Fidelity Investments Stocks & Shares

denton007

Evening all,

I have been looking at Fidelity international, after it was suggested on the forum. I am looking to invest into a Stocks and shares ISA, I have narrowed my options to a few possible funds.

Fidelity Portfolio

Fidelity multi-manager Balanced or growth portfolio

I am still a bit unsure which of the portfolio would be the best/senseable option being NEW to these types of investments,
Has anyone had dealing or investments within Fidelity are they a good investment provider, are the portifolio's above a good step into the right direction.

You must get the picture???:eek:

Jonbvn

I use fidelity as a funds supermarket, which is fine for us. I cannot see any benefit in restricting yourself to only fidelity funds??

denton007

What type of fund would you suggest, not just limiting myself with fidelity???
I am looking for a fund manager to do the work for me, there is a large selection to choose from......NEW to stocks and shares

dunstonh

Using Fidelity means you are not getting any fund based discounts on the charges. In effect that's the same cost as getting an IFA to do it for you. If you want to DIY, then why not use a platform that at gives you some of the IFA earnings back?

Porcupine

If you want to use the Fidelity platform, look at going through BestInvest. They rebate most of the initial charges - they're effectively an IFA who it's cheaper to use than go to Fidelity direct.

Other people here use Hargreaves Lansdown as fund supermarket. Rough pros and cons:

H-L
+ Rebate almost all initial charges
+ Rebate small chunk of annual charges (eg 0.25%)
- Add an extra 0.5% annual fee for low cost funds (eg trackers)
+ Switching is fee-free, and they're fairly relaxed about minimum investments in switches

Fidelity via BestInvest
+ Rebate almost all initial charges (perhaps slightly less than H-L - check for your funds)
+ No extra fee for trackers
- 0.25% switch fee

The web interfaces are slightly different too - H-L shows you how much you paid for a holding on the current price screen, while for Fidelity that is buried in the transaction history.

Horses for courses really. I'd use Fidelity if I wanted a tracker-heavy portfolio, and H-L if I wanted one full of managed funds.