Stocks and Shares ISA

angel001

Any comments welcome. I'm interested to know others' views on stocks and shares ISAs. I have used up my cash allowance (becoming a real moneysaver now:money:) and considering a stocks and shares ISA.

I had saved a little monthly in a unit trust for the past 10 years and ended up making a loss so wondering if it's even worth considering a stocks and shares ISA at all.

If it is, where would anyone suggest I would start to look for a good one?

Thanks :T

jon3001

'Stocks and shares' is a poor name for this ISA. You can also invest elsewhere with lower risk.

If you have a low risk tolerance you can look at investing in gilts and corporate bonds. These are basically loans to the government or companies. You can see some example funds in one of my other posts.

If time is on your side (>5 yrs) it's still worth looking at riskier assets such as stock-based investments though.

barny_100

angel001 wrote: »

I had saved a little monthly in a unit trust for the past 10 years and ended up making a loss so wondering if it's even worth considering a stocks and shares ISA at all.

If you haven't sold the units yet you haven't actually "made" a loss yet. One bad experience shouldn't put you off investing altogether as otherwise your money will likely never grow in real terms.

Aegis

Why the co-op? Why not a good stocks and shares ISA provider? The co-op charge 1.5% on all lump sum investments (currently discounted from the 5% rate which still applies to regular investments). A specialist stocks and shares ISA provider like Hargreaves Lansdown charges 0% on most unit trusts and OEICs, and that's all the time rather than a short-term discount. They also have access to probably thousands of times more investment selections than the Co-op if you include the OEICs, unit trusts, shares, etfs, investment trusts, etc.

All in all the Co-op has little going for it when it comes to investments.