IG - now offering S&S ISA and Stockbroking Service

PeakOwl

As the header says, IG Group, the market leader in Spread-betting, have just launched a Stockbroking service and are also offering a S&S ISA option.

I've been nothing but impressed with their Spreadbetting service, so will be interested to see how this service develops (especially as I have a S&S ISA with selftrade, who are being takenover by Equiniti, who have a less-than-glowing reputation if user reviews are anything to go by)...

There's a month's commission free trading, and from what I can see no annual account fee (though not sure on this?) and no transfer-in fees. £12/trade, but if you are a frequent trader you can cut that to as low as £6.

If anyone does take out a S&S ISA with them, would be interested to hear your experiences.

PeakOwl

I should clarify, there's a launch deal currently on, as follows:

* Open a stockbroking account and place your first trade before 31 December 2014 and get commission-free trades on all stocks for one calendar month from the date of your first trade. If your free month expires before 31 December 2014, we'll give you a reduced rate of £6 per trade on UK stocks until the end of the year. Our normal stockbroking charges and fees will apply once the offer period is complete.

A question for me (when I'm able to call and ask them) is whether they offer the ability to trade in retail bonds, pref shares etc..

GTG

Anyone got any feedback please?

TakeCareOfThePennies_2

GTG wrote: »

Anyone got any feedback please?

Very happy indeed.

Only complaint is that they don't cover all markets just yet, but I gather they are working to fill the coverage gaps. Most people probably won't notice the coverage gaps as they do cover all the majors. You can post orders direct onto the market order books if you like. You can hold multiple currency accounts.

Not a place for you if you're into funds, but there are better places for funds anyway...

Customer service is excellent.

And the platform, well, its one of the best I've seen ... a real pleasure to use. Works beautifully cross-platform and decent apps for phones and tablets.

IG have obviously done their homework on the competition and come to the market with a really competitive offering.

Really looking forward to seeing their future pipeline developments come to life....

GTG

TakeCareOfThePennies wrote: »

Very happy indeed.

Only complaint is that they don't cover all markets just yet, but I gather they are working to fill the coverage gaps. Most people probably won't notice the coverage gaps as they do cover all the majors. You can post orders direct onto the market order books if you like.

Customer service is excellent.

And the platform, well, its one of the best I've seen ... a real pleasure to use. Works beautifully cross-platform and decent apps for phones and tablets.

Thanks for your reply TakeCareOfthePennies.

I am interested in their S&S ISA

1) Is the platform their own i.e. not a white label
2) Is their charting package a slimmed down version of ProRealTime like what's offered on the spread betting platform? I ask that because the sbetting charts do not show volume of shares traded, which is important to me.
3) Do they offer real time data on their charts?
4) Can you trade through charts?

Thanks again, appreciated.

TakeCareOfThePennies_2

I am interested in their S&S ISA

I don't have an ISA with them as I maintain my ISA elsewhere. So I can't comment on ISA specifics.

1) Is the platform their own i.e. not a white label

Absolutley, 110%. They've basically taken their CFD/SpreadBet platform that they spent many years developing and adapted it for Stockbroking.

2) Is their charting package a slimmed down version of ProRealTime like what's offered on the spread betting platform? I ask that because the sbetting charts do not show volume of shares traded, which is important to me.

I don't currently use their ProRealTime (just because I'm currently using or trialling other software, not because of bad experience, infact I seem to recall ProRealTime being quite good).

However, from memory when I last used it, its not a cut-down version. All that happens is that you log-on to IG and the SSO on to ProRealTime (i.e. you're never directly issued a ProRealTime username/password, the login is integrated). But the software itself is the same if I remember well.

Should be a fairly simple thing for IG to answer for you in pre-sales.

3) Do they offer real time data on their charts?

As in the charts on the IG platform ? I believe so yes. But I don't have any data feeds active on my stockbroking account at the moment because I'm doing a little bit of buy & hold, so I've got feeds disabled whilst I'm in the hold phase. That means I'm only getting delayed data.

4) Can you trade through charts?

Not my style, never done it but I believe you can. If not, I suspect their MetaTrader 4 integration will still work with stockbroking, can't see why it wouldn't, but then I've never used MetaTrader !

If you want to go one step further, you can also get an API key from them and code your own software that buy/sell direct using their FIX API.


Hope that helps.

GTG

Thank you ever so much for taking the time to give me such a comprehensive answer. That has narrowed down my questions I need to put to IG.

All the best.