iii introducing quarterly £20 charge

xemeter

So the fee applies just to hold and ISA with nothing in it?

xemeter

Jegersmart wrote: »

Basically companies need to make money to provide a service to you. If you are not doing any trading and have a very small amount of funds deposited then it is not possible to make a profit on you and they want ot get rid of you. I would transfer out having done due diligence as to current and planned charges via other vendors. The difficulty is, who can make a profit out of you (and therefore be able to offer you a service)?

Good luck!

J

It must cost virtually nothing to electronically replicate and account and to make bulk / batch trades.

whatyadoinsucka

Aha.. one good thing, they will link Family (same address) accounts so I'll link it to the missus 'sharesave' shares account and add the bill to the joint account.. oh and my brother share deals too, so i'll link his account by dialing iii on 0845 200 3637

FAQ
Q: i didn't agree to Transfer Out Fee's
A: oh yes you did, when you signed to new T&C

grey_gym_sock

whatyadoinsucka wrote: »

FAQ
Q: i didn't agree to Transfer Out Fee's
A: oh yes you did, when you signed to new T&C

they should have said:
A: that's not a question

creativ

Jegersmart wrote: »

Basically companies need to make money to provide a service to you. If you are not doing any trading and have a very small amount of funds deposited then it is not possible to make a profit on you and they want ot get rid of you. I would transfer out having done due diligence as to current and planned charges via other vendors. The difficulty is, who can make a profit out of you (and therefore be able to offer you a service)?

Good luck!

J

I accept that companies need to make money. But if I don't happen to buy or sell shares within the year what service exactly is Interactive Investor providing for a fee of £80? I'm racking my brains to work out...

£80 for keeping my account open?

If any other business tried this they would lose customers overnight and go out of business. Just because others are starting to impose fees doesn't make it right.

Coz800

What's the procedure for closing an iii share account? Is it a case of sell the shares so the amount is zero - but then what? Can't find this info on their site.

i1189

Jegersmart wrote: »

Basically companies need to make money to provide a service to you. If you are not doing any trading and have a very small amount of funds deposited then it is not possible to make a profit on you and they want ot get rid of you. I would transfer out having done due diligence as to current and planned charges via other vendors. The difficulty is, who can make a profit out of you (and therefore be able to offer you a service)?
J

I may have small holdings at the moment, as I only opened my account about a fortnight ago, but they will increase substantially in the coming years.

The charges are not progressive, and make up a high % of the holdings I had at the moment. Yet had I opened my account this week instead of last week, I would have qualified for the "new customer" deal, and avoided the quarterly charge until my holdings were £5k.

I sent a complaint via their messaging service, and just got a response back that basically said "tough", and then tried to flog me an account at their sister site.

I have now complained by phone, and to be honest, the person in the call centre didn't really seem to know what she was talking about. Plus it took them 20 mins to answer, so they seem to be experiencing a high volume of call traffic...

It isn't even so much the fees, it's the short notice and the fact that they've made a massive change just after I opened my account with no flexibility to hold off some of the charges until my investments have built up. I've lost all trust in them so would rather move somewhere which is no so underhand with their charges. Going from very low charges to some of the highest around (non-progressive too) in the space of the month is hardly conducive to building a good relationship with their customers.

deadpeasant

koru wrote: »

They reckon that the average fund pays them 0.64% income per year, so the rebate would exceed the £80 charge if you have more than £12,500 invested in funds (unless your funds pay lower commission than average).

I'm not sure how directly the formula in koru's helpful post relates to TERs of ETFs and ITs. I have roughly the following in iii, UNwrapped (basic rate taxpayer with no CGT worries), which I bought as long-term no-churn holdings:
£5k in IWDP property ETF, TER 0.59%
£5k in Edinburgh IT, TER 0.77%
£4k in Templeton EM, TER 1.52%

Looks to me like I'd be somewhat better off cashing these in (at the cost of 3 trades, I assume) and buying the same or similar funds in my HL fund & share account. I'd be grateful for any comments from you kind and more experienced folks.

leyus

I am buying only HSBC index trackers therefore cost does matter to me. If I got only ISA and only buying funds, will those charges affect me?

And what are the alternatives for someone like me? I am only interested in HSBC index trackers.

xemeter

@70

I too am mainly interested in trackers and only joined ii last month to access vanguard and hsbc idnex funds. As far as i can tell it will cost you £1.50 per trade which will be taken out of the £20 quarterly charge, so you'll get 13 'free' trades during that period.