Australian share-dealing advice needed, please.

edwinjbernard

I've been lurking on this board for a couple of weeks and find the advice extremely useful. Thank you all!

In order to satisfy the requirements of my new Nationwide interest-only remortgage I want to set up a self-select ISA. I had been thinking of investing in equities and ETFs for a while, so this is fine (although there aren't a lot of tax advantages for equities or ETFs inside an ISA, given that I pay basic rate tax).

There are some specific shares I'd like to buy that are only available on the Australian stock exchange (the stocks are also traded on the Frankfurt XETRA , but I've checked and they don't settle in CREST). I've discovered that TDWaterhouse can access the AXS, but I don't like their ISA fees (£35.25, rising to £70.50 once you have more than £7001 invested).

I'd rather have a self-select ISA with idealing (who have the lowest trading fees, but the most limited stock choices), or Selftrade (who offer ETF's commission-free), since they charge a maximum of £20 or £25 p.a. for any amount in an ISA.

Does anyone know if I can buy the shares from TD Waterhouse and then transfer them in. Since ASX isn't in CREST will this be a problem? How can I overcome it? If I can transfer them in, do I have to have bought them under the ISA wrapper?

At the moment, I'm thinking that I should either not bother with these ASX shares (despite me thinking they are a potentially excellent investment), or else hold them outside of an ISA with TD Waterhouse and have a separate ISA trading account with Selftrade or idealing.

If anyone has any ideas, or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Edwin