Alliance Trust Savings massive fee hike

chris1

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you are getting steamed up about this. Then wait for the end of free current account banking. As the writings on the wall for this model as well.

That would indeed be bad news, and didn't a Bank of England representative recently suggest introducing regulation to force it through?

How about a bank charges campaign to head this off before it gains momentum - Martin? or has he disappeared now...

juliamarsh

I have just moved my shares from iii to SVS Securities, who charge no admin or inactivity fees either on their dealing account or their ISA and who only charge £5.75 per trade. They have been extremely helpful and have told me that they have no plans to introduce charges. They do only accept FTSE350 stocks in their ISA though, although there are no such restrictions with the sharedealing account.
Hot on the heels of this I got the letter from ATS with whom I hold some investment trusts both inside and outside an ISA, by default I hasten to add as the company I originally held them with transferred all their customer's holdings to ATS. I can't stand ATS and would never have gone to them of my own volition, they want to charge you every which way - £10 every time you want to take cash out of your account and now they are going to get worse than ever! I am going to move my holdings out on principle but I am not sure whether to sell them and reinvest within HL with whom I already hold an account (and I think they are excellent by the way - at the moment anyway!) but choose funds instead of investment trusts to avoid charges, or whether to just move them as stock to SVS who won't charge me (though I will be charged £15 per stock by ATS to move them out!) but it would mean I would have to take them out of the ISA wrapper as they are not FTSE350 stocks, they amount to about £14000 altogether. One thing I am certainly going to do is write a letter of complaint to ATS - I shall phone up too although from what people have said here I do not expect to get much joy!
What a pain all this is, I do hope HL don't introduce charges as many of you are predicting they inevitably will! I shall soon have nowhere else to go and will be forced to bite the charges bullet!! Rats!!!!!:mad:

jem16

juliamarsh wrote: »

I do hope HL don't introduce charges as many of you are predicting they inevitably will!

HL will have no option but to change as their platform is not compliant with the FSA Platform review. It's not a case of "if" but a case of "when".

jimjames

koru wrote: »

Yes, this puzzles me. For many people, the extra charges by ATS are a much bigger fee hike than Interactive Investor. And whereas iii did at least announce some counterbalancing changes such as giving a credit against dealing charges, reducing the dealing fee and rebating trail and platform commission on funds, ATS is not offering a single benefit to customers. I expected an even bigger ballyhoo than iii.

Perhaps the thing that really annoyed people about iii was their initial attempt to dress up a fee hike as a public spirited effort to encourage investors to get more involved in their investments? At least ATS is not making any real pretence that they are doing this for any reason other than to make more money out of customers.

Maybe far less people use AT than iii. It might explain why they are still loss making as well.

Glad I closed my account with them in May. Closed rather than transferred as it kept the charges to a minimum.

chris1

juliamarsh wrote: »

One thing I am certainly going to do is write a letter of complaint to ATS - I shall phone up too although from what people have said here I do not expect to get much joy!

You can email a formal complaint to [EMAIL="contact@alliancetrust.co.uk"]contact@alliancetrust.co.uk[/EMAIL].

koru

Optimist wrote: »

You need to write back to them asking them to treat your complaint as a official complaint and to let you have a final response before you go to the Ombudsman. If you don't they will just treat your letter as a general winge and leave it at that.

The actual final response should actually state that it is the final response and tell you that you have the option of going to the Ombudsman and it should also tell you that you have 6 months to do so.

My bet is they will come back saying that it wasn't the final response and that your complaint will go through the complaints process in which they have 8 weeks to respond further.

It is at this point the complaint will actually be passed to the decision makers.

My last e-mail followed this procedure and demanded a final response. It was passed on from the Client Services team to the Service Quality team who replied saying they would get back to me as soon as they can. Do they really want me to bring this to the attention of the ombudsman? Let's see. I suppose it depends whether they think they have any serious defence that it is reasonable to raise my fees nearly 5 times higher than before whilst also insisting I have to pay £480 to transfer my holdings out.

juliamarsh

Can I just ask everybody - are you moving your holdings to another provider now and requesting AT to refund the charges, or are you waiting to move your holdings until after you have been given a final decision on your complaint and/or had a reply from the Ombudsman?

Thanks!

dunstonh

Maybe far less people use AT than iii. It might explain why they are still loss making as well.

Most platforms are loss making. Some are expected to fail but mass consolidation and mergers is likely to be seen. even the biggest platform in the UK is losing money. One of the most profitable is doing so by keeping the platform commission and most of the IFA trail commission. With those gone, it will be interesting on how much of a hit it will be willing to take when it brings in its new charges.

I do hope HL don't introduce charges as many of you are predicting they inevitably will!

The only way they could not introduce new charges is to close the current platform down for new business and prevent new purchases.

Think about it logically though. From the start of 2013, there will no longer be any trail commission on new purchases for them to keep. From 2014 they will not be paid any platform commission. So, if they dont introduce charges to replace it, how long do you think they will be in business?

HL had £26 billion on platform. They take an average of 0.7% of that. Do you really think they will not replace it when it gets turned off?

srcandas

dunstonh wrote: »

The only way they could not introduce new charges is to close the current platform down for new business and prevent new purchases.

I chose hl to offer me the facilities I required in a quality and secure manner. Other suppliers I looked at could not meet my needs of quality and security. I also chose them because I felt they would be stable and consistent throughout the next 20 years. After all they are looking after about 50% of my total wealth. I didn't choose the cheapest but the one I felt offered best value.

I therefore hope hl implement the necessary revenue sources that they need to continue meeting my needs. Hopefully they will state the charges clearly and they will be transparent. From current experience I know I can call them and in plain English in their very helpful style they will answer my questions. Unless their charges seem excessive I will not be looking to move anywhere and certainly even then would only do so after everyone declares their position in line with the new legislation.

Guess it is like if I need an electrician. The cheapest is not always the smartest route

jimjames

srcandas wrote: »

Unless their charges seem excessive I will not be looking to move anywhere and certainly even then would only do so after everyone declares their position in line with the new legislation.

Guess it is like if I need an electrician. The cheapest is not always the smartest route

If their charges are anything like the ones they've introduced for trackers then they may well be excessive. The HL tracker charges are uncapped unlike the ones for shares which seems grossly unfair.