iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

victormeldrew2

deadpeasant wrote: »

I'm not sure how directly the formula in koru's helpful post relates to TERs of ETFs and ITs. I have roughly the following in iii, UNwrapped (basic rate taxpayer with no CGT worries), which I bought as long-term no-churn holdings:
£5k in IWDP property ETF, TER 0.59%
£5k in Edinburgh IT, TER 0.77%
£4k in Templeton EM, TER 1.52%

Looks to me like I'd be somewhat better off cashing these in (at the cost of 3 trades, I assume) and buying the same or similar funds in my HL fund & share account. I'd be grateful for any comments from you kind and more experienced folks.

Consider a stock transfer to HL but don't forget to make as much stink as you can...contact head of sharedealing
[EMAIL="douglas.boyce@iii.co.uk"]douglas.boyce@iii.co.uk[/EMAIL]
or [EMAIL="moneyobserver.ed@moneyobserver.com"]moneyobserver.ed@moneyobserver.com[/EMAIL] as they are owned by Interactive and as such their commitment to honest impartial advice must be brought into question

pqrdef

A lot of people (including me) will bleat about the £80, but II are probably a lot more worried about the lost trail commission. It remains to be seen whether they can survive on just the 80 quids.

Fact is, the pile of money available through bundled charges on funds has spawned a large distribution industry. It now looks as if that pot of gold may soon get much smaller and there may have to be a major contraction of the industry.

DIY investors with significant portfolios are unlikely to want to pay their platforms anything like the same amount of money through explicit fees that they've been paying through trail commissions. They'll be able to buy clean funds direct from the fund house.

Self-select ISAs and SIPPs will become politically problematic, because the whole concept depends on there being a wide choice of platforms offering a wide range of qualifying investments. The regulators won't see the competition they like if the business isn't worth competing for.

But maybe it's not too late for a U-turn on the RDR.

victormeldrew2

RalphS wrote: »

Interesting semantics from the above email link

First, I would like to assure you these changes will not affect your existing investments, their security or the level of service you receive from us.....

Keeping the same, competitive costs
We will continue to offer you our competitive low-cost charges of a flat £10 UK equity dealing charge on all our products, and our low funds charges with no administration charges. You will also be able to trade over the phone as well as online, for the same low price.

brings to mind Hypocrital Bar Stewards as a description

gadgetmind

Perelandra wrote: »

Can I ask which platforms you invest through? Or is that being nosey?

No problem.

I have my SIPP and my wife's ISA on BestInvest and both are mainly using Vanguard trackers. Both pots are large enough for the "custody fee" (£60pa ISA, £120pa SIPP) imposed for holding non-trail generators to be insignificant.

She now has a SIPP on HL, which is in Vanguard Lifestrategy, hence a £24pa charge. This is again insignificant given pot size.

We both also have HL ISAs which mainly use active funds.These are on the "todo" list for moving and switching to passive, but for various reasons are lower down the list.

Our unwrapped investments are mainly in my wife's HL "Fund and Share" account. There isn't (yet!) a fee for this, but their dealing costs are a hefty £11.95 unless you do a lot of deals per month. Given my "slow and steady" approach with equities, this isn't a problem.

BTW, people moan about the fees now, but you should have seen what they were like 30 years ago when we were starting out!

victormeldrew2

flashnazia wrote: »

I was thinking on similar lines. Hargreaves landsdown have no fees I think but it's 15 quid per line to transfer out!

They charge 0.5% on any non-fund holdings....out of frying pan into the fire if your holdings are substantial

victormeldrew2

i1189 wrote: »

I may have small holdings at the moment, as I only opened my account about a fortnight ago, but they will increase substantially in the coming years.

The charges are not progressive, and make up a high % of the holdings I had at the moment. Yet had I opened my account this week instead of last week, I would have qualified for the "new customer" deal, and avoided the quarterly charge until my holdings were £5k.

I sent a complaint via their messaging service, and just got a response back that basically said "tough", and then tried to flog me an account at their sister site.

I have now complained by phone, and to be honest, the person in the call centre didn't really seem to know what she was talking about. Plus it took them 20 mins to answer, so they seem to be experiencing a high volume of call traffic...

It isn't even so much the fees, it's the short notice and the fact that they've made a massive change just after I opened my account with no flexibility to hold off some of the charges until my investments have built up. I've lost all trust in them so would rather move somewhere which is no so underhand with their charges. Going from very low charges to some of the highest around (non-progressive too) in the space of the month is hardly conducive to building a good relationship with their customers.

Look at the likes of X-O...very asic indeed, but if you don't need bells and whistles.....

Bishopswiz

I am also disgusted by these charges and have sent them a Mr Angry message, don't suppose it will have much effect.
Am I correct in thinking that currently there are no charges for buying/selling funds but after the 1st July there will be a £10 charge for both (unless you use the regular purchase plan at £1.50). If this is the case it is absolutely shocking. Glad my funds are with HL.
Got about 30 individual shares & investment trusts, so will cost me a bomb to transfer out.
Site has been appalling since the switch to their own platform, late dividends, all dividends rounded down, only one regular investment per month, and some investment trusts that I had bought previously through regular investments are not available. Now this!!!!
Seriously thinking of selling up everything and closing my account.

gadgetmind

victormeldrew2 wrote: »

They charge 0.5% on any non-fund holdings....out of frying pan into the fire if your holdings are substantial

Only in an ISA, not in a "Fund and Share" unwrapped account. And the 0.5% is capped at £45pa in an ISA.

TBH this "capped percentage" approach would seem to be fair to both small and large investors.

RalphS

What happens with respect to Tax Vouchers if I transfer away from iii? How will I get the vouchers relating to April 6 > Say July 1? From The new Dealer or from iii? If iii, at the point of closure or say in June 2013.

kfm

brineybay wrote: »

Just wanted to throw this out there...

What happens if on the 1 July 2012 there's no money in my bank account?

Or what about if I asked the bank to block any charges from Interactive Investor? Could this be done. Any ideas of the consequences?

Quoted from http://www.iii.co.uk/newpricing/faq/

"If, for any reason, we can’t collect the fee in full from your account or debit card, the fee will be charged to your Investment Account and we will contact you to request that you make a deposit into your account to cover the fee. In this situation, if prior to you making a deposit you sell an investment or receive a dividend payment then the proceeds of these transactions will be applied to making good your account before being available for reinvestment or withdrawal. If we have not been able to collect the fee for four consecutive quarters, and you have not responded to requests to make good the account, we reserve the right to sell some of your holdings."