iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

BLB53

I havent logged into my ii account in over a year, and guess i now need to find all the details so that i can access it.

You may find your account has not been moved to the new platform and therefore is still held by Halifax Sharedealing. Give them a call to clarify.

guitarman001

WHEN do we get charged? If I leave on July 2nd do I pay some of that £80? How about before July 1st?

IS it premature to move account when this 'new regulation' (still don't know what that is - edit, something to do with RDR? So other fees are more transparent meaning they have to find new ways of charging people more money?) may cause other brokers to change fee structures...?

What does it mean to re-materialise a share?

Optimist

blinko wrote: »

so if we move it before july then we dont get charged ?

You wont get charged the £20 quarterly fee if they get instructions to transfer to another broker before 1st July. You will still be charged the other transfer out charges...

BLB53

Just read this on the SLS website -http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/

A lot of folks are spending a lot of energy boiling iii’s head about the fees change. That’s great if it makes them feel better, but in the end there’s not much you can do about it, and it is difficult and expensive to move an ISA. They’re dearer but not outrageously dearer now. One of the interesting posts on that thread however claims that the company is in an extremely weak financial position

Interestingly I’ve just had a better look at the Interactive Investor Group (I know, I should have done this before I put money there). The group made a £2m loss last year, on £14m turnover, which is pretty bad, and has made a loss every year except 2010. Despite being a plc, they are not publicly quoted and only have 63 shareholders. Venture capital is involved. Their reserves are negative and they had to have a round of fund raising after their last year end.

Now compared to a £80 p.a. fees increase this is something that is more concerning! I haven’t been able to substantiate this from a second source, however.

grey_gym_sock

they'll charge £20 on 1 july, then £20 on 1 october, and so on. though (according to the quote in Rob_Quads's post, above) if you initiate a transfer before 1 july, they won't charge.

moving seems premature to me. whether this is really a knock-on effect of new FSA regulations (which aren't finalized yet), or just a round of price rises at brokers, i wouldn't expect it to stop here. though it does depend on your investment size: for smaller pots, £80 per year can more than wipe out the advantages of investing rather than saving; for larger pots, it's a minor irritation.

re-materializing a share is converting it from electronic form (in a broker's nominee account) to a paper certificate. this removes the tie to a specific stock broker, so they can't charge you for holding it.

gadgetmind

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

i wouldn't expect it to stop here.

Understatement!

As it happens, I think the final result will be better for private investors, even if it doesn't seem that way right now. Sadly, the transition phase could be a rough ride for both us and the platforms!

blinko

so how much are they charging to transfer out an ISA, this is awful. the end of free banking is nigh lol

tp123

These people also trade under the name of SharePrice (as a new user I can't post URLs, but it's just a co.uk).

Out of curiosity, are their customers also affected by new fees? I can't find anything in their website.

cloud_dog

I think some more recent posts have missed the point.

I don't have an issue with AM / inactivity fees if I knew about when joining I would have made an appropriate decision to accept or not. The issue is wrt to the introduction of the fee and with:

1) acceptable time to take appropriate action (due to the change)
2) the cost incurred with transferring (due to the change)

Selftrade have previously shown you can do both.

I have no issue with providers of a service making money, merely how they go about doing it and how it impacts on me.

Optimist

Rob_Quads wrote: »

Looks like they are in - Got the following response -

Thank you for contacting us on 4 June. I am sorry you have felt it necessary to raise your concern.

I can confirm that our new pricing structure applies to all accounts from 1 July 2012 (with some exceptions, noted below*) and is a compulsory charge.

We believe that the charges, taken as a whole, will be advantageous for many customers.

Should you not wish to pay our quarterly fee, you have the options to transfer to another provider, rematerialise your stock onto certificates or alternatively sell your stock and transfer your cash balance.

To transfer your account to another provider, there is a charge of £15 per each line of stock.

To rematerialise your stock, there is a charge of £20 per certificate.

There is no charge to transfer cash balances.

We would be very sorry to lose any of our customers and I am aware you feel we should waive our Transfer out fees. I am sorry we are not in a position to offer this.

The change to our service is in line with the terms and conditions you agreed to when we transferred your account from our previous supplier. The charges for the service are part of the terms and conditions and are clearly stated on our website.

We have provided 30 days notice prior to introducing the charges. If you have initiated a transfer to another broker, you will not be charged when the new pricing structure is introduced on 1 July.

I am sorry you feel we have provided short notice of this change. However, we feel the 1 month notice provided has been sufficient and is in line with our regulatory requirement.

Whilst we appreciate our new pricing structure may be an unwelcome development to some customers, we consider our new charges fair and that our new pricing structure and prepayment of trading commissions per quarter still remains extremely competitive.

We have taken a lead in rebating all the income that we receive on funds holdings ahead of any forthcoming changes required by the FSA and believe that many customers will benefit by consolidating their holdings with us.


Yours sincerely

Basicly anyone reading this go straight to the FSA because iii are not going to make any allowances

I have now received the same response however they do not say it is the final response something that is a requirement before the Ombudsman can look at it.

I have written again to them asking if this was their final response and I got the following

Thank you for your secure message.

I am sorry to learn that you are not happy with our response. I can confirm that I have raised your complaint and we will acknowlege in the next five working days.

We have up to 8 weeks to investigate and respond to a complaint, although we hope to respond within 4 weeks.

Kind regards

All bets are still on before the Ombudsman although as I have my forms all filled out ready to send.