ISA help please

TerryP

Hello, Like many I am considering going into stocks & shares ISA's due to poor interest rates on our cash ISA's. A friend of mine directed me to the "This is Money" website. I am looking at Invesco Perpetual (only because my friend says they have done well for him. From the website I can buy ISA's direct and save the 5% commision fee. I don't know if that is just for the first year, or if I can transfer my cash ISA into these SS ISA's. Their is a helpline, but if I use this facility I forego the 5% discount. If I buy these will I be able to watch their progress online ?, and top up next tax year etc. Sorry, so many questions but I havn't a clue what I am getting into at the moment. I was proposing to put my yearly ISA allowance into several of these IP funds. I have attached a link to the webpage, any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. many thanks.....Just discovered I cannot as a new user use a link in my post. Hopefully some forum useres will have used "This is Money" and know what I am talking about !!



Terry P

Reaper

Sounds like you are trying to buy directly from the fund managers, Invesco Perpetual in this case.

Although buying direct might soumd like a good idea it generally isn't. It is both cheaper and more flexible to go through a fund supermarket. An popular example is Hargeaves Landsdown. You can choose from a huge range of funds and switch between them later if you feel the need. They give good discounts on funds, though not so good if you want to buy individual shares or ETFs.


EDIT: Ah I see what you are looking at. "This is money" is a newpaper site but they have a tie in with a broker here:
http://www.sfsinvestdirect.co.uk/thisismoney/
They do indeed discount the initial commission but Hargreaves Landsdown pip them at the post by offering a small refund on the annual fee too.

TerryP

This is through a company called SFS invest direct, I dont know if this is a supermarket ?.

ermine

only because my friend says they have done well for him

So you are going to chase momentum, ie buy what has already done well. You might want to do more research, perhaps into the theory of reversion to the mean, which indicates that isn't always wise.

I am considering going into stocks & shares ISA's due to poor interest rates on our cash ISA's.

Before buying any investment, you must have an idea of what you want from it. What do you want? Income to supplement your wages? Growth of the total sum to pay for your son's university fees or your world cruis in 10 years?

Do you simply want ot beat inflation? National Savings Index Linked Certificates would enable you to do that for a year, by which time you could have done the research to find out what you want your money to do for you when you invest it.

At the moment you are focusing on the means and not the end.

TerryP

The idea is to build the fund every year to eventually use the money in our retirement, maybe the fund would be growing for 10 or more years. Longer if we did not need it.