iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

TechnoBadger

I've now signed up with iWeb who are owned by Halifax Share Dealing. Halifax ran iii's service for them before it migrated to iii's own platform. I was pleased with the service then. Only took a few minutes and I have already printed off a transfer form and sent it to iWeb.

http://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/trading-services/switching-to-iweb.asp

gingellr

Im torn now between selftrade and iWeb, iWeb charge 2% not £1.5 for DRIP's but also they are not limited to ftse 100 for regular investments but iWebs exit costs are alot higher £25 per stock plus £50 for an ISA

gkerr4

curiously - shareprice.co.uk is III's sister site and they aren't introducing the charge.

they make some nice mobile apps too - love the iPad app and trading platform and they even charge less if you use their mobile apps to trade then the regular web-access (not sure why??)

mulronie

I received a message this morning following my question to III about re-materialisation (i.e. withdrawing your shares as certificates, putting you on the register in your own right rather than through a nominee):

If you wish to convert your share holdings to paper certificates (only available for Crest securities) and then close your account, you will need to take the following steps:

First you should contact us either by phone or by secure message to request that your online share holdings are converted to share certificates. We will waive fees for customers who wish to convert their shares to paper certificates (“rematerialisation”). Please note this process can take up to 4 weeks. We will also not levy a charge for any transfer out requests we receive on or before 31 July 2012.

So they are waiving the fees for people who want to withdraw their shares as certificates.

My 2 cents is that this is the best option for those shares you have on a long-term basis - you totally avoid the hassles caused by a future broker pulling a similar stunt on pricing, or even defrauding you or going out of business completely, and you are dealt with directly by the registrar for dividends/tax certificates/corporate actions, get sent the annual voting/AGM forms, etc - and can always "dematerialise" at any broker of your choice (most of whom offer this for free - no surprises why).

westy22

I wasn't really affected much by iii's new T&Cs as I complete at least one real-time trade per month and sometimes 2 per month.

My intention was to stay with them but now I am worried that such an exodus of investors from iii will leave those of us remaining with them in a very vulnerable position - will they cease trading in the near future?; will they try to recoup lost revenues by increasing charges again for those remaining?; will the service decline with less users?

So many questions and so few answers!

guitarman001

Most people I've spoken to who are with iii don't even know about the new fees, so I wouldn't worry.... Not that they haven't had the mails, they just glossed over them!

HOW LONG does it take iii to respond to a secure message? I sent one at lunchtime (regarding account closure) and still no reply. Hargreaves Lansdown has replied already.

guitarman001

Seeing as I've only ever bought shares, the graphs have been share price vs time. How do I read this sort of chart?

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/j/jupiter-strategic-bond-accumulation/charts

It is percentage versus time... but what does the percentage mean? Does it simply mean that based on an initial sum, say £1000... that if you're 60% in November and December, with no contributions other than the original £1000... your worth is £1600 both in November and December? So if you added more money in November it would not have gained anything by December? Help appreciated!

guitarman001

Further to that, check this out:
http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-80-equity-accumulation/charts

I don't understand how the gains on this fund can be so low when the funds it comprises of are doing so well... what am I missing..?

andmas

As I mainly invest in wrapped passive funds (HSBC trackers) I am thinking of moving to TD Direct Investing. They are first choice on the Monevator site followed by Selftrade, both of which have apparently adjusted their fee structure in light of RDR.

http://monevator.com/

I was wondering why no one has mentioned TD Direct, especially as they have various Vanguard funds available for an ISA. Have people had issues with TD Direct in the past and now staying clear?

premierfella

After far too much time spent pondering, I've ended up applying for a Sippdeal account based on the fees and £1.50 regular trading, plus some positive comments about them in the forums. The trade off is the £9.95 standard trade fee, which can be beaten elsewhere.

I'm an infrequent trader with no funds in the iii ISA (so staying with iii made little sense to me) and I ruled out some of the other "no annual fee" ISA providers like this:
- Selftrade - transferred away like many in the past after a fee change, so not keen on returning;
- IWeb - I've tried them with a normal trading account and am not (personally) that keen on the interface, plus there is the transfer out fee;
- X-O - ISA closure fee makes it a no-go for me;
- SimplyStockbroking - corporate actions and dividend fees;
- Traders Own - dividend fees;
- SVS -corporate actions fee;
- High Street banks, including First Direct - standard trading fees exceed Sippdeal;
- TD Direct - account closure fees

I probably would have gone with X-O if I could have convinced myself that they would willingly waive ISA exit fees were they to introduce periodic account and/or inactivity fees (i.e. convinced myself that they would be forced to).