BestInvest select

talexuser

For information on execution only, I take care of my partners and mothers accounts through BestInvest for FundsNetwork. Both are below 50 grand but together above.

I rang up to ask about their new select service (rebates above 50k) and was told the accounts could be linked, even though not at the same address. Thus I now get the annual commision rebated for both of them within the ISA for reinvestment... good news. Also was told that normally there is no switching fee, and for new money their normal initial discounts apply.

This has much advantage over FundsNetwork with no annual rebate and 0.25% switching fees. Best seem to be ahead of Allenbridge in this game.

smallfry27

I feel a bit in the dark about developments at BestInvest, despite being an existing customer and supposedly on the mailing list. Maybe my spam filter has been eating their monthly newsletter. Anyway, your post was the first I knew that this service had gone 'live'.

Looking at their revamped web site, it seems that any new investors will be pushed towards the Select Service option. The old Cofunds/Fundsnetwork platforms are not even mentioned as options. As far as I can tell you still can buy funds on those platforms, though I haven't actually tried yet. As I'm unlikely to have £50k anytime soon, I don't think the Select service is for me, and I feel a bit unwanted.

Does anyone know BI's plans for their CoFunds users ?

talexuser

smallfry27 wrote: »

I feel a bit unwanted.

If you are happy with execution only, I'm with Cavendish who rebate the full 0.5% per year within CoFunds for reinvestment if you wish for a one off payment of £25 when buying into a fund per new ISA year. Just work out what your commission rebate is to see if its worthwhile?

JohnRo

I've just signed up for their select service, primarily to hold several Vanguard trackers very cheaply.

There is one glaringly obvious and troubling aspect of their service imho. No unit price information is displayed via their web presence whatsoever on any funds.

Execution only is fine but the price blackout and foggy purchase, and presumably sale, details via third party involvement concerns me. I'm told by them, after enquiring specifically about this, that there is no way to see what the actual price I will pay for any fund is going to be before the purchase takes place.

me: I cannot see any way of determining via the website what price i will pay for any particular fund is that right?

me: I have placed orders in a range of funds and also wonder when those purchases will be made

them: Yes. Funds are purchased on a forward price. The deals will be placed around 11am. The funds are then priced at midday.

me: ok so if I login on any afternoon the fund price for that day will be available via the website?

them: The purchase will not show until the following day.

me: yeah i'm not being clear - if i want to purchase a new fund for example - is there any way for me to look at the unit price of that fund before buying on the best invest platform?

them: No, as these price at midday everyday. You will not know the price of the fund until it has been purchased.

me: ok thanks so it would require some third party pricing data to decide whether the current price is good value or not then?

them: Looking at the recent prices would help to determine this. But this will not guarantee the price you get.

me: no i'm realising this now, I will have to give it a go for a while and monitor the prices actually charged with those listed elsewhere.

me: thanks for that any way I just couldn't see any price data on the site and thought i wasn't looking hard enough

Sounds like a recipe for profiteering to me. I'm still on board with them but going to monitor the prices I pay very carefully. I have a gut feeling they're going to be over the top... :exclamati

rpc

JohnRo wrote: »

There is one glaringly obvious and troubling aspect of their service imho. No unit price information is displayed via their web presence whatsoever on any funds.

Execution only is fine but the price blackout and foggy purchase, and presumably sale, details via third party involvement concerns me. I'm told by them, after enquiring specifically about this, that there is no way to see what the actual price I will pay for any fund is going to be before the purchase takes place.

That is how forward pricing works. You place the order, commit your money and then get told the price you will pay per unit. All Bestinvest would be able to show is the last price of the fund (which some would argue is misleading - it will not be the price you buy at).

I don't really use the price information for OEICs (ITs, ETFs, etc are different). HL will tell me what the last price of a fund unit was, but that will not be the price I pay so why does it matter?

JohnRo

rpc wrote: »

That is how forward pricing works. You place the order, commit your money and then get told the price you will pay per unit. All Bestinvest would be able to show is the last price of the fund (which some would argue is misleading - it will not be the price you buy at).

I don't really use the price information for OEICs (ITs, ETFs, etc are different). HL will tell me what the last price of a fund unit was, but that will not be the price I pay so why does it matter?

It does at least give a ballpark expectation of a forward price and allows a judgement to be made on whether a regular contribution might be held back in cash if there is a sharp rise developing.

Rollinghome

JohnRo wrote: »

It does at least give a ballpark expectation of a forward price and allows a judgement to be made on whether a regular contribution might be held back in cash if there is a sharp rise developing.

HL used to irritate me because they seem not to update prices until early the following day but orders can't be placed after 8 am - so a fairly narrow window. Fidelity seem to update prices much sooner or you can look at the fund manager's website for the latest price - though some aren't as up to date as they could be.

psychic_teabag

The prices on trustnet tend to update earlier. Also on fundlistings.com IIRC

JohnRo

psychic_teabag wrote: »

The prices on trustnet tend to update earlier. Also on fundlistings.com IIRC

That's what I'll use thanks, I'd already bookmarked all the funds on trustnet, which come under their offshore universe for some reason.

It's just so I am able to make a call each month or so on whether to invest at the approximate price of the preceding days if it looks stable or falling and to hold off a while if recent price plots indicate a steep up trend.

JohnRo

They've stated fund purchases should complete within four working days and possibly an extra day for transactions to show in their online account portal.

All my purchases of Vanguard trackers to date have taken six days including the weekend.

I still have two of the nine Vanguard index fund purchases outstanding, from orders placed on the 27th Sept.

Bestinvest_representative

Hi,
I am one of the Senior Managers at Bestinvest and wanted to join the thread just to add some clarity behind some of the points here.
Firstly, thanks to rpc on your comments behind forward pricing. You are completely right in that the unfortunate pricing behind UT/OEIC's is because of the nature of them not being traded and the result being that there is only one price per day. All orders must be in before they set the price for the day so investors do not know the exact price they will receive on either the buy or sell side.
If, JohnRo, as you say you would like to give us a call at any time, we can always tell you what the previous price was so you can check and make a call each month.
Settlement for most funds is 4 working days, so I am surprised your Vanguard funds are not showing. If you wanted to give us a call and ask for me, I will investigate this for you.