Investment Platforms/Supermarkets - good and bad points

phuket

For a while now I have been looking at alot of the well known DIY fund supermarkets and investment platforms including Hargreaves Lansdown, Bestinvest, iii, ATS, Cavendish & Fidelity.

Although they all seem to offer something slightly different and currently have different charges it's hard to decide between them. I was wondering whether other users would like to post their thoughts and experiences about some of these platforms in this thread. (There are some existing threads dealing with specific issues but I couldn't find a thread for general discussion).

So what are your experiences, which platforms do you recommend? Which have poor service? Any unreliable systems?

psychic_teabag

HL and Best have very friendly web sites. I hear that HL have very good telephone help, but I've never used that myself. I think HL is slightly better if you want to manage another family member's account for them - you can switch fully without having to relogin. Best lets you view other accounts, but not deal on them, I think.

Cavendish doesn't have their own platform - you just log into Fidelity. The web interface is pretty crude IMHO. I have heard that if you go to Fidelity directly, you get slightly better tools than if you use Cavendish. Specifically, going in via Cavendish, it doesn't show you what you paid for your funds, only the current value. So there's no report of growth.

But of course, Cavendish refunds more of the trail commission than HL or Best. So you have to decide whether the better web interface is worth paying for. (You can still use HL or Best for research, even if you're not a customer.)

I have no experience with ATS or iii

dunstonh

Most of the platforms in the DIY world have to move from bundled (hidden commissions) to unbundled (fee basis). This is likely to be completed by the end of the year but some may wait until 2014. So, one thing to make sure if you pick a bundled platform is that it has an easy transfer out method. Ideally at no cost.

bigfreddiel

this may help

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

fj

Froggitt

dunstonh wrote: »

Most of the platforms in the DIY world have to move from bundled (hidden commissions) to unbundled (fee basis). This is likely to be completed by the end of the year but some may wait until 2014. So, one thing to make sure if you pick a bundled platform is that it has an easy transfer out method. Ideally at no cost.

Which rules out Hargreaves Landsdown from the OP list. £30 per holding, or sell and transfer as cash.

Lokolo

Froggitt wrote: »

Which rules out Hargreaves Landsdown from the OP list. £30 per holding, or sell and transfer as cash.

I wouldn't be so dismissive. Personally I think buying into HL, then when (or if) the time comes, the OP sells their holdings, transfers as cash then rebuys. They are likely to be out of the market for only a few weeks.

That is what I am planning to do.

Froggitt

So say yo have a £5k holding in Acme inc. Assuming the market hasnt moved, and a 5% spread, you sell at £1.00 and rebuy a few weeks later at 95p. Thats cost you £250 to transfer as cash.

Isnt it better to swallow the £30 charge?

Isnt it even better to use someone other than HL?

Lokolo

Froggitt wrote: »

So say yo have a £5k holding in Acme inc. Assuming the market hasnt moved, and a 5% spread, you sell at £1.00 and rebuy a few weeks later at 95p. Thats cost you £250 to transfer as cash.

Isnt it better to swallow the £30 charge?

Isnt it even better to use someone other than HL?

Why have you assumed a 5% spread? The OP hasn't said anything about what they intend to invest in.

And no it isn't neccessarily better to use someone other than HL because we don't know the full extend of the RDR yet. HL could end up being the cheapest for the OP.

At least if the OP goes to HL it will be very cheap for them for the next 8 months (assuming funds), at which point they can then weigh up all the options available, post RDR and find out which would be most suitable.

My point is that you shouldn't be dismissive of HL because of their transferring out fees, as this is only a small part of the process.

edit - if you are going to dismiss HL for their £30 fee, then I assume you are dismissing every other platform based on transfer out fees? Which is likely to include the majority of platforms.

phuket

Thanks for all comments so far. Just wanted to add that I am interested in discussing what you actually get in terms of service, account management features, usability etc as well as costs.

If you are primarily interested in the platform with the lowest fees it's easy to compare with http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/ but this doesn't tell you anything about what you are actually getting. As we all know you tend to get what you pay for.

Lokolo

phuket wrote: »

Thanks for all comments so far. Just wanted to add that I am interested in discussing what you actually get in terms of service, account management features, usability etc as well as costs.

If you are primarily interested in the platform with the lowest fees it's easy to compare with http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/ but this doesn't tell you anything about what you are actually getting. As we all know you tend to get what you pay for.

Then pyschic teabag's post is just fine for that.

Jegersmart

I use Fidelity and have done for many years. I am happy with the service, and they do have a portfolio valuation and analysis as part of the package. As far as I see, they are not RDR compliant yet.

J