Vanguard, is iWeb the cheapest?

bertpalmer

Hey folks, I'm SO poor with math, but hoping you guys can verify my findings... I'm looking to slowly move away from HL due to the charging structure, I have over £20K with them so it makes sense to find a cheaper alternative. The cheapest I can find is iWeb.

iWeb has a £25 opening charge and a £5 fund buying fee. Include the .33% AMC, and on £30000 that's £129.00 a year.

Interactive Investor has a £80PA account charge. £0 fund buying fee. Include the .29% AMC, and on £30000 that's £167.00 a year.

HL has a .16 initial setup charge and a .45% account charge. Include the .33% AMC, and on £30000 that's £282.00 a year.

Am I right? Thanks in advance!

TCA

The AMC/TER for Vanguard LifeStrategy products was revised down from 0.33% to 0.29% across the whole range. 0.16% is the dilution levy for LifeStrategy 100% and you will be charged that and the 0.29% AMC/TER regardless of which platform you choose, so you can largely ignore these and look at platform charges only. Try here:

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

FWIW, I intend to use iWeb for LS100 in the future, but that's not to say their charging won't change. You should also check their product range in case your investment choice is likely to change too.

bertpalmer

Thanks TCA - .33% is still showing on the HL and iWeb...?

The other platforms don't mention a TER of .16% - surely they would if they are charging it?

Glen_Clark

bertpalmer wrote: »

Hey folks, I'm SO poor with math, but hoping you guys can verify my findings... I'm looking to slowly move away from HL due to the charging structure, I have over £20K with them so it makes sense to find a cheaper alternative. The cheapest I can find is iWeb.

iWeb has a £25 opening charge and a £5 fund buying fee. Include the .33% AMC, and on £30000 that's £129.00 a year.

Interactive Investor has a £80PA account charge. £0 fund buying fee. Include the .29% AMC, and on £30000 that's £167.00 a year.

HL has a .16 initial setup charge and a .45% account charge. Include the .33% AMC, and on £30000 that's £282.00 a year.

Am I right? Thanks in advance!

I suggest you ignore AMC and look at TER - Total Expense Ratio.
If they don't quote TER then go elsewhere because they are hiding some of their charges!!
Have you considered Vanguard ETF's ?
Total Expense Ratio as low as 0.09% (VUSA)
No holding charges in most platforms - including HL
Buying/Selling charges as low as £5.95 (X-O)

TCA

bertpalmer wrote: »

Thanks TCA - .33% is still showing on the HL and iWeb...?

The other platforms don't mention a TER of .16% - surely they would if they are charging it?

They're both in need of updating. Go to the LS100 page in the iWeb/Halifax funds library and click the KIID

http://halifaxiweb.digitallook.com/cgi-bin/digital/security.cgi?username=&ac=&id=2569238

Or go straight there: http://halifaxiweb.digitallook.com/get_kiid?mex_code=VVLSRU&local_code=B41XG30

The 0.16% dilution levy is sometimes not communicated clearly on some platforms but it exists.

boglehead

bertpalmer wrote: »

Hey folks, I'm SO poor with math, but hoping you guys can verify my findings... I'm looking to slowly move away from HL due to the charging structure, I have over £20K with them so it makes sense to find a cheaper alternative. The cheapest I can find is iWeb.

iWeb has a £25 opening charge and a £5 fund buying fee. Include the .33% AMC, and on £30000 that's £129.00 a year.

Interactive Investor has a £80PA account charge. £0 fund buying fee. Include the .29% AMC, and on £30000 that's £167.00 a year.

HL has a .16 initial setup charge and a .45% account charge. Include the .33% AMC, and on £30000 that's £282.00 a year.

Am I right? Thanks in advance!

I like iweb, but their platform really isnt great. Youinvest is slightly better and offer regular monthly savings on a wide selection of stocks and etf ( including vanguard). That means £1.5 per transaction and no platform fee (while funds on iweb or youinvest have charges)

Worth considering

boglehead

Glen_Clark wrote: »

I suggest you ignore AMC and look at TER - Total Expense Ratio.
If they don't quote TER then go elsewhere because they are hiding some of their charges!!
Have you considered Vanguard ETF's ?
Total Expense Ratio as low as 0.09% (VUSA)
No holding charges in most platforms - including HL
Buying/Selling charges as low as £5.95 (X-O)

Unless u want to replicate the sp500 only, id go wider index with vwrl... slightly more exp (0.25%) but more diversified and also has EM stocks inc'd

Glen_Clark

boglehead wrote: »

Unless u want to replicate the sp500 only, id go wider index with vwrl... slightly more exp (0.25%) but more diversified and also has EM stocks inc'd

Yes I have both with more in VWRL.:beer:

yatinsardana

What's the difference between VWRL and VLS80 or VLS100?

They both seem to be tracking global equity. VWRL has total TER of .25% whereas VLS has 0.33 and a 0.16 entry.

VWRL seems to be quite heavily weighted towards US market (48% holdings) vs VLS which is taking a more balanced approach. Do you think it's worth holding this ETF rather than the fund to escape the higher TER

boglehead

yatinsardana wrote: »

What's the difference between VWRL and VLS80 or VLS100?

They both seem to be tracking global equity. VWRL has total TER of .25% whereas VLS has 0.33 and a 0.16 entry.

VWRL seems to be quite heavily weighted towards US market (48% holdings) vs VLS which is taking a more balanced approach. Do you think it's worth holding this ETF rather than the fund to escape the higher TER

VWRL is perfectly weighted to the world market cap. The US weights seems big, because in actual terms, the US market cap represents 48% of the total world market cap (equity market only).

I usually prefer ETF, as they are cheaper than funds - assuming you meet the minimum trading amount based on your trading fee. I pay £1.5 per trade with my broker... so as long as I invest 1.5/0.45% £333 each time, a fund doesn't make sense (based on avg funds platform charge)

ETF are then free to maintain - no platform fee whatsoever.

Here is 100% of my portfolio (both ISA and taxable account)

80% vwrl (world equities) 0.25% ter
10% slxx (corp bonds) 0.20% ter
10% vgov (gov bonds) 0.12% ter

These are the cheapest ETF for my investment profile, with the smallest bid/ask spread.

patgarrett

Hi,
Just looking for some advice on fees. I recently invested 75k in a HSBC American Index Class C - Accumulation fund (SP500 tracker). For some reason I misread the fee structure for this fund - I thought the TER was 0.1% when actually because the fund involves clean share classes the fee is closer to 0.4%, which doesn't seem good value for this particular tracker.
I've read that the ETF VUSA is a better option. Can anyone provide any advice on who I should buy this with? On another thread someone mentioned that x-o.co.uk has a TER of 0.09%. Is this the best offer out there?
Thanks for any suggestions.