Low cost Stocks & Shares (Investment) ISAs: The Best Currently Available List!

JohnRo

This turned into a bit of a rant so I apologise in advance but I think it's worth mentioning that the Fidelity fundsnetwork platform made available via Cavendish appears to be an extremely "lite" version of their full platform.

I don't have access to the full platform so cannot make an objective comparison but here are some of the features I assume are missing from the platform that Fidelity make available to Cavendish Online clients.

There is no cash statement

There is no facility to see what proportion of the total valuation shown is investment valuation and what is cash held on account.

There is no indication shown anywhere of profit or loss relating to investments.

I hope this makes sense; because no cash element is shown anywhere it requires the use of third party websites like morning star or trustnet to track investments using the dealing dates (which requires quite laborious clicking through each line of stock) and the displayed units held. The investment cost they show is misleading because it seems to include the cash surplus held on the account and the unit price shown on the summary is current and doesn't relate to the units held.

To resolve such things requires the calculation of units held and dealing date valuations subtracted from the investment amount they show because that value seems to include any portion that was unused and is being held in cash.

To compound the confusion the calculations show that some funds have higher amounts invested (as per units held) at dealing day than the amount indicated on the web portal. Still waiting for response to that.

All a bit of a mess really. I haven't found a single platform yet that just does what you'd expect, simply, and display all relevant details in a clear and concise way.

It just requires a clear display showing stock description, date purchased, price paid, units held, current valuation, and profit loss. With a detailed cash on account statement

Best invest have easily the most effective web portal for displaying the relevant info clearly imo, might not be the most polished and slick looking but who cares if it's more informative, that said the login time out on their website is way too quick and the site itself is sluggish, which is fitting because they are so slow at processing and dealing it's ridiculous.

jimjames

My ISA is with Cavendish via Cofunds and my wife's is with Cavendish via Fidelity. I've been surprised by the lack of some features such as even being able to see all recent transactions. From what I can see you are able to view transactions by investment but if you have sold all units of an investment it no longer appears in the list so you can't view them. Maybe there is a way round it but I consider myself fairly IT literate and didn't find it at all intuitive.

IronWolf

You should include SaxoBank in the list, after searching for a long time I found them to be the best place for me. Wide selection of international shares, no FX charges and low fees.

jimjames

IronWolf wrote: »

You should include SaxoBank in the list, after searching for a long time I found them to be the best place for me. Wide selection of international shares, no FX charges and low fees.

They may be for shares but don't look very competitive for funds.

£35 pa plus 0.5% is double the best discount brokers.

JohnRo

jimjames wrote: »

My ISA is with Cavendish via Cofunds and my wife's is with Cavendish via Fidelity. I've been surprised by the lack of some features such as even being able to see all recent transactions. From what I can see you are able to view transactions by investment but if you have sold all units of an investment it no longer appears in the list so you can't view them. Maybe there is a way round it but I consider myself fairly IT literate and didn't find it at all intuitive.

Jim I don't know if this is relevant because I'm very new to the platform (only started at the beginning of this month) but there is an option in the "Fidelity fundsnetwork via Cavendish" web portal to show zero value holdings. Whether that's the solution you're looking for I have no clue though.

Your Profile > Currency & Holdings settings > Nil Value Holdings > yes / no

coastline

IronWolf wrote: »

You should include SaxoBank in the list, after searching for a long time I found them to be the best place for me. Wide selection of international shares, no FX charges and low fees.

some recent research here..

http://monevator.com/find-the-best-online-broker/

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

IronWolf

jimjames wrote: »

They may be for shares but don't look very competitive for funds.

£35 pa plus 0.5% is double the best discount brokers.

The £35 fee is waived if you have an invest account which is free. I wouldn't use them if I held a lot of funds though.

coastline wrote: »

some recent research here..

http://monevator.com/find-the-best-online-broker/

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

Very useful thanks, but doesn't include SaxoBank unless I've missed it. Also doesn't really go into international dealing charges and the FX charges which are usually hidden.

grey_gym_sock

the monevator comparison is focused on what's useful to passive investors - though it will probably be useful to other ppl, too. but it's mainly about funds and ETFs. international dealing doesn't really come into it.

i'd agree saxo bank would add something to this thread's guide. it's pretty thorough about both funds and shares. but who's cheapest for international shares can be different than for UK shares, as FX charges are often significant.

waiax73

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

rplan

[FONT=Times Newbr / Roman]Fees: They keep up to 50% of the trail commission (capped at £15 per month)
Discount / Rebate: All of the initial commission and at least 50% of the trail commission (see above)
Platform: Cofunds
[/FONT]Other: If your annual commission rebate is less than £720 then you will get a better deal with Clubfinance. If your annual commission rebate is more than £720 then you get a better deal with rplan.
MSE Forum User Opinions / Experiences: Thread 1

FYI, they've reduced the cap from £15/month to £5 month at the beginning of Feb 2013.
Here's the link to their pricing model: http://www.rplan.co.uk/Pages/help/rplan-charges

Cheers to other happy rplanner's! :-)

Special_Saver2

Thanks, I have updated the entry on rplan with the new, lower £5 per month cap.

As for Saxo Bank, I have looked at them before but they did not have an ISA account (and still do not, as far as I can see). This thread is just about stocks and shares ISA accounts.

For accounts that are good for international share dealing, have a look at the International Investor site links that I have put in the first post of this thread.

SS2