Interactive Investor - An Incompetent Firm

Nixter

Seems like iii has just released a new pricing structure for SIPPs.

As my SIPP from Hargreaves Lansdown still hasn't shown up after 7 months up I don't know whether it's good or bad.

http://www.iii.co.uk/sipp

Chickereeeee

rusty69 wrote: »

I am also in the process of transfering one fund from HL to Iweb. I am now 3 months into the process, with continual prompting from me to both parties. HL blame Iweb, and Iweb blame HL. The one (Vanguard fund) disappeared from HL over a month ago, and has not re-appeared anywhere. Today, Iweb tell me they are chasing Cofunds, who they are I do not know, but cannot get a firm transfer date off anyone. The whole process appears to be a complete shambles!

Transfer to iWeb completed last Monday. Probably would have been a week or or two quicker if someone at iWeb had spotted earlier that HL had completed the forms incorrectly. Some quick chasing by iWeb person of Cofunds and HL, plus actual update telephone calls to me, and it is done (apart from some cash, which was always going to be last).

OldDIYer

The II website is really hard work!

The search facility is hopeless and it's so hard to find things - especially ETFs - no filtering apart from by provider - and ridiculous info - eg initial charges of 3 or 5% when there are none and min investment figures of £100,000 or £2.7m which is obviously wrong!

Freefall123

trevbrierley wrote: »

The II website is really hard work!

The search facility is hopeless and it's so hard to find things - especially ETFs - no filtering apart from by provider - and ridiculous info - eg initial charges of 3 or 5% when there are none and min investment figures of £100,000 or £2.7m which is obviously wrong!

Try logging in, then seaching, the search wont then show you funds that you cannot buy such as those for institutions that buy £100,000 and at diffrent charge rate

masonic

Freefall123 wrote: »

Try logging in, then seaching, the search wont then show you funds that you cannot buy such as those for institutions that buy £100,000 and at diffrent charge rate

Sadly that isn't very reliable either. I've been caught out by unit classes that can be dealt online, but for which the order fails because the unit class is not really available. The best way I've found is to look up the unit class offered by HL and then search for it over at aye aye.

coyrls

masonic wrote: »

Sadly that isn't very reliable either. I've been caught out by unit classes that can be dealt online, but for which the order fails because the unit class is not really available. The best way I've found is to look up the unit class offered by HL and then search for it over at aye aye.

Or use the Trustnet Direct fund search facility. Trustnet Direct is a front for iii but I think their native tools are better than what you get with iii but perhaps this is just me trying to justify the extra I pay for Trustnet Direct!

masonic

coyrls wrote: »

Or use the Trustnet Direct fund search facility. Trustnet Direct is a front for iii but I think their native tools are better than what you get with iii but perhaps this is just me trying to justify the extra I pay for Trustnet Direct!

My understanding is that while II does use its own sharedealing service, the funds part of its platform is run by Cofunds, so presumably this is what Trustnet Direct is also using.

There are some nice features on that site. Obviously leagues ahead of what II has to offer.

coyrls

masonic wrote: »

My understanding is that while II does use its own sharedealing service, the funds part of its platform is run by Cofunds, so presumably this is what Trustnet Direct is also using.

There are some nice features on that site. Obviously leagues ahead of what II has to offer.

No, I don't think III use Cofunds any more, that's partly where all these issues are coming from, I believe. Also I thought what you thought when I signed up to TrustNet Direct but in fact iii do all the "transactional services" which turns out to mean "everything", including answering the phone and sometimes forgetting to say "TrustNet Direct" instead of "Interactive Investor". The only thing that TrustNet Direct do is the nice Web Site (that seduced me!).

xylophone

According to what my relative reports, he was told that the "custodian" of funds held on their platform is FNZ.

He rang up to find out what had happened to a distribution from a fund due on 28 July.

After several minutes of hanging on, he was told that it appeared that no money had beed received by II from the custodian in respect of this fund - II will investigate.......

masonic

coyrls wrote: »

No, I don't think III use Cofunds any more, that's partly where all these issues are coming from, I believe. Also I thought what you thought when I signed up to TrustNet Direct but in fact iii do all the "transactional services" which turns out to mean "everything", including answering the phone and sometimes forgetting to say "TrustNet Direct" instead of "Interactive Investor". The only thing that TrustNet Direct do is the nice Web Site (that seduced me!).

Interesting. That probably explains why the finger has been pointed at FNZ for certain issues, which probably wouldn't be the case if they were still using Cofunds.

Trustnet Direct would therefore also have the same issues with late payment of dividends. That's well worth knowing as they'd otherwise be a contender for those unhappy with II and reluctant to crawl back to HL.