iWeb or Halifax Sharedealing?

FourFourTwo

I'm looking to open a low cost S&S ISA account.

These 2 services are on the same platform & are both owned by the same company. As one costs more than the other, I assume that there is a difference in the products, functionality or service offered - but I cannot work out what that is.

I contacted Halifax to ask them what features/benefits are accessed by using their higher priced service - remarkably they stated it was not policy to answer that question! They suggested that I examine both company's web sites and come to my own conclusion.

Ignoring the pros/cons of their unhelpful response to my enquiry, can any one tell me what the differences are?

Many thanks if you can help me.

Aged

Have you checked out this comparison table?

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

FourFourTwo

Thanks for this link. I had not seen this table before.

Like most of the various comparison tables, it majors on the difference in charges and is light on the difference in services/functionality.

It does highlight that Halifax allows Regular Investing whereas iWeb does not. This is helpful, but not a material enough difference for me to justify the higher charges.

Does anyone else know of any other differences?

Thanks

EdGasket

iWeb reviews here:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews11269.html

Main complaint of those giving it 1 star is that they can't get prices and it goes to negotiated trade where they get a poor price. No point getting cheap dealing if your dealing price is disadvantaged. I don't know if Halifax is any better.

From my own experience, I find x-o and AJ Bell YouInvest fine.

masonic

EdGasket wrote: »

Main complaint of those giving it 1 star is that they can't get prices and it goes to negotiated trade where they get a poor price.

I know someone dealing on the main Halifax platform and they have had a similar experience. Seems to be an issue during busy times.

EdGasket

My own experience of the main Halifax platform was that it was just completely unavailable during busy times and then when I tried to phone to trade, the lines would be jammed too. Hence I left them for TD Direct Invest but they are rather expensive so now I mainly use x-o and AJ Bell YouInvest. I have not had a problem with either except when x-o were changing the software and were down for about a week.

FourFourTwo

Thanks for this extra information.

I will be mainly buying Funds & trading relatively infrequently. With funds having a 'once a day' pricing point, i am less dependant upon the active trading availability - but even so it is a concern if iWeb cannot cope with peak demand.

Porcupine

EdGasket wrote: »

Main complaint of those giving it 1 star is that they can't get prices and it goes to negotiated trade where they get a poor price. No point getting cheap dealing if your dealing price is disadvantaged. I don't know if Halifax is any better.

I've not had a problem (mostly buying). I usually set a buy limit order for half a percent or so lower than current market price - it usually gets fulfilled at some point during the usual market fluctuations. I haven't tried that for selling, but I wonder if that would work similarly?

dollywops

Opened S&S ISA's and share dealing accounts for all members of the family last year. Buying experiences all good. No experience of selling yet.


We were going to transfer our certificated holdings to them, but this is going to prove too complicated for us, because of all the additional dividends received in shares. Need to sell some in order to utilise this year's ISA allowance.

FourFourTwo

Thanks for all the comments. I think I'll give iWeb a go

Onedrew

I find iWeb a very good value site for trading, with no platform fee. But don't be fooled by the valuations page which purports to show the value of your holdings. The cost-per-share valuations are based only on purchase price and do not change if you sell some, whether you sell at £1 or £1,000 a share. Relying on this valuation could prove costly. I have complained to iWeb without success, so make sure you keep an accurate record of trades to ensure you do not sell below your true average price.
Otherwise, excellent. I have had no issues with price-limit trades or range trading, although there is a £2 set-up fee for these if placed outside an ISA. The £2 is refunded on execution, but not if you change your mind.