Sippdeal shocker (& link to template complaint letter)

westy22

juliamarsh - please bear in mind that Fidelity FundsNetwork ISAa are only for funds (OEICs and UTs) and that SVS ISAs are only for shares, ETFs, ITs etc and not funds.

ey143

iii trading platform is rubbish compared to Selftrade and others. I transferred my wife's equity isa to iii some 2 years ago after Selftrade changed their charging and regretted it. Poor developed platform.

Soon after they increase their charges due to RDR which allowed me to move her isa again without charge to TD Waterhouse.

Seriously, when your used to a good web platform with good reporting and features, you only realise what you're missing when you switch to someone else who says "they are improving their platform all the time - pls bear with us".

juliamarsh

westy22 wrote: »

juliamarsh - please bear in mind that Fidelity FundsNetwork ISAa are only for funds (OEICs and UTs) and that SVS ISAs are only for shares, ETFs, ITs etc and not funds.

Thanks for clarifying that, all my HL ISA holdings are in funds so in view of what you are saying SVS wouldn't take them anyway, hadn't looked into it thoroughly yet. Back to the drawing board then!

ey143

To those who have already done the extensive research, including snowman, could you please confirm a previous comment, that a SIPP portfolio that contains only uk equities with a value between £100 and £200k, is still better off with youinvest under the new charging structure compared to ATS and other brokers mentioned here? I haven't as yet had the time to do my own research and you seem smart enough for me to place some faith in your calculations.

Thx.

westy22

Doesn't need much calculating - a Youinvest SIPP of any size over £20k, fully invested in equities (shares, ETFs, ITs), will incur a £100 admin fee only (£25 per quarter). That seems to be the cheapest around (at the moment!).

SnowMan

ey143 wrote: »

To those who have already done the extensive research, including snowman, could you please confirm a previous comment, that a SIPP portfolio that contains only uk equities with a value between £100 and £200k, is still better off with youinvest under the new charging structure compared to ATS and other brokers mentioned here? I haven't as yet had the time to do my own research and you seem smart enough for me to place some faith in your calculations.

Thx.

As westy22 says that is true based on the new Youinvest charging structure because the SIPP admin charge of £100pa is lower than some other providers such as ATS (£186pa) and Trustnet Direct (£144pa + percentage charges ignoring their initial offer). There is no admin charge with HL but their percentage based charges become very big at that level, and TD Direct's 0.5% portfolio value min £96 max £240 means a £240pa charge with them.

However you must remember that Youinvest could with just 30 days notice introduce a platform charge for ETFs and shares or increase their administration charge for SIPPs. From past experience it is reasonable to assume that they would not waive their large and increasing exit charges when they do that. For example a 20 share/ETF portfolio would involve a £575 exit fee to re-register which is almost 6 times the annual charge.

Please don't make the 'mistake' I made of entering in good faith into a contract with Youinvest based on a charging structure, only for them to tear up the contract within about 8 months, quadruple annual charges and charge me 3 years worth of charges to leave.

So paying £114pa for a share/ETF SIPP at x-o might be a better choice. Lower dealing charges for shares/ETFs at x-o also, £5.95 vs £9.95. So 4 trades per year and you are better off with x-o in any case.

ey143

Snowman,
Thx again for your informed comments. Useful as ever.

I have a junior ISA with x-o for my daughter so have used them before. Their platform however looks incredibly light in features and functionality. This might be ok for some but for research and what I would consider "other basic functionality" on other sites eg Selftrade, where I have my equity ISA, it doesn't compare.

What are your thoughts and experience of x-o based on these points? So have your arranged to transfer your SIPP to them - if so what is your current status with youinvest with respect to the complaint. I have not taken my complaint past their last reply, effectively saying no waiver of exit charges.

Thx

SnowMan

ey143 wrote: »

I have a junior ISA with x-o for my daughter so have used them before. Their platform however looks incredibly light in features and functionality. This might be ok for some but for research and what I would consider "other basic functionality" on other sites eg Selftrade, where I have my equity ISA, it doesn't compare.

What are your thoughts and experience of x-o based on these points? So have your arranged to transfer your SIPP to them - if so what is your current status with youinvest with respect to the complaint.

Thx

I'm SIPPless and have never had an account with x-o so can't comment from personal experience I'm afraid. Others seem to find them fine.

I've got a sharedealing account with FD where I hold my ETFs. My hunch is that is probably safe from account fees for the immediate future. Ultimately share dealing services make their money from people buying and selling regularly and I can 'leech' in on the back of that. With the likes of platforms that have funds and shares and no or limited holding costs for shares and ETFs such as Youinvest and TD Direct there is always an uncomfortable imbalance there, and if investors on those platforms move towards shares and ETFs, and hold them long term, then sooner or later the platform will introduce a new platform charge on them.

I've used HL, TD Direct, HSBC Global Investment Centre, Fidelity Fundsnetwork and Youinvest in recent years. I find them all pretty much the same.

HL customer service is quite good as is Youinvest (when I asked for a tax certificate for one of my investments after a tax distribution from HL they sent it on that day, whereas HSBC GIC point blank refused to send the same certificate on and then gave me an incorrect tax certificate after the end of the tax year)

But to me these are minor things. I don't identify with this talk of 'tools' etc. I didn't find any useful tools with HL at all; there seemed to be a HL marketing list of the funds that seemed to pay them most commission, which I ignored. But I guess it depends what sort of investor you are what tools you need.

I've found Trustnet and Morningstar data very handy for getting basic data such as OCFs for the tracker funds I am interested in and recording historic prices to monitor tracking differences against OCFs but they have been freely available.

I have not taken my complaint past their last reply, effectively saying no waiver of exit charges.

My complaint is now with the FOS and my re-registration to ATS is proceeding (slowly). Youinvest delayed the re-registration enough to take another quarterly charge to add to the £140 of re-registration charge and £9.95 sale fee to pay for their £140 ransom.

If you want to take your issue further then check if your last response says it is a final response.

If it is a final response and you think you have been treated unfairly then you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. If it isn't a final response you will have to wait for the final reponse or for 8 weeks from your initial complaint whichever comes sooner, before going to the FOS. Referring to the FOS is a very simple process. There is no great rush. In theory you have 6 months but best not leave it too long. You need to download and complete the complaint form from the FOS website, explain what has happened and why you think it is unfair, and you need to copy in your final reponse (and ideally other correspondence) with the submission, but you don't have to set out the full (legal) case as to why they should waive the exit fee.

ey143

Thx again for the informative reply. Seems your more hard done by youinvest than me. I'm just into equities in my SIPP but failing any cheaper provider out there, looks like I'm possibly best placed to stay with youinvest despite the £100 annual charge for a SIPP value over £100k. Annoying as I do bring them business of a few trades a month.

SnowMan

ey143 wrote: »

I'm just into equities in my SIPP

It does seem to make sense to stay with Youinvest in that scenario.

When (perhaps that should be if) Youinvest do introduce a separate platform charge for equities and ETFs (on top of the £100) in the future or further increase the £100 administration charge you can always complain then.