Iii

Allots

xylophone wrote: »

There you are - what did I say?:)

Well that's fantastic, after 5 attempts they have actually got the document right...albeit 8 months after the end of the tax year....

What about the rest of the ongoing errors ! :(

xylophone

Well that's fantastic, after 5 attempts they have actually got the document right.

You should have seen my account page after their attempts to "restate" (no, not reinstate) dividend payments, not to mention the tax reclaim in error.....if you didn't laugh you'd cry?

And yet.... I haven't actually lost anything, all I'm due has been paid and I'm hopeful that my cash transfer will take place....

Have I been bludgeoned into submission?:eek:

juliamarsh

xylophone wrote: »

There you are - what did I say?:)

Well, I stand corrected!!!!

slinga

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

it varies for different providers. some charge 1 percentage on the first £250k (or on the first however much), and a lower percentage on the next bit - i.e. they have tiered charges; others charge a lower percentage on the whole amount invested when your investments go over a £250k - i.e. not tiered.

also, note that, if you have several accounts with the same provider (e.g. ISA, SIPP, taxable), some of them work out the charges separately for each account; but others consider all yours accounts together when working out the charges. the latter approach is more favourable to you.

so you need to read their charges carefully!

i think that "saga investment services" are saying that they use tiered charges, separately for each account. their site says "powered by tilney bestinvest", and the charges appear very similar to bestinvest's charges, except with a temporary free offer on the first £15,000.



HL charges do go to a lower percentage after £250k (using tiered charges, separately for each account).

however, if you have enough invested in funds to reach a higher tier (e.g. £250k+), a fixed-fee platform will generally be a lot cheaper for you (and iii is not the only fixed-fee platform ).

Thanks for the confirmation.

I think this point is very important and while I haven't read every thread on this forum I've read many and this point has never been raised.

Are all the platforms upfront with 'tier charging' or can you only find it in the small print???

Is iii a fixed fee platform???
Ah! I note the difference between 'fixed fee' and 'fixed %age'


Also when I look at platform comparison sites then :-
http://langcatfinancial.co.uk shows for 250k invested
HL charges 0.45%
iii charges 0.1%
youinvest charges 0.15%

and

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com shows for 250k invested
HL charges 0.4%
iii charges 0.02%
youinvest charges 0.07%

So the comparison sites don't appear to be in agreement over charges.

bigadaj

Are you comparing like with like, platforms will have different fees depending on how you fold funds, whether unwrapped, in an isa, or in a sipp.

Some also consider all your holdings and some just consider individual accounts separately.

EdSwippet

slinga wrote: »

Are all the platforms upfront with 'tier charging' or can you only find it in the small print???

They're all pretty upfront. This page at Monevator aggregates them all into one handy table for at-a-glance comparison.

slinga wrote: »

Is iii a fixed fee platform???

It's fixed fee. Find the others in the 'Flat Fee' section of the above Monevator page.

slinga wrote: »

So the comparison sites don't appear to be in agreement over charges.

Platforms vary not only in annual or percentage fee, but also on how much they charge for trading, whether or not they charge extra fees for funds, ETFs, both, and so on. Comparison sites have to make assumptions about all of these in order to compare like with like. However, their assumptions won't match your case. The only way to get a proper comparison for yourself is to look at what you hold (or intend to hold), how much you will trade, and work out the approximate charge on each platform for that. To frustrate this further, a cheap platform for low balances might well be a very expensive one for high balances, so be prepared to move in future.

To redress the balance somewhat on this thread, I hold an inactive SIPP on III, transferred out from a former employer scheme. It operates fine and I'm happy with it. (But then, I don't trade in it, don't collect dividends -- all acc funds -- and don't need a tax voucher :-) )

grey_gym_sock

slinga wrote: »

Are all the platforms upfront with 'tier charging' or can you only find it in the small print???

Is iii a fixed fee platform???
Ah! I note the difference between 'fixed fee' and 'fixed %age'

well, there are at least 3 main kinds of charges:

1) fixed number of £ per month/quarter/year
2) fixed number of £ each time you buy or sell a fund
3) annual percentage charge on current value of your funds

so basically, i'd call it 'fixed fee' if a platform doesn't charge (3) - i.e. it might charge (1) or (2) or both.

and it's a 'percentage fee' platform if they do charge (3) - and they might also charge (1) or (2).

generally, fixed fee is cheaper when you have a larger amount invested. with a smaller amount, percentage fee is better - but preferably without extra charges for (1) or (2).

see monevator's guide - http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/ - what they call 'flat fee' vs 'percentage fee' is roughly the same thing. though you do need to check the details.

a few percentage fee platforms (e.g. youinvest), have such a low cap on their percentage fee (e.g. £200) that they are quite close to flat fee. but most have a cap of well over £1,000 (if any cap).

the comparison sites don't appear to be in agreement over charges.

they may be making different assumptions about how often you buy and sell, since that affects the exact charges with 'flat fee'.

or they may make different assumptions about whether you're investing in funds (unit trust & OEICs) or in shares (including investment trust & ETFs) or a mixture. i have been assuming funds so far. however, some platforms charge differently for funds and shares: the same platform may charge percentage fees for funds but flat fee for shares. some ppl even choose to invest in shares instead of funds in order to cut their platform charges!

Allots

And yet.... I haven't actually lost anything, all I'm due has been paid and I'm hopeful that my cash transfer will take place....

Have I been bludgeoned into submission?:eek:[/QUOTE]

My biggest concern with II is that unless you monitor your account regularly and point out the errors, the problems will not be picked up by II and therefore clients lose out. They should not be making the types of basic errors that they make. I do feel sorry to clients that are unaware of the pitfalls or do not have the knowledge to know what they should be expecting. I have some outstanding queries with II, some of which relate to basic bookkeeping errors, how worrying is that! _pale_

talexuser

slinga wrote: »

Am I correct in that and does that apply to all platforms which have banded costs????

Depends on the platform.
For example Cavendish costs 0.25% on everything for fund ISAs, no matter how much you have (they use Fidelity Fundsnetwork).
If you go to Fidelity direct they charge 0.35% up to 250k and 0.2% over 250k, but then 0.2% on the whole amount. So for small amounts Cavendish is cheaper than Fidelity, for large amounts Fidelity is cheaper than Cavendish.

xylophone

some of which relate to basic bookkeeping errors, how worrying is that!

I know.....I had to draw their attention to HMRC's pages on the taxation of UK REITS and to explain the concept of a Notice Cash ISA.....

Things might improve..."hope springs eternal" and all that!


Happy Christmas to you all!:A