Stocks & Shares ISAs

eskbanker

dbrookf said:

I have a H&L Stocks & shares ISA - I am thinking of transferring it all to a lower cost investment platform. How would I do this and does it cost anything? (I’m a novice!) thanks.

1. Open account with new ISA provider.
2. Complete their ISA transfer form.
3. Wait.

No costs involved if you transfer 'in specie', i.e. if you transfer all holdings without selling and rebuying (which obviously requires that the new platform offers the investments you wish to transfer), but if you go via cash then you'd pay any applicable dealing charges at each end (and be out of the market for a short time).  A few platforms (e.g. IWeb) have a small one-off upfront charge instead of ongoing annual charges, so you'd have to pay that when opening, but for many it's a price worth paying.

eskbanker

Bragi said:

Does anyone know why Freetrade is not on MSE's main S&S ISA page? They only have a £3/m fee.

The MSE approach to evaluating 'best buy' S&S ISA platforms diverges from their usual simplistic cost-based comparison, so they're not feeling the need to include all low-cost low-choice options in their chosen list - it is essentially arbitrary, but worth noting that they "assume most of your trades will be in funds and not other areas such as shares and ETFs", which isn't an unreasonable position to take when offering guidance to newbies who often start from a belief that they should be buying shares....

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/stocks-shares-isas/#accordion-content-01765096293-0

dbrookf

carrollp said:

dbrookf said:

I have a H&L Stocks & shares ISA - I am thinking of transferring it all to a lower cost investment platform. How would I do this and does it cost anything? (I’m a novice!) thanks.

You would setup an account with the new investment platform and, assuming they allow transfers, follow the instructions on their site. Normally you just enter the details of your existing ISA online or fill out and post a form and they take care of the rest. It should not cost anything and sometimes platforms will give you a bonus to transfer to them.
Note that you will be out of the market for a few weeks while the transfer takes place so you could lose out on gains but also benefit if the market falls. Its probably a good time to do this in my opinion.
If the new platform supports the same funds then your holdings will be transferred over intact but if not then they will sell them and the cash would be transferred to allow you to reinvest in supported funds. In any case your ISA protection is not affected.
You can check out https://comparetheplatform.com/ or http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/ to see what works best for you depending on the size of the portfolio and the amount of trades you do.
Good Luck.

Thank you for your helpful response. Much appreciated!

_Kismet

Article can probably do with an update. I was looking into opening a Cavendish Online S&S ISA over the weekend but since yesterday, Cavendish Online Investments Ltd has been acquired by Fidelity International.

I'm wondering if this changes anything. I've found it difficult to decide between Fidelity and Vanguard platforms. I might be leaning towards Vanguard, because I don't necessarily need thousands of funds to choose from. Quality over quantity.

bpott567

_Kismet said:

Article can probably do with an update. I was looking into opening a Cavendish Online S&S ISA over the weekend but since yesterday, Cavendish Online Investments Ltd has been acquired by Fidelity International.

I'm wondering if this changes anything. I've found it difficult to decide between Fidelity and Vanguard platforms. I might be leaning towards Vanguard, because I don't necessarily need thousands of funds to choose from. Quality over quantity.

I use Fidelity. No problems at all. Low fees and easy to use.
I mainly use my S&S ISA for index funds as they are the lowest costs on there and perform just as well..sometimes better than the higher fee managed funds.

MB1973

I wonder if someone might be able to help me on here please. I have easyjet shares which I have held for a number of years - they are held within a stocks and shares ISA with the share centre. I don't touch these shares and definitely don't want to sell them for some time in light of the current financial market. The shares literally just sit there doing nothing and I don;t make any other transactions.
The share centre is now moving to the ii platform where there will be a fee of £9.99 per month which I obviously would prefer not to pay as the shares are just going to be sitting in the ISA doing nothing. Could anyone please recommend an alternative place to move the ISA to that doesn't charge a monthly fee but will only impose a charge when I actually want to complete a transaction to add to the ISA or cash it in.
Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

ColdIron

IWeb charge a one off £25 opening fee but no annual fee

https://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/our-accounts/self-select-stocks-and-shares-isa.html

X-O might be worth a look

https://www.x-o.co.uk/new-account.html

welchj295

Advice please. My hubby and I currently have approx 90k in ISAs managed by an IFA.   After three years they are worth the same as when we invested or less in some cases.  Obviously we are aware stocks can go up or down but the charges seem to erode any gains away.  We have a low income. My hubby is a basic rate tax payer and I’m not earning so do not pay any tax.   If we keep our ISAs what kind of return should we expect if we went for a level 5 investment?   Do people on a low income need to bother with ISAs or are there any alternatives for savings/investments in this age of low interest rates?  

grumiofoundation

welchj295 said:

Advice please. My hubby and I currently have approx 90k in ISAs managed by an IFA.   After three years they are worth the same as when we invested or less in some cases.  Obviously we are aware stocks can go up or down but the charges seem to erode any gains away.  We have a low income. My hubby is a basic rate tax payer and I’m not earning so do not pay any tax.   If we keep our ISAs what kind of return should we expect if we went for a level 5 investment?   Do people on a low income need to bother with ISAs or are there any alternatives for savings/investments in this age of low interest rates?  

You will need to provide more details of the investment (ie not just level 5). 

The return you can “expect” (given obvious caveat that no one can accurately predict future returns) will vary depending on what you are invested in. Question is whether what you are invested in is suitable for your aims? 

Investing in stocks and shares within an ISA is a good idea as it means you will never have to pay any tax on any profits at any point. 

It might be worth you starting your own thread (with more detail of investments) as you will get more detailed answers. 

meanmum

welchj295 said:

Advice please. My hubby and I currently have approx 90k in ISAs managed by an IFA.   After three years they are worth the same as when we invested or less in some cases.  Obviously we are aware stocks can go up or down but the charges seem to erode any gains away.  We have a low income. My hubby is a basic rate tax payer and I’m not earning so do not pay any tax.   If we keep our ISAs what kind of return should we expect if we went for a level 5 investment?   Do people on a low income need to bother with ISAs or are there any alternatives for savings/investments in this age of low interest rates?  

I would look very carefully at the fees you are paying, to both your advisor and the platform, as these will be eroding your returns. You may be better transferring them to a self managed platform, and/or to lower fee products (such as market trackers) but be careful how you do this, as you need to keep them within the ISA. Remember that ISAs have a CGT benefit too.