Low Cost Execution Only Share Dealing

cmorgan091

Hi everyone.

Just looking to engage the wisdom of the board for advice on the preferred brokers for share dealing.

I started off with HL (11.95 a trade) and have recently been using Motley Fool Share Dealing (10.00 a trade) who have been offering a special offer over the past few Monday's where trades are 3.50 a pop, which I benefited from.

I am now looking at options out there and wanted to get a feel of how they are perceived and if there are better options out there. The ones I am looking at are:

x-o = £5.95 share dealing

SVS Securities = £5.75 and £1 for the first 30 days

What are people's experiences with these two and are there any others I should be considering? Please note that I am not using an ISA (as fully invested for this year) and only looking at share dealing not funds (as these are separate).

Cheers

Chris

Reaper

I use XO simply because they were the cheapest at the time. I probably would have used SVS if they were around then.

As long as you are planning to only buy shares quoted on the London stock exchange and don't mind a no frills, minimalist web site then they do the job well.

cmorgan091

Thanks for that Reaper. Do you (or anyone else) have any views on spreading shares around several different brokers? I personally can't see any benefit with a particular loyalty to one company and also for the very long term I understand the FSCS protection is 50k per company. Are there any issues with using multiple companies dependant on who is the cheapest at the time?

JamesU

cmorgan091 wrote: »

I am now looking at options out there and wanted to get a feel of how they are perceived and if there are better options out there

Special_saver's excellent updated link on this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/42607054#Comment_42607054

JamesU

wastedtalent

cmorgan091 wrote: »

Thanks for that Reaper. Do you (or anyone else) have any views on spreading shares around several different brokers? I personally can't see any benefit with a particular loyalty to one company and also for the very long term I understand the FSCS protection is 50k per company. Are there any issues with using multiple companies dependant on who is the cheapest at the time?

You would still own the shares even if the company you bought them through went bust.

cmorgan091

Thanks guys, that link to special_savers thread was great, it should be made a sticky

bugbyte_2

I once owned shares in Santander, and when I came to sell them I sold them through their own broker, which cost A LOT more than the flat rates being mentioned.

Possible stupid question - Can you buy shares through one broker and sell through another broker depending on who is the cheapest at the time?

cmorgan091

Hi Bugbyte,
Not directly, however you can transfer shares between brokers (although you have to check for charges applicable here) and then sell through the new broker.
C

Ark_Welder

cmorgan091 wrote: »

Thanks for that Reaper. Do you (or anyone else) have any views on spreading shares around several different brokers? I personally can't see any benefit with a particular loyalty to one company and also for the very long term I understand the FSCS protection is 50k per company. Are there any issues with using multiple companies dependant on who is the cheapest at the time?

I use more than one platform just on the off-chance that there are 'delays' with withdrawing any income that I might want to take - just my extra level of caution!

The only downside to this - if it can even be called that - is that I end up with more than one consolidated tax certificate at the end of the tax year, so I have to add up figures to put them on my tax return. It's a hard life...:)

Plus, the pretty graphs and pie charts of my 'porftolio' breakdown are a tad irrelevant!

cmorgan091

Thanks for that Ark Welder, I now have 6 accounts with 3 platforms (in both mine and my wifes names) to manage, luckily I am an IT geek and creating Excel spreadsheets with lots of pivot tables and pretty graphs is almost fun for me! Hmmm, sounds a bit sad when I write it down like that, hurry up wife and get home, save me from myself!

cmorgan091

Oh and all of those accounts have been opened since August... decided to finally sort out my financial future and it coincided with the recent "dip" in the market, so it seemed like the perfect time to start to invest and learning lessons everyday!