SelfSelect Stocks/Shares ISA - Best Provider

gmgohara

Hi

I am looking to transfer circa £65K from an existing S&S ISA to a Self Select Stocks and Shares ISA which will mainly be invested in funds / shares. In addition, I will also me making monthly contributions (to purchase funds) and ad-hoc contributions to purchase qualifying shares

Which of the Self Select providers would be the best option to look at ?

Shaolin_Monkey

I've found TDDirect reasonable for a combination of funds/shares/ETFs/investment trusts in my ISA. Certainly better than Hargreaves Lansdown for that type of portfolio, as there is no fee for holding shares unlike HL, and they also offer 'clean' funds. However there may be better options depending on the likely makeup of your portfolio.

A good comparison is on the Monevator site: http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers

EdGasket

Take a look at TD Direct Investing (was TD Waterhouse) and SippDeal. Also Hargreaves Lansdowne though I find them dearer.
Compare their costs for what you want to do.

xmodz

hargreaves

and

iweb who i use

and club finance

share.com

vickssinex

The Monevator site is a good starting point for research. I also found the interactive tool at http://www.comparefundplatforms.com useful, although you do need to know which funds you are interested in first.

artisan_2

Is it possible to deposit this years allowance without allocating the exact funds, shares that these will be placed in. Say into a sort of holding or cash 'fund' and then allocate them in coming weeks?

grey_gym_sock

artisan wrote: »

Is it possible to deposit this years allowance without allocating the exact funds, shares that these will be placed in. Say into a sort of holding or cash 'fund' and then allocate them in coming weeks?

yes, most ISA providers will let you stay in actual cash until you're ready to invest. you could also look for cash-like funds, but really that's unnecessarily complicated.

grey_gym_sock

the best ISA provider for funds and for shares are often not the same 1. though of course it can be convenient to have it all in 1 place. if you prefer separate, you can make partial transfers to split an existing ISA.

the following comments are bearing in mind the relatively large ISA value (£65k) ...

alliance trust give you, for £12 per quarter, access to "clean" funds - which means you get many actively managed funds with an AMC of only 0.75%. however, not all funds have made clean classes available yet, so check if the 1s you want are on ATS's fund list. dealing in funds is not free on ATS - they charge £12.50 for standard deals, or £1.50 for regular savings - the same as their charges for shares.

interactive investor will give you access to clean or nearly clean funds for £20 per quarter. (their own charges are fully explicit, but they use cofunds for funds, and cofunds are retaining a small slice of commission from funds which pay it.) the quarterly fee also counts as pre-payment of dealing commissions - which otherwise cost £10 for standard, or £1.50 for regular purchases - so you might well pay no more than £20 per quarter. again, dealing commission does apply to funds.

TD direct's charges are in flux (but then, so are most providers' charges); they would appear to be moving towards charging 0.35% per year for all funds held with them. that might be the only charge for holding funds with them (no dealing commission), but it's poor value for large values for funds.

bestinvest give access to a range of commission-free funds (e.g. vanguard) for an a fee of £15 per quarter. but if you want actively managed funds, they don't have the clean versions and their rebates are not the best - i.e. ATS or ii are better. no dealing commission on funds.

sippdeal give access to clean funds for £12.50 per quarter. but again, don't have the best rebates for actively managed funds. and do charge dealing commission on funds (£9.95 - but free for regular purchases of funds, for the limited number of funds which are available for regular purchases).

HL give access to some clean funds for £2 per fund per month. again, rebates for actively managed funds aren't the best. no dealing commission on funds. they also charge 0.5% per year, capped at £45, for shares held in an ISA.

brasso

Hunting for lowest costs is obviously sensible, however there are other considerations.

I use Hargreaves Lansdown. I dare say they are not the absolute cheapest (and certainly not the most expensive) but I like the platform they provide -- user-friendly interface, and they seem to offer more information than others I've looked at. Also, as a listed company, they have to be transparent which gives me extra confidence.

So I would recommend you take a look at HL.