Iii

tg99

minted_visitor wrote: »

I need to switch my ISA away from Fidelity since the platform charges have become extortionate as my investment has grown. On paper Interactive Investor seems like a good choice. I read pages 1-10 and 85-95 of this forum thread ... I wasn't up to ploughing through all 95 pages! Opinion of Interactive Investor seemed positive in the first 10 pages (i.e. back in 2014) but seems distinctly negative in the most recent 10 pages. However that negative opinion seems concentrated on SIPP accounts, conversion from dirty to clean funds, and late payment of dividends.

My situation is:
I don't have or want a SIPP (already retired).
I don't want to engage in any share trading.
I buy and hold funds long-term, I've only ever had to switch one fund because of poor performance.
My funds have nearly all been converted to clean versions.
My funds are nearly all accumulation rather than income funds (so few potential issues with late dividends).

So my question is:
If my goal was to hold only clean, accumulation only, long-term funds then would Interactive Investor be a good choice, i.e. do you think I would be avoiding the problems you all have been describing in recent forum pages?
Thanks!

I'm not with II so can't comment on their competence but worth noting they are acquiring TD Direct who charge a 0.3% platform fee (although it reduces if you are holding a very large amount) for holding funds. Last time I spoke to TD they said they may have some more info by around May of this year in terms of what changes may occur post integration but I am guessing this is probably a bit early. Hence at this stage it is not clear whether a new charging structure will be introduced for TD and/or II customers as a result of the deal.

le_loup

minted_visitor wrote: »

So my question is:
If my goal was to hold only clean, accumulation only, long-term funds then would Interactive Investor be a good choice, i.e. do you think I would be avoiding the problems you all have been describing in recent forum pages?
Thanks!

Yes they would be a great choice - until the next thing goes wrong.
................. and you don't know what that might be!

BLB53

Why take the chance. I had a lot of problems with ii in 2012 and moved to AJ Bell who have been excellent. I would never consider ii ever again...look at Bell or iWeb or Halifax Share Dealing.

goRt

After a long complaints handling process started in 2015, there appeared to be a change of regime early 2016 - my complaints were correctly resolved and the secure messaging team now no longer guess at answers but seem to research and answer correctly.
They still have the lowest platform charge (being flat fee) for me, i still always will monitor transactions closely.

masonic

goRt wrote: »

They still have the lowest platform charge (being flat fee) for me

Are you sure about that?

koru

masonic wrote: »

Are you sure about that?

They can certainly be the cheapest for some people. If you have a trading account and an ISA, then the £80 charge covers both accounts,so £40 each. And if you have family account linking (not available for new accounts), the £80 could cover four accounts, or even more. (For me, it covers 6 accounts, so they are less than £14 each.) And if you use the dealing credits, the net cost is zero.

If you have just one account and don't use the dealing credits then iWeb or Halifax would be cheaper flat fee.

masonic

koru wrote: »

They can certainly be the cheapest for some people. If you have a trading account and an ISA, then the £80 charge covers both accounts,so £40 each. And if you have family account linking (not available for new accounts), the £80 could cover four accounts, or even more. (For me, it covers 6 accounts, so they are less than £14 each.) And if you use the dealing credits, the net cost is zero.

If you have just one account and don't use the dealing credits then iWeb or Halifax would be cheaper flat fee.

Yes, you must also compare the cost of any paid trades you make, but if you are able to subsist on mostly the free ones then I can see how you could save a bit of money with family linked accounts - I had forgotten that some people were grandfathered in to these arrangements.

minted_visitor

BLB53 wrote: »

Why take the chance. I had a lot of problems with ii in 2012 and moved to AJ Bell who have been excellent. I would never consider ii ever again...look at Bell or iWeb or Halifax Share Dealing.

Hmmm...
AJ Bell's platform charges would be almost as eye-watering as Fidelity's so not much incentive to switch there (Fidelity's service has been exemplary).
The downside of iWeb / Halifax is that there are 9 funds in my portfolio that they don't have on their platform (mostly funds in Asia, China, Emerging Markets, India and Japan) whereas ii seem to have them all.:(

BLB53

AJ Bell's platform charges would be almost as eye-watering...

Well My ISA charges with AJ are capped at £30 p.a. which is less than 0.1%..hardly eye watering (unless you have been chopping onions!)

minted_visitor

BLB53 wrote: »

Well My ISA charges with AJ are capped at £30 p.a. which is less than 0.1%..hardly eye watering (unless you have been chopping onions!)

Do you have a special deal? According to their website they charge 0.25% on the first 250K and 0,1% for 250K - 1m. So if, for example, you held 250K it would cost you £625 p.a.