Equity ISA: pro?

codetown

Hello,
while the tax year end is coming to a close I am thinking to invest 4000£ on an equity mini ISA of some sort. While I have not done this investment in the past, I have no fear with risk at such (low) levels and would like to experiment a bit.

Before analysing specific products I would like to get a summary of pro/contra of investing in an equity mini ISA.

I would like to know in particular things like:
- what sort of products can go into a share/equity mini-ISA?
- can you buy this mini-ISA wherever you want?
- are there management charges associated with the ISA?
- what financial institutions are used mostly for equity isas nowadays?
- any recommendations of some good providers (besides the fund/equity itself).
[to put this question in context: having looked at Nationwide offering I find them pretty poor; they have a guaranteed product which gives poorish returns in comparison with a similar one from Post office plus some funds where annual maangement charges are already at the level of 1.5%; this seems a poor product to me]

cheerfulcat

Hello, codetown,

what sort of products can go into a share/equity mini-ISA?

Equities ( UK and international ), gilts, bonds, ETFs, unit trusts, OEICS and investment trusts.

can you buy this mini-ISA wherever you want?

Yes

are there management charges associated with the ISA?

Sometimes; it depends on the provider and, sometimes, the contents.

what financial institutions are used mostly for equity isas nowadays?

I suspect that most people use the ready-made bank and insurer products.If you want to control the investments, use a broker.

any recommendations of some good providers

Squaregain, without hesitation. £25 pa for the wrapper, £12.50 per transaction ( no brokerage fees if you buy ETFs ). Good customer service, including a board on TMF where they have a presence.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

cloud_dog

cheerfulcat wrote:

Squaregain, without hesitation. £25 pa for the wrapper, £12.50 per transaction ( no brokerage fees if you buy ITs ). Good customer service, including a board on TMF where they have a presence.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

Thanks Cheerful, I deal through Squaregain and didn't realise they had / sponsered a TMF board.

cloud_dog