should i leave fidelity?

macmomo

Hi, I've got about £27,000 in various funds with Fidelity, some of which I want to swap out of into other funds. I also have stocks and shares (inside and outside ISAs) currently held with first direct share dealing.

I did some research here in the summer and opened an alliance trust account for stocks and shares and ISAs but then...I had a baby and I can't remember what my plan was! I haven't made any investments or used the alliance trust account in any way.

Should I transfer within Fidelity or should I take the opportunity that I want to move money around to moves my fidelity money by buying into funds within the alliance trust ISA umbrella (would I need to move each selected fund into the Alliance Trust and then switch between funds once within Alliance Trust or can I take for example my £1000+ in the Jupiter European Fund within Fidelity and in one movement have it in a different fund in Alliance Trust?

Really hope that makes sense!

Many thanks for any help, I seem to have lost the ability to think clearly and I don't want to make expensive mistakes with my baby's future money just because I'm not sleeping much!

dunstonh

Which platform offers you the features and options that you want?

macmomo

well, both I suppose - I'm trying to save money in the longer term. I thought that I was best suited to the Alliance Trust scheme because I would save a little via the shares dealing over a 12 month period. I am just hesitating at the last minute because it seems dauntingly difficult to actually move money from Fidelity Funds into the Alliance Trust umbrella. I am hoping it is just a matter of reregistering them and no significant fees to pay (was easy to do it for my mum with cofunds).

jimjames

Bear in mind that with the Alliance trust savings ISA you are paying a fixed annual fee. Moving more investments to them won't increase it but a smaller set of investments will make the fee a higher percentage of your funds. You will also get more commission rebated if you have more funds with Alliance trust.

donniej

I'd say definitely move away from Fidelity if cost is important - they don't offer any ongoing commission rebates and charge the full initial charge for buying funds (this applies when you switch funds too.)

Alliance Trust charge an annual fee plus a fixed charge per deal, and rebate most/all ongoing commission. This is great if you don't deal often (i.e. if you don't have many funds and/or don't rebalance very often and/or don't top up your account very often) but not so good otherwise. You could be better off with sites that rebate slightly less ongoing commission but don't have a dealing charge depending on how often you deal - it's worth working that out before making a decision.