iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

cing0

foxes1884 wrote: »

Useful info over on Monevator blog on other broker choices


monevator .com

Would anyone like to guess how much someone would charge to produce the data monevator.com has written about switching platforms ?
It looks like iWeb sharedealing is the same as iii before November 2011 when they said "We will continue to offer you no administration charges." *

* for the next 8 months only.

mulronie

Well III have certainly got my juices flowing with this one - and spurred me into action on another bugbear I have with them!

I've just written and sent a formal complaint regarding their late crediting of dividends - it never happened when Halifax were the underlying plan operator, and yet now despite their claims at their time that the change "would not affect the level of service you receive from us”, I have to wait 5 days for my dividends...... simply unacceptable, the old "cheque's in the post" excuse may have worked in 1984 but not in 2012!

I'm just trying now to figure out what to do with my S&S ISA portfolio - only 2 shares in there at the moment and a small amount of cash. Once I decide I'll try beating them into waiving the fees - whether I 'unwrap' the shares and dematerialise or find another broker.

Sidenote - the way these clowns are handling complaints should send alarm bells ringing. There are very strict guidelines from the FSA on complaint handling and treating customers fairly, and from many of your responses I'm not convinced III are following them....

moneylover

victormeldrew2 wrote: »

Try clicking on "first " above

Not sure about this, I was looking for the forum thread not the iii announcements etc

miller

mulronie wrote: »

Sidenote - the way these clowns are handling complaints should send alarm bells ringing. There are very strict guidelines from the FSA on complaint handling and treating customers fairly, and from many of your responses I'm not convinced III are following them....

They seem to have replied to some messages with "complaint" on with their "stock" response. Not good enough. That should have triggered the complaint handling process.

For my convenience, I have assumed that template is their Final Response as I was quite specific that is what I was asking for. Saves me waiting 8 weeks for them while they plunder my account.

jimkenyon

mulronie wrote: »

Well III have certainly got my juices flowing with this one - and spurred me into action on another bugbear I have with them!

I've just written and sent a formal complaint regarding their late crediting of dividends - it never happened when Halifax were the underlying plan operator, and yet now despite their claims at their time that the change "would not affect the level of service you receive from us”, I have to wait 5 days for my dividends...... simply unacceptable, the old "cheque's in the post" excuse may have worked in 1984 but not in 2012!

I'm just trying now to figure out what to do with my S&S ISA portfolio - only 2 shares in there at the moment and a small amount of cash. Once I decide I'll try beating them into waiving the fees - whether I 'unwrap' the shares and dematerialise or find another broker.

Sidenote - the way these clowns are handling complaints should send alarm bells ringing. There are very strict guidelines from the FSA on complaint handling and treating customers fairly, and from many of your responses I'm not convinced III are following them....

III state that they have TEN working days in which to credit dividends.

guitarman001

I have one share with iii and some money sitting in an account. IF they charge me £15 to transfer the share, do I just need to keep £10 in that account... I hear they wont take the money until July or something??

What a furore this has caused!

IanSt

Interesting that iii's reply to OldGrouser (posted at 7:31pm) says that "Legally, we are allowed 20 working days to make changes on accounts. "

I've just been looking through the FAQ which iii pointed to at the time of the platform change and it says "There are a new set of terms and conditions for our new service. However there are no material changes in the terms and conditions, themselves - the only difference is the change of plan manager. Nonetheless, we recommend you read the terms and conditions carefully."

Looking at the 'terms and conditions' in section 20.1 it says "If we give you at least 20 Working Days' advance notice we may change the Agreement for any valid reason and if it is reasonable to make the change."

Now I have to admit that I don't remember whether the original terms and conditions said that they could change the admin charges - I do remember looking when we decided to open the ISA account and could only ever see a mention of no ISA admin charges and no mention on those pages that they could modify that. So if this is new, then the ability to change the admin charges is surely a material change.

However even if the original terms and conditions did say that they could change the admin charges, then 20.1 only says that they can change the agreement if it is for a valid reason and it is reasonable to make the change. Now it seems to me that it is not reasonable to increase the rates by the amount of £20 per quarter as I do not believe that to be the cost to iii for one account especially when ii then say that they can give 2 free trades per quarter which would come to £20.

What do others think, a possible line of attack?

guitarman001

The whole thing just stinks. I've yet to decide who to transfer to but I want to get it done before July. I'm now looking at transferring the one share I own (can't be held in an ISA) and then to start putting money into trackers. So many brokers...

jfh7gwa

Optimist wrote: »

SharePrice is a trading name of Interactive Investor Trading Limited

http://www.shareprice.co.uk/pages/share-trading-charges

Indeed - I wanted to look up who to address formal complaints to (at least some likely name rather than the generic Dear Sir/Madam) and stumbled across a few of their senior management linked in profiles.

Pretty much ALL of them list themselves as employed by SharePrice at the same time as being part of Interactive Investor.

For example their Head of Risk and Compliance is in that role at Interactive Investor and at SharePrice - there's loads more examples on there too. Their CTO holds a duel position, as do their Account Managers and Sales folk... same story.

Bit of a surprise to me, anyway.

guitarman001

Guys check this list out!

http://the-international-investor.com/comparison-tables/cheapest-uk-stock-brokers