TD/II or iWeb

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  • bowlhead99
    bowlhead99 Posts: 12,295 Forumite
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    Yes, I agree there's no sudden impetus to change what they've been doing for about 15 years, but as rivals consolidate our change pricing, at some point there will be some bright spark who'll say "what are we doing with these low margin customers we inherited - wasn't the plan supposed to be to nudge them onto our other front end and price point?"

    If they said they were closing it and recommended everyone move to their Halifax Sharedealing site, they'd probably keep most of the customers given the fee structure is similar.

    The catalyst might be something as mundane as the person who coded the cheap-looking site finally retiring, or a Brexit impact on the bank causing every service line to justify their existence and IT bill and headcount etc.
  • Eco_Miser
    Eco_Miser Posts: 4,708 Forumite
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    bowlhead99 wrote: »
    Yes, I agree there's no sudden impetus to change what they've been doing for about 15 years, but as rivals consolidate our change pricing, at some point there will be some bright spark who'll say "what are we doing with these low margin customers we inherited - wasn't the plan supposed to be to nudge them onto our other front end and price point?"
    Given that at one point they raised the entry fee to £200, thus virtually guaranteeing no new customers, then dropped it back to £25, I imagine that they actually want these low margin customers - perhaps the typical customer trades rather more frequently than I do.
    Eco Miser
    Saving money for well over half a century
  • Gnoley
    Gnoley Posts: 9 Forumite
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    FWIW i've just switched to iWeb. I only held funds in an ISA with TD so it was effectively free, so the change in pricing model was a big increase in costs. I only buy once or twice a year. Monevator has just hosted an excellent platform comparison tool, sorry don't know how to link but easy to find on Google.
  • Alexland
    Alexland Posts: 9,653 Forumite
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    edited 20 November 2017 at 3:22PM
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    bowlhead99 wrote: »
    If they said they were closing it and recommended everyone move to their Halifax Sharedealing site, they'd probably keep most of the customers given the fee structure is similar.

    I reckon they might loose around 50% of their iWeb customers over 12 months if they moved them to the Halifax SD price structure. iWeb charges work so much better for Share, ETF and IT traders.

    Their best bet might be to reduce the trading fee on Halifax to around £7 and drop the ISA platform charge to £10 and then they could probably get 80%+ of the iWeb customers across and it would help reduce churn on the Halifax SD customers who might also start trading more often.

    I have never traded in my Halifax SIPP and just use it to hold an in speccie fund transfer. At £12.50 the trade button is so expensive I hope to never use it and it acts as a deterrent to the temptation to keep fiddling. I was thinking it might be visually stunning so logged in to look but it doesn't look more special or valuable than any other button. Maybe something amazing happens when you click it but I will probably never know.

    However they do it I remain of the view something will happen eventually as there are too many parallel brands in Lloyds banking group.

    Alex.
  • capital0ne
    capital0ne Posts: 872 Forumite
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    Gnoley wrote: »
    FWIW i've just switched to iWeb. I only held funds in an ISA with TD so it was effectively free, so the change in pricing model was a big increase in costs. I only buy once or twice a year. Monevator has just hosted an excellent platform comparison tool, sorry don't know how to link but easy to find on Google.
    I thought funds had a platform fee on the old TD platform at 0.35%, but trading was free
    And that shares, ETFs and ITs had no platform fees but a cost to trade.
  • EdGasketTheSecond
    EdGasketTheSecond Posts: 2,558 Forumite
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    bowlhead99 wrote: »
    But maybe the smarter question is how iWeb can sustain its business model when it charges nothing if you don't trade, compared to others that charge £90 a year flat fee or some percentage of assets etc.
    They make money from trades just like x-o who also charge nothing for holding your shares / ISA. Maybe low dealing cost platforms actract active traders. I place more than 10 trades a month so iWeb and x-o are ideal for me.
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 17,622 Forumite
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    edited 21 November 2017 at 2:45PM
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    bowlhead99 wrote: »
    See cloud_dog's comments.

    But maybe the smarter question is how iWeb can sustain its business model when it charges nothing if you don't trade, compared to others that charge £90 a year flat fee or some percentage of assets etc.

    Maybe they find people do actually trade as it's "only" £5. There are also small fees for reinvestment. I certainly trade less than I would with a "free" platform but I'm still saving a serious amount of money per year.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • aroominyork
    aroominyork Posts: 2,827 Forumite
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    edited 21 November 2017 at 10:29PM
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    It's time to leave HL whose platform made my entry into DIYing over the last five months really easy. I have our ISAs and SIPPs there and only make the occasional fund switch. I will miss HL's excellent Watchlist so I assume the thing to do is to open a regular share account with HL, buy one M&S share (my late grandfather would approve), set up my iWeb portfolio on the HL Watchlist and keep using it for information and monitoring? (Edit: just checked my funds on iWeb and they do not offer Lindsell Train or Sanlam so I guess it's II/TD for me.)
  • jamei305
    jamei305 Posts: 635 Forumite
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    bowlhead99 wrote: »
    Yes, I agree there's no sudden impetus to change what they've been doing for about 15 years, but as rivals consolidate our change pricing, at some point there will be some bright spark who'll say "what are we doing with these low margin customers we inherited - wasn't the plan supposed to be to nudge them onto our other front end and price point?"

    If they said they were closing it and recommended everyone move to their Halifax Sharedealing site, they'd probably keep most of the customers given the fee structure is similar.

    The catalyst might be something as mundane as the person who coded the cheap-looking site finally retiring, or a Brexit impact on the bank causing every service line to justify their existence and IT bill and headcount etc.

    I have just noticed that IWeb was dissolved earlier this month, so that might prompt something to happen through some internal process somehow.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,094 Community Admin
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    jamei305 wrote: »
    I have just noticed that IWeb was dissolved earlier this month, so that might prompt something to happen through some internal process somehow.
    The IWeb Share Dealing Service is operated by Halifax Share Dealing Limited. Let us know when Halifax Share Dealing Limited is dissolved!
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