Share Trading and the Share Centre

highhorse_2

Morning all,

I'd like to set up a share dealing account. I haven't done it before and I'm only going to dabble with about £2,500

I read the article on here and I really want a low cost broker that just facilitates the trading for me (I want to pick the shares I want to buy) and Martin has recommended the Share Centre.

Now, has anyone had any positive experiences of these guys or can anyone recommend a good alternative?

I only ask ( and I know this is stupid) but when you visit their site it takes an age to load up. Now working for an online business I know how easy it is to build a good and effective site - and how hard it actually is to build a site that doesn't perform. so when it takes an ages to load alarms bells start ringing all over my head!!!

thanks

Horse

highhorse_2

So 25 views and no one has used the Share Centre - well that speaks volumes as it is!


who do you guys use???

Horse

Jake'sGran

I only use the Share Centre for buying and selling (rarely). It is easy to use their site, finding prices and their weekly recommendations. I found that they respond quickly to messages. My brother recommended them. He never used any other broker.

I did find that my own choices did better than some of their recommendations. Like a lot of others I use Hargreaves Lansdown for buying funds as The Share Center are a bit more expensive overall. One thing I noticed was that they were buying extra shares with dividends - my fault of course because I had ticked the wrong box. Now, I have the dividends accumulate and then choose whichever share I want after adding extra money with my debit card.

I believe their price for buying (£7.50) has been beaten now but, off-hand, I can't remember the annual fee. The tables they provide
give as much information as you would want.

Apologies for not sending an earlier response but I didn't see your post earlier.

Ifts

I have and do use the Share Centre. I have never experienced any problems with the speed of their site, if anything its quite fast compared with other broker websites and easy to navigate around.

The Share Centre customer service is very good, phones answered quickly and politely.

The only thing I will say is their trading charges are not as competitive as others, and its because of this reason I have also recently opened a dealing account with X-O.co.uk where it is £5.95 per trade.

If you are only going to have a dabble with small amounts of money, maybe go for X-O.co.uk and get to trade at £5.95 and keep your costs down.

Or you could have a practice first without committing real money.
Here is the link for the Share Centre: Practice trading shares with FREE practice account, you will have to register but its free.

Ifts

Just like to add if you want to benefit from the Share Centre's Frequent dealer option and get to trade at £7.50 commission per trade. You will have to pay the Frequent dealer option charge £20.00 + VAT per quarter and also £2.50 + VAT quarterly admin fee.

Annual charge £108 (£96 Frequent dealer option + £12 Admin fee)

highhorse_2

Thank you guys that was really really useful.

I really wasnt that sure about them, so its always good to get some feedback from actual users

D

BLB53

As an alternative, have a look at Interactive Investor. If you use their portfolio builder trades are only £1.50 (otherwise £10 per trade)

highhorse_2

BLB53 wrote: »

As an alternative, have a look at Interactive Investor. If you use their portfolio builder trades are only £1.50 (otherwise £10 per trade)

Is there a minimum investment? I really have no idea what I am doing or talking about as far as share trading is concerned - as far as I would be aware a portfolio is just a collection of individual share - is that right?

so what would be the difference between an portfolio builder and just buying a collection of share?

I really am an idiot as far as all this is concerned

thanks for the help

westy22

so what would be the difference between an portfolio builder and just buying a collection of share?

There is no difference - it's just their name for a regular monthly investment on a set date each month. When I say 'regular' you can vary the amount each month (including zero); change the shares you want to buy; and even vary the date of the investment. The thing you can't alter is the price you pay for those shares on the day you have chosen - that will be the mid price on that day.

Andy303

Dear highhorse,

I've just invested a similar amount using SVS securities execution only account. They charge £5.95 per trade and is only £1 Per trade in the first 30 days meaning you only end up paying the 0.5% stamp duty, which you would have to pay anyway. Advice on investing can be sourced from the Internet at large so if you just want cheap dealing fees then I would recommend. Plus, there is no annual charge. Hope this helps.

Andrew

Jim431

There seems to be frequent questions about which is the lowest charging broker.

I don't use one of the cheapest but instead use one that does fast transfers between my current account and my trading account.

One question that I always wonder about is whether or not the low cost brokers offer the best quote when you do a trade. Or if they recover their costs by loading the quote. Now that would be an interesting comparison to test out.