How do you go about starting a shares ISA?

paul5046

I went into my bank yesterday for a leaflet, they dont have anything. The lady behind the desk didn't have a clue.

How do i start. I'd like to save £50 a month, a FTSE tracker would be good, low charges as always.

Lokolo

iii would be your best bet

bobthedambuilder

Hargreaves Lansdown allow you to open a shares ISA online, contributing £50 per month or more. You choose your own funds or shares to invest in. Many funds have zero initial charges and reduced annual charges (although maybe not the lowest).

paul5046

Lokolo wrote: »

iii would be your best bet

Looks complicated.

Lokolo

paul5046 wrote: »

Looks complicated.

Then how did you pick that a UK tracker fund would be best? If you cannot understand the basics of ISAs and opening accounts, then you should either go and see an IFA, or start learning rather than punting for investing.

bigfreddiel

paul5046 wrote: »

Looks complicated.

don't bother mate! stick to a nice simple savings account, s&s isa is not for you.

cheers

fj

Aegis

bobthedambuilder wrote: »

Hargreaves Lansdown allow you to open a shares ISA online, contributing £50 per month or more. You choose your own funds or shares to invest in. Many funds have zero initial charges and reduced annual charges (although maybe not the lowest).

With a £2 a month fee for using most index trackers, that's effectively a 4% initial charge. Much better to go direct to the tracker provider if that's what the OP really wants. HSBC's offering, as an example, is available at no initial charge and an AMC of 0.25% directly from their website.

Normally I can't stand bank investment products, but the HSBC trackers are actually pretty reasonable until you start adding on the extra platform charges from places like Hargreaves Lansdown.

Of course, putting money into a single index isn't necessarily the best course of action, but I suppose that wasn't the original question...

BobbyBaggins

Try fidelity funds supermarket. I believe their ftse all share index tracker has the lowest fees on the market. You can invest in all the major funds from there and fees for switching are low.