alternative to selftrade

Hi, I have some shares which I bought through selftrade but due to them now charging me £40 a quarter / year (cant remember which now) for not doing any active trades I need to move to someone else.

I am currently not allowed to sell or buy any more of my shares. How to I go about transferring these to somewhere else and any recommendations on where I can move them where I dont have to pay a recurring free to "do nothing"?

Have a look at the i-dealing website and see what you think. The platform has not changed very much in approx 10yrs and it is a no-frills but reliable service. Straight forward and transparent £5 per quarter, with no other fees. Definitely no problem with inactivity, cash holdings etc and staff have always been helpful. Dealing fees are also reasonable (£9.90 plus stamp duty per trade) and trading is straight-forward. Electonic transfer of cash to standard or ISA accounts easy for additional funding. Only one fiddly bit and that is getting cash out by sending a withdrawal form by post and the funds are then sent electonically to your nominated bank without charges. Suitable for shares and etfs, not appropriate for funds though. They have in recent years introduced a £60 account closure fee which is a surprise, but this is more than compensated for by the low annual overhead on the fund and holdings.

If this is of interest, regarding how you can transfer your shares, go to the "forms section", and read "account/holdings transfer and instructions". You can also e-mail them any queries. This is one option which may provide an easy exit strategy for you. Others on the forum may have alternative suggestions also.

I am not a financial expert, but hope this helps.

Excellent Sunil......3 possibly even cheaper options! In this case I guess the lot should be compared to see which provides the best compromise between trading facilities, dealing costs and any transfer costs involved, and then it should be problem sorted.

I do not know the background on this issue at Selftrade, but pressurising investors to be more active is somewhat counter-intuitive regarding a long term investment strategy and if I was forced into this situation I would be furious. Hence my immediate possible fix with i-dealing. If overhead costs can be removed completely, may be even better!

James

I am not a fianancial expert.

NOH.... the fees you mention at Selftrade are not excessive, thanks for this clarification. Fine, so I guess the main issue on this thread is being chased over trading inactivity as discussed above..

I am not a financial expert.

JamesU wrote: »

Hi, I have some shares which I bought through selftrade but due to them now charging me £40 a quarter / year (cant remember which now) for not doing any active trades I need to move to someone else.

I am currently not allowed to sell or buy any more of my shares. How to I go about transferring these to somewhere else and any recommendations on where I can move them where I dont have to pay a recurring free to "do nothing"?

Have a look at the i-dealing website and see what you think. The platform has not changed very much in approx 10yrs and it is a no-frills but reliable service. Straight forward and transparent £5 per quarter, with no other fees. Definitely no problem with inactivity, cash holdings etc and staff have always been helpful. Dealing fees are also reasonable (£9.90 plus stamp duty per trade) and trading is straight-forward. Electonic transfer of cash to standard or ISA accounts easy for additional funding. Only one fiddly bit and that is getting cash out by sending a withdrawal form by post and the funds are then sent electonically to your nominated bank without charges. Suitable for shares and etfs, not appropriate for funds though. They have in recent years introduced a £60 account closure fee which is a surprise, but this is more than compensated for by the low annual overhead on the fund and holdings.

If this is of interest, regarding how you can transfer your shares, go to the "forms section", and read "account/holdings transfer and instructions". You can also e-mail them any queries. This is one option which may provide an easy exit strategy for you. Others on the forum may have alternative suggestions also.

I am not a financial expert, but hope this helps.

I have some online accounts but when Selftrade changed hands their service became deplorable, their website was poor & despite me notifying them about lack of facilities & research &c they did not even reply to my messages. They then asked me to re-register which I took exception to & refused to do; they then froze my account so I transferred all my holdings to iDealing & have been happy with them since. They still send me emails despite the fact that my account is closed. :eek:

Regards,

N.;)