Anyone here use X-O?

Derivative

I've been using share.com for a while and found that while the service is good, commissions do make it rather hard (2.5% total frictional cost per buy/sell cycle).

£6 flat rate sounds good, would put the percentage down to 1.7% for a 1k investment and 1.1% for 2k. Any complaints about their service? Hidden costs I should know about?

spike87

I've used them a few times over the past few months, no problems whatsoever. The whole service is very basic, no frills. The only thing I find a little annoying is that the buy/sell limits you can set have to be done every day as they're only valid for the day the limit is applied. Apart from that, I think they're pretty great.

chris_m

Seconded - never had a problem with them.

I think it's only the stop-losses that you have to enter daily, you can certainly set a "good through" buy/sell order to last for a specified time.

WaltD

I have been using them for 7 months and I have been 100% satisfied. No problems at all. I have a stocks and shares ISA with them also, and there is no annual fee which makes it very cost effective. The catch is that there is a closure fee of £50 if you decide to move your ISA to another provider.

When I first opened the account, it was necessary to have cash deposited with X-O to cover, in advance, the cost of any share purchases. However, after a few months, they upgraded my account to allow an extended settlement period and "credit" equal to the value of my total share holdings in the nominee account. (I have not used this facility yet, but it's nice to know it's available if needed.)

One slight inconvenience is that dividends are always paid as cash into your X-O share account. It is not possible to arrange for them to be paid out automatically to your bank account. Therefore, every time you want to withdraw income from your account it means sending an email requesting a BACS withdrawal.

Web access is very reliable. I can only recall one occasion in the past 7 months when I could not get into the web site. It's not very clear whether they would accept dealing instructions by telephone in the event that the web site was down or overloaded. I've never had the need to try it!

:cool:
WaltD

paulthepunk

The contact number is for the dealing desk, so you can deal over the phone if any problems. Its a very good, cheap service I find.

Regards,
Paul.

Jake'sGran

I have been using them for a long time. They don't charge for advice which I think is very good - although I have never asked for any.

I have some Centrica shares bought through them and recently noticed that with a dividend payment they bought ONE share which I didn't like but, apparently, I had asked for dividends to be reinvested. Now I let dividend cash accumulate for a short time until I decide what to buy.

They are a long established company and do give good service.