Top Junior ISAs guide: discussion

reg091

Is there anywhere you can see how S&S JISAs have performed over the years? Of course I know investments can go down as well as up etc. but if I am considering opening a JISA with, say, Fidelity, or Nutmeg I want to see how they have performed each year. If it comes to a straight choice between companies charging the same fees then it would be useful info to have.

eskbanker

reg091 said:

Is there anywhere you can see how S&S JISAs have performed over the years? Of course I know investments can go down as well as up etc. but if I am considering opening a JISA with, say, Fidelity, or Nutmeg I want to see how they have performed each year. If it comes to a straight choice between companies charging the same fees then it would be useful info to have.

S&S JISAs don't perform as such, but the investments selected within them do - the JISA itself is just a wrapper, an important distinction to understand when starting off down this path.  What specifically would you plan to invest in?

reg091

eskbanker said:

S&S JISAs don't perform as such, but the investments selected within them do - the JISA itself is just a wrapper, an important distinction to understand when starting off down this path.  What specifically would you plan to invest in?

Ah, yes of course, that makes sense! And makes it more complicated. Maybe I need to find that information for the low, medium, high risk categories for each provider - if they are even comparable that way.
I was really trying to get some sort of average to decide if the fees would take too much to make it worth it. For example if the average returns were 2% and the fees 1.5% then I would better off in a cash JISA. (Obviously every year will be different hence looking for history to get an average, and I fully realise that a crystal ball is needed for the future). 
Come to think of it an average across all providers might suffice.

Alexland

reg091 said:

Ah, yes of course, that makes sense! And makes it more complicated. Maybe I need to find that information for the low, medium, high risk categories for each provider - if they are even comparable that way.

Where the platform offers industry standard investment options then the performance is likely to be comparable on the Trustnet Charting Tool so you can compare the thousands of investments that Fidelity offer over the past 5, 10, 20, etc years if the investment has been running that long.

Nutmeg do a bespoke (and in my view entirely unnecessary) robo ETF portfolio so the performance of each customer account will be slightly different but they do publish some typical performance data however it's hobbled by their high fees.

More affordable multi asset fund series (such as Vanguard LifeStrategy or HSBC Global Strategy) are available in various tax wrappers from their direct platforms (or one that offers a broader choice such as Fidelity) and typically contain a mix of equities (company shares) and bonds (fixed income) to achieve a desired volatility profile. These are usually expressed as percentages (or phrases) to indicate how much of the fund is 'adventurous' equities compared to dull bonds.

For equites then I would expect around 4% pa and bonds maybe 1% pa before fees although that's over a long time period with lots of volatility along the way. As you get closer to the withdrawal date you may want to increase the proportion of bonds to get more certainty of outcome - however to outperform the enhanced rates available on Cash JISAs you would need to accept a lot of volatility and keep fees very low so running a low to medium risk S&S JISA probably isn't worth it at the moment so you might just chose a good moment to transfer back to cash a few years before withdrawal.

Alex

reg091

Thanks for the detailed advice Alex. Much appreciated. I shall mull over my options.

ratechaser

Well, after saying that I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of form filling and ID requirements for a non-online JISA, I've finally bitten the bullet and sent in the Coventry BS applications for my 2 cherubs, hoping that 3 weeks is about right to get their current money transferred from NS&I.

I'll be mightily irritated, although probably not surprised, if Coventry announces a rate drop soon, as they are going to be the market leader by some margin after the NS&I drop.

reg091

ratechaser said:

Well, after saying that I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of form filling and ID requirements for a non-online JISA, I've finally bitten the bullet and sent in the Coventry BS applications for my 2 cherubs, hoping that 3 weeks is about right to get their current money transferred from NS&I.

I'll be mightily irritated, although probably not surprised, if Coventry announces a rate drop soon, as they are going to be the market leader by some margin after the NS&I drop.

LOL. Same here (well, the application pack arrived today). I am not paying £12.95 to get the Post Office to certify my id docs so Coventry can have the originals in the post! Nearest branch is 20 miles away despite me living in a very large town which has all of the usual building societies in the high street.
With you on holding my breath on them dropping the interest rate and will be doubly annoyed if they do as I actually transferred FROM them to NS&I in March!

ratechaser

reg091 said:

ratechaser said:

Well, after saying that I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of form filling and ID requirements for a non-online JISA, I've finally bitten the bullet and sent in the Coventry BS applications for my 2 cherubs, hoping that 3 weeks is about right to get their current money transferred from NS&I.

I'll be mightily irritated, although probably not surprised, if Coventry announces a rate drop soon, as they are going to be the market leader by some margin after the NS&I drop.

LOL. Same here (well, the application pack arrived today). I am not paying £12.95 to get the Post Office to certify my id docs so Coventry can have the originals in the post! Nearest branch is 20 miles away despite me living in a very large town which has all of the usual building societies in the high street.
With you on holding my breath on them dropping the interest rate and will be doubly annoyed if they do as I actually transferred FROM them to NS&I in March!

Well certification wasn't an issue for us, we have bankers and teachers for friends so easy enough to tap one of them up, plus it was only a copy of the passport needed for the children given I'd started the application process on the phone (so they did a soft search to verify me as the parent).

And it was pretty quick to open - got the pack last Saturday, sent it back Monday, and got confirmation of the new accounts back in the post yesterday. 

I bet the transfer will take quite a bit longer given the problems NS&I seem to be having right now, so I'm just going to have to watch to see when the balance drops to zero and then call Coventry to get a statement sent out to confirm they have the money...

All a bit quaint, but if it puts some people off applying then maybe they won't be sitting on a mountain of cash and have to drop the rate as a result!

reg091

Coventry dropped rate?

I see from the MSE table of best JISA that Coventry BS is now 2.25%. I transferred to it last November when it had the top rate of 2.89 and assumed that if they dropped their rate THEY WOULD LET ME KNOW!!

When did this happen? Did anyone with Coventry get notification?

If they had told me I would have transferred to a higher payer so I have lost money. As this is totally down to their not telling me then I expect them to pay that money.

Bernard_Coleslaw

reg091 said:

Coventry dropped rate?

I see from the MSE table of best JISA that Coventry BS is now 2.25%. I transferred to it last November when it had the top rate of 2.89 and assumed that if they dropped their rate THEY WOULD LET ME KNOW!!

When did this happen? Did anyone with Coventry get notification?

If they had told me I would have transferred to a higher payer so I have lost money. As this is totally down to their not telling me then I expect them to pay that money.

Calm down Reg.

They've withdrawn that rate from offer and bought out a new one paying 2.25%. You're still getting the rate you applied for on your original account.

Perhaps find out the facts before going in with all guns blazing?