Iii

stringer_bell

they are so slow at executing buy/sell orders on funds. Sell order placed 29th, still waiting..

juliamarsh

planteria wrote: »

if still requiring a platform, now that the dust has settled, are folks considering iii to be a reasonable, well-priced, option? where else do folks here recommend?

Seriously not. Cheap and nasty. Never was it truer that you get what you pay for. No sooner is one problem sorted out than another one arises - it is constant and I just cannot see any end to it. Several people have recommended AJ Bell - I have heard the service is excellent and they don't charge that much more than II.

juliamarsh

SilverShopper wrote: »

I too am getting this error - on my ISA, but not on the trading account.
After an initial total collapse I'm now getting the last couple of clean conversion items, but nothing going back more than a few days!

Has anyone had a complete recovery yet?

On conversion problems. Before the history dissapeared. II sold one of my funds and bought it back clean in two chunks. On another they bought back the original dirty fund - for a day or two it doubled the value of that holding until I got them to fix it.

Arn't II a caution.

After 3 weeks of phonecalls and secure messages culminating in a personal complaint to Julie Baxter I was finally sent the following message:-

'I am sorry to hear that you are unable to view your Trading History on your SIPP and I apologise for any inconvenience that has been caused.

This issue has arisen during the current Clean Fund Conversion process. We have contacted our IT Team regarding your account and they have confirmed that you cannot see your Trading History due to a trade from 22 January 2016. Please be assured that this issue is one that our IT Team are currently working to resolve as a matter of urgency and we anticipate that this should be completed in the coming weeks. They have also advised that you can still view your Trading History up until 21 January 2016 and from 23 January 2016 by amending the dates on the Trading History tab.'

It was a pity they couldn't have given me this information straight away and once I had it I was able to view my trades....for a few days. Then another trade on a later date started causing issues, but I don't know which date it was from, so every time I want to view the trades it involves a load of faffing around inputting different dates until I eventually find something I can view. Really not the way a reputable company should be operating. This IT issue has been going on since 26th January and still seems no nearer to being sorted out - why should a customer still be having to waste their time like this on an issue that should have been resolved weeks ago? It is ludicrous. Meanwhile, my rebate commissions for June - August have still not been rectified, they paid me on a lower no. of units than I actually held on all my funds for June and August, but July was correct. The money should have been paid to me on 3rd October but 5 months later it is still dragging on - is it really so difficult to work out the correct figures and pay me the difference?! The latest statement, September - December was correct.

What I find most alarming - and a word of warning to advise everybody to check their holdings - one evening I was looking at my holdings and suddenly noticed that the no. of units on one of them had been decreased 6 weeks after a conversion had been made, which I had checked and found to be correct. It was only a very small amount but worryingly there was no documentation of this, the original conversion trade with the original no. of units was all that could be seen on my account. I raised the issue and they corrected it but if I had not happened to notice the discrepancy I am sure it would never have been picked up. I was advised that the missing units were removed in error during the reconciliation process, but I don't buy that as it was 6 weeks after the conversion. How can it happen that units can just be randomly removed from one's account without any notification? The amount was only small but how can I be sure it will not happen again in a more substantial way? We should be able to check the accuracy of a conversion trade at the time it takes place without having to worry that it might be changed weeks later! I then had to waste considerable time checking the number of units on every fund I hold in case any more had been changed - does this mean that I now have to check all the holdings in my accounts on a regular basis just in case someone has randomly decided to remove a few units here and there on the quiet?! You might check one day and everything might be in order but there is no way of telling whether something might be altered the following week or at any time in the future. Ridiculous.

I emailed Julie Baxter a chaser on Monday after the issues I raised with her on 12th Feb had still not been resolved and asked her what she intended to do to put things right for me but she has not replied. Today I went on their facebook page - has anyone noticed that all our posts to the page have been deleted? Only the reviews are still there. They had posted an ad saying 'Vote with your feet. Transfer to us'. I could not resist posting a comment saying that if I was voting with my feet I would be running so fast in the opposite direction from Interactive Investor that my feet wouldn't touch the ground...... :rotfl:

BananaRepublic

juliamarsh wrote: »

Several people have recommended AJ Bell - I have heard the service is excellent and they don't charge that much more than II.

After several months they do seem responsive, private messages are replied to, transfers and buys go through, but I cannot speak for others.

planteria

thanks julia and Banana..
i think i will finish up with 1 fund in my SIPP and 1 fund in my ISA eventually. i am planning to sell individual share holdings as & when it seems the right time. likely to be at least a year though.
i think some platforms are good value for Fund Only investors:think:

Nocto

Wow Julia you have been having some problems.

I must admit that my account has been running smoothly for months now - all dividends correct and paid out within a reasonable time. I hardly ever trade, which perhaps helps! I must admit though that since being with II I check my account far more often than I’d like to, and take regular screen shots, as they haven’t yet earned my trust.

Until this week the fund conversion process seemed to have been going okay (thanks for the warning about units disappearing weeks later - I’ll keep a close eye), however I have noticed that my two dirty Newton funds which converted earlier this week don’t seem to have been changed to the correct clean units.

They’ve converted my funds to Newton Asian Income Inst Inc GBP & Newton Global Income B Inc, which have higher ongoing charges than the ‘W’ class units listed as available for these funds on II’s site. In fact with the loss of the rebate, the charges on these units are more than my old dirty units, by about 0.2%. (‘W’ units would be about the same.)

I did notice the different unit classes on II’s original conversion message, but decided to wait and see what actually happened. (D’oh!)

As I already own ‘W’ units in a Newton bond fund (purchased clean with II), they would seem to be the correct clean class units for Newton funds.

Anyway I’ve called them about it today, and they say that they’ll look into it and get back to me…

My other funds (one still to go) would appear to have been converted into the correct units. That said most other fund managers don’t offer quite as many different unit classes as Newton!

I’m still on the fence whether to stay with II. Today was the first time I’ve had to contact them about anything for nearly a year, so for me there’s no doubt that their service has improved. However once all my funds are clean I’ll be less reluctant to transfer as I won’t be losing rebates while my investments are in the ether between brokers (and in case of iWeb waiting for them to convert them to clean without rebates). I’ll see how they handle my query with the Newton fund conversions, and if it’s handled to my satisfaction and they continue to run my account without any problems I may end up staying with II for the time being…

juliamarsh

That's useful information. Nocto. I very rarely trade either, maybe two or three times a year just to put things into my SIPP or ISA. I would love to be in the position of never having to contact them but I think it is a pipe dream! The 'trades' I was talking about are just the conversions, I wanted to see them to check that they have been executed correctly. I hold those Newton funds too so I am very grateful to you for the information and I shall be asking why they have not been converted to the version with the lowest charges, and checking if there are any other funds in a similar situation. Stupidly I just assumed they would automatically convert them to the version with the lowest charges....I should know better, shouldn't I?!?!

Paulrm71

My Newton G!obal Income fund has been successfully converted (at the moment anyway), but they have converted to the 'B' class which still contains a rebate of sorts. It still appears to be cheaper than the 'W' class, but does that mean it is still a dirty fund? Pretty confusing really.

SilverShopper

juliamarsh wrote: »

....They have also advised that you can still view your Trading History up until 21 January 2016 and from 23 January 2016 by amending the dates on the Trading History tab.'

Thanks for the tip.
After much fiddling around I found that my dodgy conversion transaction was on the 19th. of January, so if I leave the 19th out I can see the rest of them.
Wonder what it was.
I'm using Chome's print to PDF function to record everything to my hard drive to give me some kind of audit trail. II obviously don't think it's that important.

Nocto

Paulrm71 wrote: »

My Newton G!obal Income fund has been successfully converted (at the moment anyway), but they have converted to the 'B' class which still contains a rebate of sorts. It still appears to be cheaper than the 'W' class, but does that mean it is still a dirty fund? Pretty confusing really.

Newton ‘B’ class units are still clean units, just not quite as clean as ‘W’ class ones… According to Trustnet ‘B’ units have an ongoing charge of 1.11% and ‘W’ units an ongoing charge of 0.79%.

So, ‘W’ units are the better ones to own - unless II refunds the difference…

Where did you see anything about rebates? I’ve not spotted this. I know that commission rebates end next month, but when I spoke to AJ Bell last year they were paying very small rebates on some clean units when they weren’t able to offer the cheapest units on their platform (super clean units!). I guess that as this has nothing to do with commission payments it’s still allowed.

I think that frankly these new clean units are a mess. Newton Global Income now has six classes of clean unit (twelve if you include inc & acc), with charges ranging from 0.04% to 1.11%, and it’s not just a simple case of asking your broker to sell you the cheapest ones. On the face of it the 0.04% (‘X’ class units) would be the best to own, but I challenge anyone to find a broker which sells them. I imagine that they are only for other managers fund of funds, or wealth managers, etc.

Which of the other units you should own depends on your stockbroker. I gather that Hargreaves Lansdown and others have struck deals with various fund managers to offer cheaper units (Invesco ‘Y’ class for example), but for me their higher platform charges would more than offset the savings I’d make owning these cheaper units.

I’m asking II for the ‘W’ units as they are the cheapest ones listed on their website (in respect of charges - not unit price!), and as I already own ‘W’ units in another Newton fund purchased through II, they are apparently available on their platform.

I gather from a bit of googling last night that different clean units being offered by the various platforms and brokers are causing problems with transfers. I thought RDR was supposed to simplify things..!