Self Select ISA and SIPP

barrooo

Come the new tax year, I've decided I'm going to start scaling into stocks etc again, and I'm thinking of opening a SS ISA and maybe a SIPP as well.

So my question is can anyone recommend a provider, hopefully with low dealing costs, ideally it would be good if you have products with the company/s suggested and so first hand experience of the overall package/s

Aegis

Hargreaves Lansdown are excellent if you're looking for a fund supermarket with a SIPP and S&S ISA wrappers available.

cloud_dog

Aegis wrote: »

Hargreaves Lansdown are excellent if you're looking for a fund supermarket with a SIPP and S&S ISA wrappers available.

Would second the H&L SIPP but, think they may not be quite as competitive on costs / charges for a S&S ISA.

Possibly consider TD Waterhouse or SelfTrade. There are other cheaper ones, iii, Fool, Halifax, etc (not sure if they all use the Halifax platform?) but it depends how high you rate service when the proverbial hits the fan.

cloud_dog

Aegis

cloud_dog wrote: »

Would second the H&L SIPP but, think they may not be quite as competitive on costs / charges for a S&S ISA.

Possibly consider TD Waterhouse or SelfTrade. There are other cheaper ones, iii, Fool, Halifax, etc (not sure if they all use the Halifax platform?) but it depends how high you rate service when the proverbial hits the fan.

cloud_dog

Depends what you're buying really. That's why I suggested that HL were excellent as a fund supermarket. For trackers, etfs, shares and investment trusts, there are better places to go, but for the majority of unit trusts and oeics, I have yet to find anywhere cheaper on execution only.

barrooo

For trackers, etfs, shares and investment trusts,

This is what I'm looking for really, I want to invest in ETFs for indicies, commodities, and also individual shares.

tradetime

barrooo wrote: »

This is what I'm looking for really, I want to invest in ETFs for indicies, commodities, and also individual shares.

Though I am loathed to suggest them, TD Waterhouse may be as good as anybody else in that area, the account is fairly easy to setup, and the customer support seem willing, but that's about as far as i can go.
That comment is in relation to their S&S ISA btw.

barrooo

tradetime wrote: »

Though I am loathed to suggest them, TD Waterhouse may be as good as anybody else in that area

Cheers for that, I was thinking about opening up a spread bet account with them a while back, but I didn't like the platform or their speed of execution. Hopefully that might not be a problem as I'm looking at 'investing' rather than 'trading'

tradetime

barrooo wrote: »

Cheers for that, I was thinking about opening up a spread bet account with them a while back, but I didn't like the platform or their speed of execution. Hopefully that might not be a problem as I'm looking at 'investing' rather than 'trading'

To me it's really out of the stoneage, though as you say, from an investing perspective it's adequate, my beef with them wasn't from a disgruntled trader's perspective, I would only ever trade through accounts designed for that, but rather that I am very familiar with US listed ETF's and therefore those are what I wished to stick to, particular given the dismal selection available on the LSE. But seemingly they cannot give online quotes or accept orders for US listed ETF's, you have to phone them in. We are still in discussion over that currently.

barrooo

But seemingly they cannot give online quotes or accept orders for US listed ETF's, you have to phone them in. We are still in discussion over that currently.

Let me know how that goes, as I myself don't want to be constricted to only London based listings

tradetime

barrooo wrote: »

Let me know how that goes, as I myself don't want to be constricted to only London based listings

Hi barrooo

It's been a bit of a pain, as their website does not indicate that this would be a problem, I'd say the opposite actually.
Initially they said you could not place orders in US etf's as they could not give quotes for them online, I replied that that was no problem, I have my own quotes for all US listed equities and would only place orders based on my market quotes, not third party quote whether delayed platform quotes or telephone, and I did not expect to pay telephone order prices for orders that had to be made that way because their website was incapable of accepting them.
So far I have been told over the phone, that they will give me online rates for a telephone orders on these type of shares, (am talking about things like GLD, DBN, SEA, KOL, USL etc. Just so you know the sort of things I am talking about here, standard US listed ETF's) Subsequent to that I have had an e-mail reply as follows,

Dear Mr XXXX

Thank you for your email dated 26 February 2009 regarding International trading.

You should be able to buy/sell most stock which is traded on the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges, however you are not able to trade ETFs or over the counter stock within the ISA wrapper. Please let us know which stock you are looking at purchasing and we will be able to confirm whether they can be held within an ISA and if they can be traded online.

With regard to the + / - spread :
when we get the real time quote from TD securities for say GBP/USD it could be 1.41 - 1.42. so with our spread on top it would work out to be about

1.41 * 1.5%= 0.02115
so 1.41 - 0.02115 = 1.38885

on the other side 1.42 * 1.55% = 0.0213
1.42 + 0.0213 = 1.4413

so if you would like to convert £1 to USD we use 1.38885
and if you want $1 to gbp we use 1.4413

The spread is the difference between the buy/sell so the spread is currently 1.41 - 1.42.

This does apply to every time you trade, as the account you are referring to is an ISA account you are not able to hold foreign currencies and as such any dividends are converted to sterling.

If you have any further queries regarding the FX rates you may wish to contact an international dealer on 0845 607 6006, who will be able to help.

If you have any other queries please do not hesitate to call us on 0845 607 6001, Monday to Friday, 07.30 - 21.00 and Saturday, 09.00 - 15.00.

Yours sincerely

XXXX XXXX
Customer Service Representative

which then seems to confuse the issue by apparently suggesting that ETF's cannot be traded in an ISA, which we know is untrue, so I suspect that is mis-worded. I would draw your attention to how they calcualte their FX currency rates for such transactions, that may give you pause.
I will post back any updates I get, I am replying to this e-mail now.

tradetime

barrooo wrote: »

Let me know how that goes, as I myself don't want to be constricted to only London based listings

Ok here we go, my last letter to them

Dear XXX XXXX

Thank you for your reply, sorry for my delayed response but I was picking myself up off the floor after reading you explanation of the FX conversion, but I shall return to that later.

With regard to the following
"however you are not able to trade ETFs or over the counter stock within the ISA wrapper."
I find that strange since in fact many ETF's can be traded within an ISA, I currently hold 3 now, all UK listed though.

If there is a restriction on which ETF's can be held within an ISA, then there must be some criteria for determining this ie: No curreny ETF's, or no Fixed Income ETF's. etc. Can you direct me to where this criteria is, it would save a lot of time?

I spoke to a customer service rep on the telephone, two to be precise, upon discovering that your website could not handle orders for US listed ETF's and was told I could telephone orders for these securities and receive online commission rates, is this a policy, or something made up on the spot, as I would not want to have to go through lengthy telephone conversations explaining all this everytime I wanted to place an order for such an instrument?

"Please let us know which stock you are looking at purchasing and we will be able to confirm whether they can be held within an ISA and if they can be traded online."

That would possibly be a little impractical in its entirety, however I can give you some examples so you get the idea.

The Wisdom Tree family of ETF's, an example would be:
WisdomTree International Basic Materials Sector Fund: Ticker symbol DBN trades on the NYSEArca

The Proshares family of ETF's, an example would be:
The ProShares UltraShort S&P500: Ticker symbol SDS trades on NYSEArca

The PowerShares family of ETF's, an example would be:
The PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund: Ticker symbol DBA trades on the NYSEArca

The Market Vectors family of ETF's, an example would be:
The Market Vector's Agribusiness ETF: Ticker symbol MOO trades on the NYSEArca

as I have said this is a sample of the ETF's that I am familiar with, and may consider buying under an ISA wrapper.

The really odd thing (one of the many) is that if I type the symbol for one of these on your order ticket, the instrument will appear as listed underneath in the selection menu that appears, but obviously when I select it it all goes awry, but clearly your system recognises these instruments, if it is just a pricing issue, thenI can assure you I have my own price quotes and do not rely on yours in any case.

On the subjest of your FX conversion, thank you for that detailed explanation, had I not seen it explained so well I never would have imagined your rates to be so shockingly bad. This might look great for someone who's only experience of FX is the high street holiday money bucket shops, but for someone who trades FX from time to time your spread expressed in pips is a monster in trading terms. Please don't be offended, as I know you are simply answering a customer support request, for which I thank you, but your company effectively gouges an extra 3% out of its customers simply for profit even on a bid / ask of 1.4100 x 1.4200 there's 100 pips there already without a 3% surcharge.


Regards, XXX XXXX

and thier reply recieved this afternoon, so quick customer service, credit where credit due!

Dear XXX XXXX

Thank you for your reply.

You can not trade any US ETF'S within the ISA wrapper therefore all the stock you have mentioned do not qualify o be held within the ISA wrapper. There is no criteria for determining which other ETF'S can be held. You can trade some ETF'S on line and any that are not available online may be tradeable via the telephone but this will be at telephone rates.

I appreciate that this may seem confusing but we do have to be careful with stock held within the ISA wrapper. It is always best to check with our contact centre or you can email stock names and we will check that they are qualifying for you.

With regards to obtaining a price quote, if you click on the stock name and then click on a different part of the page the quote should appear, please let me know if this has answered the question.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to either email or call us on 0845 607 6001, Monday to Friday, 07.30 - 21.00 and Saturday, 09.00 - 15.00.


Yours sincerely


XXX XXXX
Customer Service Representative