iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

grey_gym_sock

gadgetmind wrote: »

Cash transfers are usually free but there might be an account closure fee.

both appear to be free when leaving iii. only stock transfers attract a fee.

it sounds like there may be a chance of arguing that the stock transfer fee shouldn't be applied under the circumstances (from ericonabike's complaint letter, and earlier comments).

i still have to decide if i want to leave, though ... i have an ISA, so i can't avoid using a nominee account ... high enough value that £80 per year is bearable ... trading very rarely ... but want to reinvest dividends (or invest, i.e. not necessarily in the same stock which paid the dividend).

gadgetmind

i1189 wrote: »

and the other has £10k (far too high for me)

I'm met some funds with gnarly one-offs, but £10k per month? Yikes!

Do you mind me asking what fund this is? One of oft-touted advantages of OEICs over ITs is liquidity and hence low minimum regular sums.

gadgetmind

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

but want to reinvest dividends (or invest, i.e. not necessarily in the same stock which paid the dividend).

I tend to wait until dividends have added up to around £2k before making a purchase, either new or top-up, which is usually every couple of months. This means that dealing costs are fairly low, but they'd be even lower with an ISA that allowed regular dealing at £2k. I don't use these but understand you can change where your money goes very easily.

Radiantsoul

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

i still have to decide if i want to leave, though ... i have an ISA, so i can't avoid using a nominee account ... high enough value that £80 per year is bearable ... trading very rarely ... but want to reinvest dividends (or invest, i.e. not necessarily in the same stock which paid the dividend).

I have to say it is worht considering if it is worth leaving until all the other brokers reveal their new pricing models. Otherwise the risk is you will just have to move again in a few months...

gadgetmind

Radiantsoul wrote: »

Otherwise the risk is you will just have to move again in a few months...

Yup.

I have been moving ISAa and SIPPs, but only away from old-style high-fee plus trail "IFA friendly" platforms and on to modern DIY-centric ones. What I haven't been doing is stirring stuff just to avoid platform charges, and I've ever been choosing platforms that have already shown their hand.

HL showed their "tracker hand" just in time for my to tear up the paperwork I was about to post and instead start a new SIPP with BestInvest.

I'm hoping that I'm "locked and loaded" for a while, but suspect I'm going to have to move our HL ISAs some time in the next 2-3 years.

grey_gym_sock

yes, i'm inclined to stick with iii for now to avoid moving to a provider who then introduces new charges themselves. though the case for being let off paying iii's stock transfer fees might be weakened by not moving quickly.

i could wait until dividends reach a decent sum and then make a purchase. the costs of this are the dealing fees plus the opportunity cost of waiting while getting c. 0% interest. this is part of the total cost of the ISA.

with iii, £20 per quarter includes more regular dealing than i'd need to invest dividends. so £80 per year is the total cost of the ISA - other than switching investments, or transferring out as stock.

e.g. with HL, i'd pay £45 per year (i.e. 0.5% capped at £45), but adding in investing dividends at £11.95 each time, plus higher opportunity cost, the total cost would be perhaps £110 per year.

cing0

There is no point in complaining to the FOS first. You need to send your secure message of complaint to iii and wait 8 weeks. Take the hit on the transfer fees and move your broking account.
Managing your complaint with the Ombudsman is another thing. Since they work of what is fair and reasonable, unless this becomes another 'lucky the dog' case, most ex-iii customers will be shafted. iii will have already taken advice from the FOS so that they can avoid the 500 quid a pop case fee - I'm sure a FOI request will show that.
I think the fee for fund purchases has come in because the system for trading funds is ancient and woefully inadequate in my experience across all brokers. This charge will encourage people to use ETF's instead. The Pricing changes email says 'real time fund trades' but this is nonsense as UT/OEIC don't trade in real time, maximum only once a day (and ETF trades fees have always been same as equities). This is obviously causing confusion.
A few emails to the fund managers might not go a miss ?

The company is badly managed obviously and underestimated the costs breaking away from HSDL and going it alone.
iii twitter feeds seem consciously quite though !

cloud_dog

Hi

Can I ask a question of people who appear to have decided to go / go-back to Selftrade.........

I was just wondering if anyone has any sort of confirmation that a regular / monthly investment (funds or direct holding) would be treated as an investment/trade.

I've looked at the website and it is pretty black and white, stating:

"From 1 July 2012 we will no longer charge an Annual Management Fee. Instead, there will be a Trading Inactivity Fee which is only payable if there is no trading activity on your account during a calendar quarter. If you make one trade in a quarter, you will not be charged a Trading Inactivity Fee for that quarter. "

Any confirmation would be great as I am hedging towards Selftrade purely because:

1. This appears to be their solution considering RDR, etc so hopefully no further changes
2. They offer recompense for transferring from another provider
3. I have a monthly investment with HL which I could simply switch in to Selftrade

TIA.

sabretoothtigger

Yes regular counts as a trade, someone checked.

ST used to do a referral scheme also

Pricing Changes
2012-05-31 12:04:39
Dear sabretoothtigger ,

Thank you for investing with Interactive Investor. More than ever individuals need to take increasing control of their own financial futures as successive governments and employers reduce their responsibilities in this area.

At Interactive Investor we consider it our duty to provide you with the dealing tools and information you require to actively manage your financial future, to do so with confidence and charged at a fair price. This is why we are now announcing important changes to our charging structure to take effect from 1 July 2012.

New Pricing Changes
We are introducing a quarterly fee of £20, which gives you:
The first two real time trades (funds or equities) you make in each quarter, or
A combination of regular monthly investments and real time trades up to the value of £20 in each quarter.
To buy or sell funds we are introducing the standard charge of £10 for a real time trade or £1.50 for regular monthly investments
We will pass on to you ALL income we receive from any fund investment you hold with us. On a typical fund with a 1.5% Annual Management Charge, this would be 0.64% of your investment every year
This is in addition to our existing highly competitive pricing that you will continue to benefit from:
Buying or selling shares at £10 per real time trade or £1.50 for regular monthly investments
International share trading also at £10
Our frequent trader rate, which allows you to buy or sell shares from just £5
Why introduce a £20 quarterly fee?

We believe that customers should be engaged with their investments and actively manage their portfolios. To support this, we are introducing a quarterly fee of £20. This fee is the only one we will charge you and you will not have to pay any other management, ISA or administration fee.

If you already trade twice or more a quarter then this fee will make no difference to what you pay - it is effectively an advance payment of those first two trades for the quarter. If you are trading less than that then you will still have the right to your two trades in each quarter without any additional payment and hopefully feel encouraged to more actively manage your investments.

We will, of course, continue to provide you with the day-to-day custody services, including corporate actions and dividend processing, regardless of the investment types you choose.

We will repay all income we receive from your fund investment

We are not alone in believing that ongoing commission does not fit with independent investing. The FSA is banning it for investment business introduced by financial advisers from 1 January 2013. The FSA has not yet banned this income for execution only business, so we are leading the way by passing on all income that we receive back to our customers.

Our competitors may repay a portion of the income they receive but do not always make it clear how much they are keeping. We will pass on ALL of the income we receive on your fund investments. This can make a significant difference to your overall returns, for example:
If you invested £10,000 each year for the next ten years, the rebate you'd receive with Interactive Investor would be worth £3,520. After 20 years, the total rebate would be £13,440. See how much you can save with our income rebate calculator
If you have fund holdings elsewhere, you can benefit even more by consolidating your fund investments with us.

You do not need to take any action as these changes to pricing will take place automatically with effect from 1 July 2012. You can find out more information and contact details from the FAQs on our site.

Continuing to improve our service to you

We will also continue to introduce special trading days, new tools and research for trading customers to further support informed and confident trading decisions. For example:
Our free ISA and free US stock trading days
Our new mobile trading app available on iPhone and iPad being introduced this summer
Privileged access to trading insights and new tools coming later this year
Our recently launched model portfolios which invest in a range of different assets - and we'll continue to expand this range
When we set up Interactive Investor 17 years ago it was to let private investors control their own trading activities and financial future - something that barely existed at the time. Nearly two decades later the investing landscape has changed beyond recognition. We intend to stay at the forefront of that change and work on your behalf to give you better trading access, information, value and service.

We look forward to supporting your trading and investment plans now and in the years to come.

Yours sincerely


Tomas Carruthers

cloud_dog

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Yes regular counts as a trade, someone checked.

ST used to do a referral scheme also

Hi STT, the quote you provided was from iii, and yes I suppose I could just transfer my regular investment from HL to iii but TBH I am fairly disgusted with the way iii have implemented the charge. I was wondering if anyone knew if Selftrade also treated regular investments as a trade and therefore would not trigger an inactivity charge at Selftrade themselves.