Cheapest Stocks and shares isa

r192

Hi,

i have been investing in shares over the past few years but have baught all these outside an isa, i dont own enough to worry about tax at the moment but want to start a isa this year for funds and shares , i am looking for an account with low charges that i can hold both funds and shares, the funds i will probably contribute to a set monnthly amount and shares a couple of hundread quid each time when i have the spare cash.

looking for the lowest dealing charges and fees.

I currently use halifax for my shares but they do not offer many euro markets or the widest selection of funds.

Thanks for any info

colsten

The cost of a platform depends a lot on what investments you hold, what the size of your investments is, and how often you trade. Cheapest doesn't necessarily mean best value for money.

There is a list of platforms here: http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

IronWolf

If you are looking for access to all the Euro markets then you will struggle, most of the cheaper ISA providers have basic UK and if you're lucky USA.

Saxobank allows European markets among many others, but dealing on UK shares is expensive (£20) but reasonable on foreign shares (~$15). Problem is Saxobank dont deal in funds as far as Im aware (though I've never tried). They also dont do AIM online.

Charles Stanley is the only other ISA provider I know of that offers a wide range of international markets.

It depends how much you want access to European markets, personally I have a Saxo ISA and a Halifax ISA, so I use Saxo for international purchases and Halifax for domestic and AIM. Saxo ISA is £35 a year, Halifax is £12 I think. It takes 2 years to open both though and managing cash between the two is a bit of a headache as you can only pay into 1 per year.

bowlhead99

If you want both funds and shares in an ISA, and you need access to European listed shares, you could use TD Direct who let you do this (UK shares, funds, bonds and 17 international markets for foreign shares)

They have an annual admin fee on the ISA of £30+VAT, which they charge at the end of each May, but they waive it if you have over £5100 in the ISA at the valuation point or if you're signed up to their regular investing service. Been using them for several years, no major problems. For funds, they have an annual platform fee of 0.3%, but there is no fee on the shares side beyond the per-transaction fees (and the annual admin fee if you don't qualify for the waiver).

As per Colsten the 'lowest charges and fees' varies on what combination you're holding. If you do a search on this forum, user Snowman has a spreadsheet shared on a google drive which you can download and tweak the parameters for your circumstances. Also for some pointers on costs see the first few posts on this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3153942

But a number of them will be ruled out if you need to deal foreign shares yourself, rather than, say, holding UK shares direct and then getting access to overseas markets through funds and investment trusts.

colsten

Just happened to see an article on non-UK shares in the Telegraph today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares/10980464/Cheapest-ways-to-buy-overseas-shares.html

IronWolf

Be careful of TD, last time I checked they had horrific FX fees of 2%.

bowlhead99

IronWolf wrote: »

Be careful of TD, last time I checked they had horrific FX fees of 2%.

Yep, unfortunately they still do, assuming your trade is for under 25k

Less of an issue in their standard trading account because all your proceeds can stay as foreign currency cash in their multicurrency accounts so your Dollar or Euro proceeds can just buy more dollar and Euro shares without bouncing back to sterling. Unfortunately ISAs can't hold foreign currency cash so you're stuck swallowing the fx fees both ways on every deal.

There's a lot of choice out there but hard to find a provider that does everything best or cheapest. Saxo are expensive for uk shares, and don't do funds. TD are better for UK, and do funds, and they do foreign shares but with a high fx cost in an ISA. X-O are super cheap for UK shares but don't do foreign stuff or funds, and so on.

Some people will have more than one ISA to take advantage of different features but you generally can't move your holdings between the providers quickly or easily. So if you want to use some Nestle proceeds at Saxo to top up your equity income funds at TD or buy some Tesco shares on a low cost £1.50 a trade scheme somewhere else, it will be a pain.

Another one that does UK shares, overseas shares and funds is Youinvest, their fx fees are not quite as bad as TD but i don't know how many markets they cover; I only really use uk or US listed stuff in that account. But they do have a dealing fee on funds, which might be unwelcome on a small account.

r192

great thanks for the info everyone

DaveTheMus

I use Iweb sharedealing....

a one time £25 opening fee then £5 per trade from then on.....

a good selection of US/UK funds and shares as well.