Interactive Investor - An Incompetent Firm

bowlhead99

Archi_Bald wrote: »

I don't have an ISA with any of them but tried to transfer my SIPP from HL to Halifax Sharedealing, which is administered by AJ Bell. To cut a very long story short, I ended up cancelling the transfer after AJ Bell had made a completely unbelievable amount of mistakes, and after I realised their systems were inflexible and ancient (e.g. have to send a cheque if you want to make just one deposit a year, can't pay by debit card).


I am not saying that HL are the best SIPP provider but I wouldn't wish AJ Bell in any guise on my worst enemy.

I have heard other people moving to or from Halifax and having problems. AJ Bell provide a white-labelled SIPP admin/trustee solution to Halifax, TD Direct and others, operating mostly in the background once setup, in addition to running their own Youinvest platform.

No real problems for me, started using AJB a couple of years ago when Youinvest was sippdeal, via a cash transfer from Aegon. Was not out of the market too long. Your problem could be with the Halifax part. I certainly have no issues doing one off debit card transactions to deposit funds (and get the tax relief back after a month or so depending on the timing of cut off). I think the smallest deposit I did by card was about £4. Never needed to get my chequebook out. For the front end, Halifax and TD and Youinvest are all different front ends, smartphone dealing apps etc and different cash deposit methods. I wouldn't describe Youinvests system as antiquated but it is not the slickest of the main playersand and does the job if your needs are simple.

le_loup

Nixter wrote: »

Would you happen to know if they have the Vanguard range of funds?
Upon brief inspection I wasn't able to spot them on their list...

No sign of Vanguard or:
Miton
Woodford
Chelverton
Twentyfour


But, I'm sure there are alternate funds I could buy and as I will never do another in-specie again, I could rethink the whole issue - but Vanguard for my wife's funds would possibly be insurmountable.

planteria

ChesterDog wrote: »

Not sure about SIPPs (I will look in a minute) but Share Centre offers fixed charges for ISAs and trading accounts, plus the trading fees are discounted 30% if you hold 500 of their own shares: £200-ish)...

i very nearly went with The Share Centre, but followed le loup's lead and went with III;)

as per this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374
i have been having problems with them.
the costs Are Very Important when it comes to a platform, so i am not entirely sure it is wise to move to a higher-priced alternative. but HL were always quality, service-wise, i have to say.

Archi_Bald

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Your problem could be with the Halifax part.

I applied to Halifax. Next I had a letter from AJ Bell telling me they opened an iWeb account for me. I initially thought this is what they do now (iWeb being part of Halifax etc etc), but when I called Halifax several weeks later (after nothing at all had happened to the transfer I had requested), I was told I should not have been given an iWeb account, and that I needed to liaise with AJ Bell over it. They cancelled my iWeb account and opened a Halifax account. Fast forward a few more weeks, and still no transfer of my HL SIPP had happened. I called Halifax again and was told I need to talk to AJ Bell. When I insisted that I was a Halifax, rather than an AJ Bell, customer, they pretended to play ball but my case continued to be processed by AJ Bell employees, with little tangible progress.

Every time I called Halifax, they tried to fob me off by saying I need to talk to AJ Bell. Every time I refused to talk to AJ Bell, Halifax and AJ Bell pretended I was talking to Halifax but I was in fact talking to AJ Bell. Every time that "Halifax" (AJ Bell, in reality) promised to sort out a given problem, they failed to do so. The "Halifax" guy I finally negotiated a resolution with on the phone turned out to be an AJ Bell employee, too - if the signature on his confirmation email is anything to go by.

Halifax, iWeb, AJ Bell - - -all supposedly separate companies, but it seems almost impossible to get any of them to assume clear responsibility. It is also extremely disturbing that they appear to pretend to be employees of one company when they are, in fact, employees of another. I would very strongly recommend that nobody gets their investments lodged with firms where responsibilities aren't clear cut and totally transparent. I won't in future deal with a firm that administers my ISA or my SIPP by contracting some (most?) of the administration out to some other firm.

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I certainly have no issues doing one off debit card transactions to deposit funds (and get the tax relief back after a month or so depending on the timing of cut off). I think the smallest deposit I did by card was about £4. Never needed to get my chequebook out. For the front end, Halifax and TD and Youinvest are all different front ends, smartphone dealing apps etc and different cash deposit methods. I wouldn't describe Youinvests system as antiquated but it is not the slickest of the main playersand and does the job if your needs are simple.

I am a retiree and all I can put into my SIPP is £2,880 a year. Halifax Sharedealing are unable to take this deposit from a debit card or other electronic means - the only way to can contribute is to send them a cheque. I did not get as far as experiencing how they handle the HMRC contribution, or whether they can indeed handle it because of all the other issues, I had in the meantime negotiated my way out of Halifax and AJ Bell. Phew.

You may be right that it is Halifax, rather than their SIPP administrators AJ Bell, that prevent debit card deposits to SIPPs but I am just about deliriously happy now that I won't have to find out who is responsible for that out-of-date restriction.

I hope nobody else will have to experience the behind-the-scenes work of AJ Bell or whoever. It isn't worth the grief - just go with a firm that administers your investment directly.

Archi_Bald

le_loup wrote: »

...I will never do another in-specie again

Why won't you, what happened?

le_loup

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Why won't you, what happened?

It took about four months and multiple c0ck-ups between platforms and fund managers!
OK, I was still in the market but could not trade because things were "in-transit". I have a feeling (what do I know?) that if you apply to a new platform, sell the old platform yourself before new contacts old and get the cash transferred, you are out of the market but for just a couple of weeks, like a cash ISA transfer.

le_loup

planteria wrote: »

i very nearly went with The Share Centre, but followed le loup's lead and went with III

And I followed your lead. I know - weren't we naive? The blind leading the blind.

Archi_Bald

le_loup wrote: »

It took about four months and multiple c0ck-ups between platforms and fund managers!
OK, I was still in the market but could not trade because things were "in-transit". I have a feeling (what do I know?) that if you apply to a new platform, sell the old platform yourself before new contacts old and get the cash transferred, you are out of the market but for just a couple of weeks, like a cash ISA transfer.

Hmh. Sounds a bit of a conundrum, of the sorts of timing the market....

Sell quick, buy again quick(*) - - could be good, bad or indifferent.

Stay invested, unable to sell(*) - - - could be good, bad or indifferent.

Not sure there is a case to be made against, or for, in-specie transfer......a transfer is probably no more than just one of the inevitable ups or downs an investment will experience in its lifetime.

What does matter a lot, IMO, is any transfer charge your provider might apply.

(*) suppose you could always buy new, regardless of whether you are transferring existing investments

bigsy

le_loup wrote: »

I have a feeling (what do I know?) that if you apply to a new platform, sell the old platform yourself before new contacts old and get the cash transferred, you are out of the market but for just a couple of weeks, like a cash ISA transfer.

This type of transfer in cash took about 6 weeks for me in Feb/March of this year, going from BestInvest to IWeb. I sold my BI holdings in advance of the transfer; any 'delays' in the transfer all appeared to be at their end.

epicurate

Personally I've found AJB Youinvest to be fine for my SIPP and ISA. A couple of hiccups, but nothing of the scale people are describing here, and I found them to be pretty good on the phone too when I had questions. I have never tried an in-specie transfer though (and probably never will after the stories here!)