Shares

margamswan

My wife and I have shares managed by The Share Centre,just a single company each,Vodafone and Ladbrokes,no portfolio of shares.
Problem is they keep on charging management fees,and we've had absolutely zero return over many years from our investment as their fees consume much more than any dividends.
For example my shares are worth £107,but I owe them £30 in fees,making my shares worth only £85.
My question is,how do I get out of their grasp without having to cash in my shares. Have I really got to have a share management company to enable me to buy shares,or can I buy them direct.Thanks for any advice.

C_Mababejive

Are they in a nominee account or do you have the certificates? Presumable the former. If so and at that level id simply sell them close the account and deal with another company. However many companies need you to have a certain level invested with them to remain service charge free.

grey_gym_sock

unless you're planning to put more money into shares, i'd just sell - it's not worth it at that low a value.

however, you could ask them to convert your shares into certificates (and then close your account with them). they would surely charge a 1-off fee for this, but it would get you out of their grasp.

marvin

As others have said best to sell and buy elsewhere, most will charge £25 or so to transfer each holding.

Halifax and many others do not charge fees, currently.

margamswan

Great replies guys,thanks a lot for your help.
Looks as if I need to cash the shares in,then buy them again through Halifax,but this time I would hopefully have the certificates in my posession.

gadgetmind

Individual shares just aren't an option without a decent wodge to invest. Anything less than £1k per share involves high fees, and anything more than 5% per share is too risky, so figure on at least £20k for a share portfolio.

Sticking to collective investments below this figure is a useful rule of thumb.

marvin

margamswan wrote: »

Great replies guys,thanks a lot for your help.
Looks as if I need to cash the shares in,then buy them again through Halifax,but this time I would hopefully have the certificates in my posession.

Not if you go through Halifax I think it is nominee only (not sure but I think so as it is online and telephone only).

Holding paper is not always a good thing it is slower to trade for one and you could lose the paper, have it stolen etc.

If you are going to buy shares I would hold them in a nominee account not paper and for small amounts the Halifax sharebuilder is a good option with lower fees structure. My problem with this is it allots part of a share not just whole shares.

However waiting for a Halifax £3.95 trading day is good or use one of the cheap execution only brokers out there.

But one that does not charge an inactivity fee or an account fee.

gadgetmind

Ah, yes, some of these portfolio builders can keep fees down and make smaller holdings cheaper, but how small do you really want to go per share?

donniej

x-o.co.uk are pretty cheap at £5.95/trade, and they don't have any ongoing fees - their charges are listed at http://www.x-o.co.uk/our_charges.htm

This being said, investing such a small amount in shares is not a great idea - just because the trading costs (and other charges) will eat out a great amount of any gains you might make. Investments that charge a percentage fee on the amount invested (e.g. funds) are probably a better bet in that the charges will take less out of your investment (the £30 fee you mention is a 28% charge on your investments - most funds charge 0.3%-2% per year!)