments are held in investment trusts through ItsHenderson, whose charges seem very reasonable (£25 annual fee, £4.95 for online "smart" deal) but whose service has not impressed me. Are there any other fund supermarket/investment platforms that include a good range of investment trusts as well as unit trusts?

PS Have since discovered that Hargreaves Lansdown have an annual management charge for holding investment trusts within their Vantage ISA of 0.5% (+VAT) per year, capped at £200 (+VAT) per year. Although Bestinvest, unusually, offer research information on investment trusts on their website, I can't find details of their charges.

[barak]

Originally Posted by njf

Most of my ISA investments are held in investment trusts through ItsHenderson, whose charges seem very reasonable (�25 annual fee, �4.95 for online "smart" deal) but whose service has not impressed me.

I think they had a bit of a shaky start, but I now find their admin carried out by Equiniti very efficient.

[EdInvestor]

Originally Posted by njf

Are there any other fund supermarket/investment platforms that include a good range of investment trusts as well as unit trusts?

www.selftrade.co.uk

ITs (and ETFs) will tend to be better covered by the online stockbrokers rather than the fund supermarkets.

[john_holgate]

This website had previously steered me towards Cavendish Online.

Does anyone know why they are now seemingly out of favour?

[dunstonh]

Originally Posted by john_holgate

This website had previously steered me towards Cavendish Online.

Does anyone know why they are now seemingly out of favour?

They are ok for basic insurance related contracts (although IFAs can usually beat them on pensions even with quite large commissions taken mainly as their execution only panel of products is not good enough). However, for pure investments they are not that cheap.

[Lansdowne]

I have been trying to choose between Cavendish Online and H-L or another discount provider (for basic Funds, not pensions, in my case).
For a business with "Online" in its name, Cavendish needs a top class Web presence. Look on www.cavendishonline.co.uk and choose "Structured" products or "VCTs" and you get a well out of date list.
Choose "Fund supermarket" and then "Charges" and you read "Actual Initial Charge can be found below" which plainly it can't.
An online supplier with a web site that isn't kept up to date doesn't inspire confidence.
A pity because their basic offering of rebated commission looks good, as does the apparently similar offering by Alliance Trust. The latter however has a small choice of funds.

[jg-ms]

I've read both the articles on discount brokers for shares, and funds ISA's. I'm interested in recommendations for brokers for holding ETF's within an ISA wrapper, which I'm likely to buy and hold rather than regularly trade. This means I'm not so bothered about refunds of fund charges, or on the range of funds in their funds market, which is the focus of the ISA self select article it seems.

So if I compare Hoodless Brennan, Selftrade and Hargreaves Lansdown and assume I trade 3 times a year max and hold �7200 of ETF's in the fund ,then I end up with Hoodless at ~�74/year, Selftrade at ~�61/year and HL at ~�102 excl stamp duty.

Are there any opinions about on whether I should a/ choose someone other than from these three, 2/ not choose selftrade, assuming my calculations are roughly right !

Thanks for any help.

John G.

[tradetime]

ETF's from where? Traded on the LSE only, or do you look further abroad?

[jg-ms]

Originally Posted by tradetime

ETF's from where? Traded on the LSE only, or do you look further abroad?

Ah, good question !

Initially LSE only I think - for example from the ishares range (ftse250/S&P small cap/MSCI emerging markets/nareit global) with perhaps a couple of lyxor or db x-trackers (msci eu small cap) in there as well.

I'm branching out from a portfolio that's heavy in FTSE-100 and large APAC companies and this seems like a sensible way of doing it if I combine it with a basic global index tracker such as the Aviva international index.

My preference is to do this over a few years with multiple S&S ISA's and stick with one provider just to keep the paperwork/tracking simple. So I would appreciate your thoughts on a suitable UK only provider initially, and if I continue in the longer term a possible route to go for overseas etf's.

Thanks for your help.

John.

[tradetime]

In that case two more to look at would be TD Waterhouse, and E-trade, neither suitable for foreign ETF's see my on going saga with TD Waterhouse here on the subject of US ETF's
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...html?t=1532427

[mango100]

Myself and husband purchased �14000 of ISA shares last year due to the current climate they have now dropped to below �7000, we are thinking should we cut our losses and sell the shares or wait to see if they recover. Any views??

[dunstonh]

Myself and husband purchased �14000 of ISA shares last year due to the current climate they have now dropped to below �7000, we are thinking should we cut our losses and sell the shares or wait to see if they recover. Any views??

A drop of that size suggests a medium/high to high risk approach.

So, what has changed on your risk profile between last year and this that you now are considering pulling out because an even you knew could happen (And would happen at some point) has happened?

[thrupence]

Originally Posted by mango100

Myself and husband purchased �14000 of ISA shares last year due to the current climate they have now dropped to below �7000, we are thinking should we cut our losses and sell the shares or wait to see if they recover. Any views??

What are you invested in?