T D Waterhouse feee increase from 1st Nov

twokcc

Just got an e-mail advising that fees are increasing. Got one years s&s isa account which currently has zero fee if account balance is above £5k, (££10+vat per quarter if less than £5k and not traded in quarter). Quarter fee unceasing to £12.50+vat BUT this is now applied if balance below £7500. only have 2 shares in this ISA which are both long term holds for me so unless they increase in value by about 50% will now reduce in value by a fee of £50+vat p.a.

Not happy that balance is above 1 yrs ISA level this could hit a lot of ISA holders any one any suggestions where to move account.(p.s one share on Canadian stock exchange and not on Hargreaves Lansdowne shares)

ducky2004

Hi TwoKCC,

ISA accounts are not affected (limit still £5100 no fees) if you read the full price list.

I am particularly annoyed by FX changes and I have already emailed them and they say they WILL NOT offer free transfer out (as what SelfTrade agreed to do after much pressure from the forum and press).

TDWaterhouse is essentially the same service as Natwest BrokerLine (natwest has lower holding threshold, but higher per trade charge). Other broker like interative investor does not charge for ISA regardless of amount too.

TDWaterhouse is getting a bit sneaky now, and yes, Bank Of England think inflation will fall back to target.... yah right...

StevieJ

Do you need a normal trading account as well as an ISA account ?

temagami

TD Waterhouse is probably still your best option.

NatWest ISA is £25+VAT under £10,000 (and already charges 2% FX). The only point where it does better than TDW is having no inactivity fees above £2,000 account size for regular accounts (as Ducky2004 says, it's just a white label TDW service with different fees).

Alliance Trust and Stocktrade can deal in Canadian stocks, but both have admin fees that don't give a waiver for account size. Hargreaves Lansdown you say doesn't have the stock you want (which makes me dubious that Alliance Trust would either actually).

For reasons I don't understand, Barclays still doesn't allow foreign stocks in an ISA. It also has an admin charge that actually gets larger over £7,500.

Interactive Brokers and Saxo Bank don't offer ISAs, although are probably a better choice for international dealing than any of the others - they're not flat-fee, but their FX conversion rates are far better (0.01% IB and 0.5% Saxo). US$10,000-equivalent initial deposit for both and I reckon you need to trade about 1-3 times per quarter with IB to come out ahead after their minimum monthly commission, allowing for overall lower fees.

One of those two might start offering ISAs if enough people requested it - Saxo in particular is expanding its services a lot at the moment. I asked them a while back and it was under consideration - IB I got the impression had considered and decided probably not.

Debbie_A_3

Dear Twokcc,

I did not appreciate the increase in the FX fee. This means that the round-trip charge is 4%. This is not insignificant.

I can appreciate that cash fees may rise on account of inflation (though £10 to £12.50 is a lot of inflation). However a percentage is a percentage. Besides, it must cost a bank like TD next to nothing to electronically transfer from one currency to another.

Debbie (not best pleased but also unaware of a better way of investing directly in Canadian stocks)

myhouse_2

I like their service, but the quarterly charges hurt as I don't trade much. This latest increase has prompted me to get my finger out and quit them once and for all.

twokcc

ducky2004 wrote: »

Hi TwoKCC,

ISA accounts are not affected (limit still £5100 no fees) if you read the full price list.



TDWaterhouse is getting a bit sneaky now, and yes, Bank Of England think inflation will fall back to target.... yah right...

This is not clear from the e-mail I have received only have an isa account with them,will check it out.
Thanks
Ken

IronWolf

temagami wrote: »

TD Waterhouse is probably still your best option.

NatWest ISA is £25+VAT under £10,000 (and already charges 2% FX). The only point where it does better than TDW is having no inactivity fees above £2,000 account size for regular accounts (as Ducky2004 says, it's just a white label TDW service with different fees).

Alliance Trust and Stocktrade can deal in Canadian stocks, but both have admin fees that don't give a waiver for account size. Hargreaves Lansdown you say doesn't have the stock you want (which makes me dubious that Alliance Trust would either actually).

For reasons I don't understand, Barclays still doesn't allow foreign stocks in an ISA. It also has an admin charge that actually gets larger over £7,500.

Interactive Brokers and Saxo Bank don't offer ISAs, although are probably a better choice for international dealing than any of the others - they're not flat-fee, but their FX conversion rates are far better (0.01% IB and 0.5% Saxo). US$10,000-equivalent initial deposit for both and I reckon you need to trade about 1-3 times per quarter with IB to come out ahead after their minimum monthly commission, allowing for overall lower fees.

One of those two might start offering ISAs if enough people requested it - Saxo in particular is expanding its services a lot at the moment. I asked them a while back and it was under consideration - IB I got the impression had considered and decided probably not.

Interactive Investor (iii.co.uk) offer ISAs and are cheaper as far as I've seen. I haven't paid a single charge outside of broker fees since I opened it.