New service fees on Fidelity ISA

rmh29

Hi everyone

I have had this Fidelity stocks and shares ISA since April 2012, and bought a quantity in the "Fidelity UK Smaller Companies" fund. Since then the fund value has risen by almost 80%. As a result I understand the demand has been quite high and they have limited/discontinued new business.

However in July, when monitoring the account I noticed the quantity of my shares fell. They charged a "service fee", by selling a small number of units. I notice they have done it again this month - I expected it to be a one-off first time, but if this is happening every month, my stock will be reduced by about 2% each year. It is not certain what will happen.

I didn't expect this sort of arrangement, I understood that fees would be taken from the fund itself and not our shares. I don't appear to have any recent paperwork notifying me of this (they send so much paperwork for minor changes to fund names etc., I would have expected it to be honest). Of course, contacting them is the obvious thing but I just wondered if MSE users had knowledge of this sort of thing happening. Does anyone have any experience of this - perhaps with this particular fund - and any suggestions about what could be done next?

Thanks for any assistance you are able to provide.

jimjames

It should equate to 0.35% if you are direct with Fidelity as it is their platform fee. You would have received notification and also get reminder every time you log in (v annoying!)

There is a way to set it to pay from cash but I've not found the option yet. Fidelity is nowhere near as easy to use as HL!

westy22

Fidelity deduct their 0.35% annual platform charge (0.25% if through Cavendish) by selling units from your largest single holding each and every month. The deduction represents the total platform fees due from all of your holdings for that month.

Deneb

jimjames wrote: »

There is a way to set it to pay from cash but I've not found the option yet. Fidelity is nowhere near as easy to use as HL!

You have to open a cashmanager account and instruct them to use that for payment of fees. Everything has to be done by post/in writing, and when I last looked into it I decided that I couldn't be bothered.

The website now seems to be broken in that if you click on the link to open a cashmanager account it directs you to a generic investment page with no mention of that account at all.

The charging structure is set out here. I was sent a copy by post last year and had to click to confirm I'd read the same information that came up online every time I logged on for several weeks earlier this year.

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/static/pdf/investor/advised-client/New-investment-options-and-simpler-charging.pdf

talexuser

Deneb wrote: »

You have to open a cashmanager account and instruct them to use that for payment of fees.

I'm in through Cavendish and Fidelity told me they cannot take their service fee from a cash manager account, they still take their 0.2% by selling from the largest holding each month. I keep a few pounds in my cash manager since Cavendish are able to take their 0.05% from it. Has anything changed recently in this respect?

chucknorris

I think I'm paying about 0.38% on my NISA at Fidelity.