Investing with Santander Portfolio - have i wasted money? (long post)

jem16

royal23 wrote: »

i don't understand, i thought TER = AMC?

No. The AMC only includes part of the charges. The TER includes things like administrative fees, legal fees etc.

better explanation here;

http://monevator.com/what-is-ter/

how can there be higher charges than what they outlined in the paperwork sent to me...

Have a look on the paperwork - does it mention total ongoing charges? The KIID I linked to earlier from Sanatander showed it as "ongoing charges".

but can I open an S&S ISA account via a platform and transfer the value of the santander stuff over?

If you are still within 30 days you can cancel completely. Otherwise yes you could transfer. Are you going to be able to DIY?

royal23

yes i'm within 30 days.
but: if i cancel it and have no other S&S ISA to transfer the ISA portion into, then i'll lose the whole ISA portion, no?
and i'll lose the 1.9% already anyays.

i'm thinking i could at least wait for a year or so, would that be bad...?

jem16

royal23 wrote: »

but: if i cancel it and have no other S&S ISA to transfer the ISA portion into, then i'll lose the whole ISA portion, no?

No, cancelling would see you back in the position as if you had never invested in a S&S ISA.

and i'll lose the 1.9% already anyays.

You would get back the current value of your investments, so you might lose or win.

i'm thinking i could at least wait for a year or so, would that be bad...?

Who knows. It would depend on how the fund performs compared with what else you choose.

royal23

but the portion of my cash ISA that i transfered into this investment (7K around was transferred), what happens to that?

sabretoothtigger

55 is the earliest a pension can be cashed I think. So I'd maybe suggest taking this savings route via a sipp.

You have a ISA to spend meanwhile. You should be able to compare sipp costs more easily and the funds within, its fairly competitive now

2% fee per year is about 20% of your capital gone over 10 years. It has to be great performance for that not to prove a negative, alot of investments end up going sideways at the moment it seems.
The stakeholder pension has fees of 1% or less and thats a nice point to aim for

You can transfer all this to a SIPP ? HL is always sending me letters telling me to just transfer everything to them :laugh:


TER is like your restaurant bill after they add on a chunk for service and other rip offs, the other fees advertised are just the sticker price to fool you

jem16

royal23 wrote: »

but the portion of my cash ISA that i transfered into this investment (7K around was transferred), what happens to that?

It should be put back into the cash ISA as if it never happened but you would need to check on that.

royal23

actually i checked, and i only have a 14-day period to change my mind. and that day was today.

i think i won't cancel for now and just see what happens.
i'll call them tomorrow to check my options.

what other, better funds would be available?

are highstreet bank investment funds per se bad, as dunstonh suggests?
i mean they must have thousands of customers, can't be all that bad?
plus it's a multi managed funds (2 guys managing this fund).

jem16

royal23 wrote: »

what other, better funds would be available?

With Santander - none.

are highstreet bank investment funds per se bad, as dunstonh suggests?

Yes. Use banks for savings, not investments.

i mean they must have thousands of customers, can't be all that bad?

They pull in customers under the premise of "free" advice. Most don't know better.

plus it's a multi managed funds (2 guys managing this fund).

Obviously no guarantee of success.

royal23

ok to sum up: most posters in here suggest i should get out of this

i'll call them tomorrow and see if i can still do that.
if not, i'll wait till the fund has grown at least by 5% since my buying price and then get out. no point exiting at a loss.

is that a good plan?

dunstonh

are highstreet bank investment funds per se bad, as dunstonh suggests?

Yes. There is a general rule of thumb when it comes to equity investing. Rule out the banks, insurance companies and passive managed funds from your research and you are left with a much smaller list which will likely to serve you better. There are exceptions at times but they are rare. Also, note I say equity as insurance companies actually have a good record on non-equity funds (like property and fixed interest).

i mean they must have thousands of customers, can't be all that bad?

IFAs do more business than banks. Yet account for just 1% of complaints at the FOS. Banks are big but their investment business is not. Banks have low quality staff selling low quality products to low knowledge consumers who wouldnt know a good or bad product. Their investment products are increasingly catering for the bottom end of the market for both customers and their sales force (the product is often dumbed down to reduce the chance of complaints so you end up with a compromised product).

plus it's a multi managed funds (2 guys managing this fund).

But only managing sub benchmark performance. If they were any good they wouldnt work for a retail bank. They would be snapped up by the fund houses.

if not, i'll wait till the fund has grown at least by 5% since my buying price and then get out. no point exiting at a loss.

By which time a cheaper equivalent benchmark fund would have gone up 7% and you lose out by waiting.