iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

veloo

I got the email yesterday.

Thankfully, I had sold all my shares, and only have cash in my ISA. I don't think I want to be forced to trade. I have small holdings and don't trade regularly. So, my only option seems to be to leave them.

What do people recommend as alternatives?

Optimist

I have a ISA with iii and have received no such notification and indeed just checking the charges as stated on their website it hasn't changed and makes no mention of a quarterly charge. http://www.iii.co.uk/investing/isas/charges

I will await with interest any charges they make on my account and will go through their complaints procedure if they do impose one.

That complaint will go to the Ombudsman if it is rejected by iii, as this seems a significant change in the T@Cs which is unfairly imposed.

I would expect the opportunity to transfer my shares to another provider for free.

Note that it costs a financial institution approx £300 per complaint to the Ombudsman......but you must go through iii complaint process first.

pqrdef

Great oaks from tiny acorns grow, or whatever, and in the S&S ISA business we all start as acorns, because of the subscription limits.

You'd think platforms would be keen to get the business of newbies, hoping to keep it.

But flat-rate charges are very discouraging for small investors. Since the benefit of the tax break is somewhat imponderable, one has to think rather hard about paying for it.

Once again our wonderful consumer watchdog does consumers no favours.

gadgetmind

pqrdef wrote: »

Great oaks from tiny acorns grow, or whatever, and in the S&S ISA business we all start as acorns, because of the subscription limits.

Even at £80, this is only 0.7% of your first year's subscription, and it will then halve the year afterwards.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a bit rich, but I'm paying £60pa for my wife's ISA, £120pa for my SIPP, and £48pa for her SIPP. Fortunately *most* pots are now respectable sizes, and I'm using low-fee holdings within them, so it's overall not too bad in percentage terms.

We're in for a couple of interesting years. I've moved nearly a dozen pension and ISA pots in the last 18 months and am half expecting to be doing it all again some time.

BLB53

I have some funds in an S&S ISA (2011) and a current monthly regular investment into S&S ISA (2012) that will be impacted by the proposed charges. £80 a year will make a big dent in my investment.

If you are trading every month, this will not affect you as the £20 quarterly charges include 2 'free' trades.
The main people to be stung will be LTBH type investors who do not trade very much.

IronWolf

TD Waterhouse are the next cheapest ISA provider that I know about, no fees but the do have a lot of fees for transferring out or closing the account

http://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk/choose-an-account/rates-and-charges/isas/

And who knows if they will introduce a management fee soon too....

Another is Alliance Trust, that have a much lower charge of £25 + VAT a year

http://www.alliancetrustsavings.co.uk/investments/isa/stocks-shares-isa/

Selftrade has an annual charge of £35 + VAT

http://www.selftrade.co.uk/services/personal-dealing/shares-isa.php

BLB53

Selftrade has an annual charge of £35 + VAT

This will be dropped from 1 July - so Selftrade are now a better alternative to ii imho.

cloud_dog

BLB53 wrote: »

This will be dropped from 1 July - so Selftrade are now a better alternative to ii imho.

I'm no longer a SelfTrade customer but I thought they were doing away with the annual management charge but replacing it with something else, possibly quarterly????

I have an account with X-O which (currently) has no AM charge.

I've heard mention of SVS as being competitive (£5.75) to trade and (currently) no AM charge.

IronWolf

BLB53 wrote: »

This will be dropped from 1 July - so Selftrade are now a better alternative to ii imho.

Where did you hear that? I can't find it on their website, would have thought they'd advertise it.

OneADay

IronWolf wrote: »

TD Waterhouse are the next cheapest ISA provider that I know about, no fees but the do have a lot of fees for transferring out or closing the account

http://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk/choose-an-account/rates-and-charges/isas/

And who knows if they will introduce a management fee soon too..../QUOTE]

Last time I tried TD Waterhouse - they charged if you did not trade within a year or something - crossed them off the list. Years ago, they were called something else and were the best of the bunch (cheap/no annual fees/efficient) - but that was years ago.

The way these stockbrokers are working and changing their t&c should be investigated imho by the nuggets at the FSA.