The best Share dealing account

soulman247

Hi

I am just starting out in income investing (dividends) and looking for the best share dealing account for this.

The best share dealing account
-Income investing
-No more then £1000 in each trade or each 4-5 months
-I will invest in investment trusts for income
-I will more then likely invest in USA

Please suggest the best Share dealing account (UK)

planteria

i have an account with Hargreaves Lansdown, which I am in the process of transferring to iii.co.uk--so that is the company that i decided were the best option for me, with funds & shares (including US shares)
the transfer is going very slowly, and the customer service at the latter has been poor, and so i can't say i recommend iii.

Nixter

As been mentioned on many threads here already, I would AVOID Interactive Investor at all cost.

They are incompetent fools who should not be allowed to operate in financial services.
They are definitely cheap for a reason.
You have been warned.

PenguinJim

Do you travel much? I'm opening a bank account and trading platform the next time I'm in either Singapore or Hong Kong (whichever comes up first), as my UK platform charges 1.5% for foreign currency investments (and then 1.5% when selling as well, I *think*, so ~3%).

3% may not look like much when you're looking at £1,000, but if your endgame is £100,000 invested in US$, that's £3,000 lost to currency conversions. Not worth flying over specifically for, IMO, but if you're going to be in that neighbourhood in the next 12 months or so anyway, it may well be worth doing.

(Don't transfer internationally using your bank, either - use an international currency transfer company, such as UKForex (that's an example, not a recommendation for UKForex, as I have not used them))

Alternatively, if that kind of travel isn't an option, it sounds like you'll want a UK trading platform without inactivity fees (some charge for lack of use on a quarterly basis), with the lowest possible currency conversion charge, and probably with a fixed rate for transactions (for example, IWEB charge £5 for buying, so assuming a lifetime buy/sell, that's 1% of your £1,000 (you may want to "assume" it's less than 1% as your investment will surely grow to larger than £1,000 ).

There's an article here which compares the prices of several platforms and also references investment trusts. IWEB certainly looks to be the cheapest for you, but I'm not sure if that correlates to "best" - it's a rather straightforward service, with little in the way of additional investor tools or market advice. That suits me just fine - I use them myself for UK investments, as I anticipate perhaps a dozen transactions a year for my first few years, and then just two or three per year for the following couple of decades.

Ssshh! Don't tell anyone, but I also have a "Practice Account" with The Share Centre, which I use to partly mirror my real portfolio, but also play with investments in other companies and get more market information. It's free.

And I also mirror my portfolio on Google Finance, which also provides relevant news and information for my current and potential investments (again, for free).

George707

Hi there

I would put in a shout for Hargreaves and Landsdown here as a reassuring destination for small time investors looking for buy and hold trades. (looks like Soulman247 is in this category).

H&L are not the cheapest, but they do appear a lot on the tele and personally I find this a great reassurance. I have tried several online share dealing services over the years and often felt insecure about who I was trusting my money with. H&L have a user friendly site and have built up a major brand presence in the UK, which no doubt they wish to protect. - If they appear on the bbc I know who they are.

So personally, as a relative novice at this game, I would recommend them for peace of mind over a few extra pounds per trade...

IronWolf

I use Halifax and haven't had any major problems, customer service and transfers can be a bit slow.

soulman247

what about Barclays,Halifax orhttp://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk

George707 wrote: »

Hi there

I would put in a shout for Hargreaves and Landsdown here as a reassuring destination for small time investors looking for buy and hold trades. (looks like Soulman247 is in this category).

H&L are not the cheapest, but they do appear a lot on the tele and personally I find this a great reassurance. I have tried several online share dealing services over the years and often felt insecure about who I was trusting my money with. H&L have a user friendly site and have built up a major brand presence in the UK, which no doubt they wish to protect. - If they appear on the bbc I know who they are.

So personally, as a relative novice at this game, I would recommend them for peace of mind over a few extra pounds per trade...

soulman247

What Barclays, or http://www.tddirectinvesting.co.uk

I am feeling halifax but i want to make sure i am paying the least fees as i going to spending 100-500 a month on buying dividend shares

IronWolf wrote: »

I use Halifax and haven't had any major problems, customer service and transfers can be a bit slow.

bowlhead99

First you were weren't going to be putting in more than once every 4-5months, at no more than 1000 a time. Now you are going to be spending 100-500 a month.

Different brokers are better for different types and amounts of investments so it is important to decide what you want.

Halifax's main site lets you do a regular investing programme, paying fees of £2 per company per month. That would probably be suitable for you because you could spend the first 4 months of the year buying (e.g.) GSK at £200 a month and the next 4 months buying (e.g.) BT at £200 a month and then the next 4 months buying (e.g.) HSBC. After the whole year you would have spent £24 on dealing fees and have put £800 each into three shares.

Alternatively, they let you trade in real time whenever you like (instead of doing it through the regular investing program) and buys or sells are charged at £12.50 per trade. So, you could just save up your money and spend £800 in one go at 3 different points in the year, and it would cost you £37.50 in total over the year.

TD Direct which was the other one you mentioned, is only £1.50 a month for regular investments, still £12.50 for ad-hoc buys and sells. So, marginally cheaper if you're buying monthly. I use them and they're fine.

Youinvest is another one, they're £1.50 a month for regular investments and only £9.95 for the ad-hoc buys and sells. Plus, they let you have a wider variety of investments in the regular investment programme than TD (including some ETFs and investment trusts) rather than just big UK listed shares.

None of those above companies allow you to buy US stocks through the supercheap regular investment programme but if you only have a tiny two-or-three share tiny portfolio for generating dividends you don't really need any specific US stocks in it (or you could use an ETF or IT for US exposure).

If you're not focussed on buying things in a strict monthly fashion and would prefer the flexibility to buy what you want, when you want but don't have a lot of money, you don't want to be paying a tenner or more for your trades, so Halifax and TD and Sippdeal would be out. In that case you could stick to iWeb which is only £5 a trade (it's owned by Halifax) or X-O which is £6 a trade. iWeb has a joining fee while X-O does not, but it also lets you buy funds or overseas stocks, which X-O does not.

So, deciding what is the best broker goes back to exactly what you are going to buy and how much and how often. Take a look at some of the comparison threads on this forum or the links given by people above.