iii threatening to sell my shares if i don't pay quarterly fee

matzuba

I am not an active investor and have been travelling and working outside of the UK for some time now. I realise i should be paying attention to my account but i get the daily email which tells me how bad my 1 holding is making so i don't login.

I started receiving emails alerts from Interactive Investor in April 2013. I had not accessed my account for a long time and had to go through the password reset process as well as setup new login details to conform to their new login procedure.

When i gained access to my account, i could not understand the the value of my holdings and there was a secure message saying that they had tried to take a 20 quarterly fee but my card could not be charged as it had expired. I contacted them about the fee and why my account was balance was not showing what my shares were worth. They told me i owed them all these fees and i would have to pay before they would let me use my account or transfer to another provider.

I've tried to reason with them but they are adamant that i owe these fees. They have said that they emailed me about the fees and because it is updated on their website that i've had more then enough notice as the fee structure has been in place for more then a year. I can honestly say i have did not get the message, i've gone through my email and have no record on the dates they say they told me. As i say, i am not active on my account - how can they just do this? Surely, a better way would have deactivated my account as i have not logged in and tried to use their services. I have not agreed to these fees and never knew they were charging me. What would they do to someone's account who completely forgot? charge and charge?

They are now threatening to sell my shares to pay the fees? Not sure where i stand?

any advice appreciated

dunstonh

I've tried to reason with them but they are adamant that i owe these fees.

iii is an explicitly charged platform (unbundled). It is not commission based (bundled). You pay the fees explicitly.

i've gone through my email and have no record on the dates they say they told me. As i say, i am not active on my account - how can they just do this?

Have they got your current email address?
Do you have a spam filter and are iii whitelisted?

Surely, a better way would have deactivated my account as i have not logged in and tried to use their services.

That would require them to sell your investments and return your money in cash.

I have not agreed to these fees and never knew they were charging me. What would they do to someone's account who completely forgot? charge and charge?

The FCA require all platforms to move to unbundled basis for new business by 2014 and existing business by 2016. iii made a number of mistakes in how they handled the move but it was a required move.

They are now threatening to sell my shares to pay the fees? Not sure where i stand?

Why are you using a platform when you dont appear to want platform services? Maybe you should just use a basic stockbroker service.

It is normal for all platforms to sell units/shares to meet fees if the cash account balance is insufficient to meet the fees.

ermine

matzuba wrote: »

They are now threatening to sell my shares to pay the fees? Not sure where i stand?

any advice appreciated

They're within their rights, after all, they've given you about six months notice. It's hardly their fault that you can't be bothered to read the numerous notices from them. It's only £20, and since you can live so long without checking how things are doing you're clearly a person of some means, so let it go, they really did try to contact you for a very long time.

I shifted to TD about October last year to avoid that particular fee. Pay up, and if you don't want the bother of platform charges and services take your holding certificated (paying the relevant exit and certification fee) or find a platform that will hold your stock without charge for now. If you want to keep it in an ISA you have to use a platform.

The FSA have really bug-gered platforms up with their retail distribution review and particuarly shafted the low-churner and holders of passive funds who were being subsidised by all the backhanders being paid by active funds. The whole fees and charges will be in flux for another year, iii have decided to chase business form the slightly more active investor. You don't seem to fit that profile, so you have to move or pay over the odds.

jimjames

matzuba wrote: »

I started receiving emails alerts from Interactive Investor in April 2013. I had not accessed my account for a long time and had to go through the password reset process as well as setup new login details to conform to their new login procedure.

Surely, a better way would have deactivated my account as i have not logged in and tried to use their services. I have not agreed to these fees and never knew they were charging me. What would they do to someone's account who completely forgot? charge and charge?

They are now threatening to sell my shares to pay the fees? Not sure where i stand?

any advice appreciated

It sounds like they did deactivate your account through lack of use. If you don't log in for over a year and don't receive the emails I'm not sure what more they can do to notify you.

If you don't like the charges then sell up and move elsewhere that charges less. If its an ISA though make sure you move it rather than just getting the cash out.

matzuba

Thanks for the constructive criticisms and your views.

Not sure if setting the scene helps and providing a little more background.

I bought the shares in one company and this was my first entry into share dealing and you're probably right that i am using the wrong product. I believe that when i signed up to the platform, there were no fees except when i bought shares - I certainly was not charged any. i have not just signed up, this was perhaps maybe 3-4 years ago.

I had plans to be more involved. I lost my job and went backpacking for a year or so the tail end of 2009 so yes my fault for not "staying" in touch yes but this is not because i am not bothered or am of some means "ermine". I was getting the email price updates for my shares which i checked, these did stop for a time thou but started up again. I've since been working/living in Australia and yes my fault, I've not paid much attention to the shares. I am trying to get my finances in order and the secure messages prompted me to access my account and do this.

To be clear:
-my email address has never changed
-The email alerts/notices indicating i had a secure message only started in April. I've had no other emails from them, there are no other secure messages on there portal apart from starting from the date in april. No other notifications.
-They are charging fees from when they first started so it is not 20 pounds
-I am looking into moving to a more suitable platform or getting the paper certificate issued, but i have to pay all these fees before i can do anything which kinda wipes out my bad investment.

I just find it hard to suck up that i have been charged for something i didn't know i was being charged for or that i signed up for ( maybe it is buried somewhere in the T&Cs). Why would i just leave the account sitting there accumulating charges, i wouldn't! I honestly didn't know and i know i should have paid more attention.

I realise i am not whole innocently here but i honestly did not know they were applying charges against my account.

again, thanks for your comments.

atush

You owe them quartly fees since they were introduced. Whenever that was. If april, you probably owe 2x, wait longer and you'll owe more.

Or, now you are working, why not start investing More money? Use a platform that does not charge if you make one trade/quarter etc. The fee will make more sense if you have more invested, or like other s said, move it elsewhere.

doughnutmachine

I had a share dealing with account with abbey national. when I started the account there wasn't any quarterly fees. then after a few years they started asking for quarterly fees. I politely told them I no longer wished to do business with them.

You could ask them if this fee is a new thing? if it is you could maybe try and cancel the contract (I have a faint memory that when a party changes a contract the other party can cancel the contract).

It sounds like you'd be better with your shares in a certificate instead of a platform. Be aware that if you start buying more shares you will have a mass of mail delivered to your house

grey_gym_sock

i think it's £20 per quarter starting on 1 july 2012, so i'd expect them to be asking for 5 x £20 by now.

they did send out 1 or 2 emails when they introduced the new charges. emails can fail to arrive for various reasons (e.g. over-enthusiastic spam filters).

they did offer free transfer out (to another broker, or as share certificates) at the time, but only if you acted quickly. you could ask for that now, though i doubt if you'd get anywhere.

matzuba

Thanks Guys.

Yes - it looks like 100 in fees which pretty much leaves me 50 squid from the shares.

they have quoted dates on 4 occasions when they have emailed me and the fact there was a notice on their website. By chance if you rem, how id these emails come out to you? via a secure notification or a general email?

I am looking into a more suitable option for my shares. My current concern is how to deal with these fees first though. Maybe they will let me use the fees to buy shares so they still get their money. Unfortunately, due to being out of the the country, i don't think i can get a share ISA so would be paying tax on the shares i bought.

If you don't agree to something, how can they charge? Sending out emails and getting no response is not acceptance of the charge is it?

bigadaj

Matzuba you can keep complaining but need to acknowledge what is and what isn't reasonable. Iii took a lot of stick when the fees came in, and gave notice and eventually a no cost option for transferring out. Not checking investments for over a year probably isn't reasonable, so your only complaint wold be that their notifications didn't come through. Raise as a complaint with them and they might waive some charges but it sounds as though you only put £150 in anyway which isn't enough for any reasonable single investment.

matzuba

Hi and thanks.

Yes i do accept that.

My life was elsewhere, I was getting the daily updates so i knew what my investment was worth. I just did not login. I only started getting the secure messages when they tried to take payment about 2-3 months ago.


The initial investment was a lot more then 150, a bad investment by me which i accept.