Which self-select stocks & shares ISA provider?

lswwong

Folks

I am wanting to put cash into a stocks & shares ISA before April 07 for purchasing shares, unit trusts, OEICs, investment trusts etc later.

Would appreciate your views on which of the below might be an overall okay provider for you:

- Hargreaves Landsdown Vantage ISA
- Bestinvest
- Fidelity Fundsnetwork (which, I believe, can be accessed via Bestinvest)
- Other self-select ISAs (e.g. NatWest & Selftrade, I think)

Investment amount will be £4k as have already subscribed to a mini Cash ISA. I will most likely subscribe to a Maxi ISA next tax year.

With thanks in anticipation.

Louise

jackthelad_2

I would recommend Hargreaves Landsdown Vantage ISA for funds and Selftrade for self-select ISAs for shares. I have been using these for many year with very good service.

jackthelad_2

I would recommend Hargreaves Landsdown Vantage ISA for funds and Selftrade for self-select ISAs for shares. I have been using these for many year with very good service.

KTF

I have a New Star Technology ISA (ex Aberdeen). I dont think I am ever going to recover the money I put into it so can I move it to Hargreaves Landsdown Vantage ISA and go from there?

Al I also right in thinking that the Self Select ISA starts you off with a blank portfolio and you then pick and choose from various stocks or do they have 'templates' you can choose from?

gt94sss2

lswwong wrote:

I am wanting to put cash into a stocks & shares ISA before April 07 for purchasing shares, unit trusts, OEICs, investment trusts etc later.

Do you know which of these you plan to invest in at the moment?

If shares or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) I would recommend Selftrade who charge £25/year but do have a referral scheme which will effectively pay for the first few years of fees. (let me know if you would like details). Selftrade allow commission free purchases of ETF's within their ISA accounts and they can be a good alternative to normal index tracker funds.

If shares but you will hardly ever be dealing, have a look at HSBC Invest Direct who do make any annual charges for their ISA/PEP accounts but have slightly higher charge/trade instead.

If you plan to use the £4,000 for investment trusts etc - choose a different broker and not one of the two above.

Regards
Sunil

cheerfulcat

Hi, Louise :wave:,

It depends on what you intend to buy. I use Selftrade for shares and ETFs and ITs, and HL for funds. I like ST's interface best of all but HL can't be beaten for discounts, IMO.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

EDIT: Just saw this bit -

gt94sss2 wrote:

If you plan to use the £4,000 for investment trusts etc - choose a different broker and not one of the two above.

Hi, Sunil, why do you say that? Have you found a better broker for ITs?

si1503

I am with Hargreaves Landsdown. Opened a Vantage ISA with them last year (and later a Fund Account) and must say I am very impressed with their level of service so far. Would recommend them to anyone looking to invest in UTs.

EdInvestor

cheerfulcat wrote:

Hi, Sunil, why do you say that? Have you found a better broker for ITs?

For ITs https://www.alliancetrust.co.uk is always worth a look IMHO, the bulk purchase charges on their own (long established) ITs are very low.

For shares, the new Motley Fool ISA, which uses the very cheap Halifax Sharebuilder bulk purchase model is very cheap.

si1503

EdInvestor wrote:

For ITs https://www.alliancetrust.co.uk is always worth a look IMHO, the bulk purchase charges on their own (long established) ITs are very low.

For shares, the new Motley Fool ISA, which uses the very cheap Halifax Sharebuilder bulk purchase model is very cheap.

Any particular reason for recommending MF over Halifax?

gt94sss2

si1503 wrote:

Any particular reason for recommending MF over Halifax?

Both services are run my Halifax but the Motley Fool version is cheaper overall

Also, if you wanted to use the 'Sharebuilder' tariff within an ISA, MF allow this and I don't think Halifax do..

Regards
Sunil

lswwong

Hi Cheerfulcat :wave: - lovely to see you again. Hope all is well.

Big thanks to everyone - jackthelad, KTF, CC, Sunil, Ed and si - for your views.

Summarising:

Funds/Unit Trusts - Hargreaves Landsdown

Shares/ETFs/Investment Trusts - SelfTrade

Investment Trusts - Alliance Trust (but compare with Selftrade)

Shares - Motley Fool ISA (also compare with Selftrade)

I think the clear favourites are HL and ST, so I will look into them first. To be frank, I don't know what I want to buy yet so it probably might be the case of (1) put the £4K in HL for this tax year's allowance, thereafter (2) look into Selftrade/Alliance Trust/Motley Fool + HL for next year 2007/8's maxi ISA allowance.

Sorry it took me a while to get back as had a long, long day at the office. Feeling tired. But I was very pleased to see all your responses when I logged on to MSE .

Thank you all again and good night!