MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Has anyone experience of this type of investment and advise pros and cons please?
Quick search reveals
AJ Bell You Invest
TD Direct investing
AXA Self Investor
Hargreeves
The first two look the more interesting to me in terms of low charges, but could do with some feedback on actual use of there platform and real time charges
TIA
I use share.com for general share trading and as an ISA platform.
Costs are here:
https://www.share.com/accounts/isa/self-select-stocks-and-shares-isa/costs-and-dealing-options/
we have 3x accounts there: me, Mrs Stoner, and our company.
Its a perfectly acceptable platform, although I dont know how the fees compare to the others you've listed. I use the frequent dealing option, not because of frequent dealing as such, but volumes larger than £750 are cheaper to trade with fixed price (although there's also £80pa subs fee)
I use TD direct investing, have been using them for about the last 8 years.
They seem fine, do what they say on the tin. The website could be easier to use IMO, but its not a big deal.
Each has their own benefits. Most have a trading fee of about a tenner, though Charles Stanley allows you to trade FUNDS for free.
Most charge a holding fee for funds. AJ Bell charges 0.2% pa, and Charles Stanley 0.25%.
Hargreaves Lansdowne charges 0.45% (I think) for funds but holds shares and trusts (but not funds) for free. Their service and website are probably the best though.
TD Direct I haven't used but I think (being Dutch) they have access to more european markets than most. They'll also transfer in certificated stocks for a fiver, which ain't bad!
I use Charles Stanley for funds, AJ Bell for speculative trading and SIPPs, and HL for everything else. I have ISAs in each. With SIPPs, don't just check the holding/trading fees, but the exit fees too.
You may find that some funds are cheaper to buy and run through these "supermarkets" than directly from the asset manager.
though Charles Stanley allows you to trade FUNDS for free.
TD also allow you to trade funds for free.
I've got a HL account and an iWeb account. Ignoring costs, you can look those up on the sites, they are like chalk and cheese.
The HL one is a polished site that offers you pretty much everything you could need, until you turn day-trader. Even then I might still work for you.
iWeb is like some teenager has knocked it together in an afternoon. I does the buying and selling OK, but from a user friendly point of view its a non-starter. It's even hard to find a particular stock/fund etc.
My original plan was to open the iWeb and at some point transfer all my HL holding over. In the early phases of deciding if that is sensible or not. So currently I use the iWeb for the trading, and the HL for the info. I set up a virtual portfolio that mirrors the iWeb one.
Gut feeling, if you've never done anything like it before go with one that puppy walks you. Out of the two I've used, HL would win that hands down.
I've used quite a few and HL has the best UI by miles and excellent fund information / research etc, but you pay slightly more for it.
HL here, seems good to me
I switched from HL to Interactive Investor as much cheaper for me:
Not sure of how the costs work out but using Alliance Trust Savings.
Probably not 100% coverage of markets through, however they work OK.
Cavendish Investments... it piggybacks Fidelity's FundsNetwork platform but for a much lower fee. Funds only though, no shares, but trading is free. Cavendish don't spend much on marketing so never appear in those Telegraph articles ^^^
Otherwise III... ISAs are free of charge if you have a SIPP with them, but there's a charge per trade.
HL's platform is the best but the fees are eye-watering to me. The founders are dripping rich for good reason!
Depends on the size of your portfolio and how frequently you trade. I use Interactive Investor for SIPP and ISA. They are good and charges are fixed.