Who to invest with? Bestinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown or Charles Stanley Direct?

Elea

Hi,

I recently received a smallish inheritance after my aunt passed away, so I'm thinking about investing a bit of the inheritance in a stocks and shares ISA.

I've been doing a bit of research around the best way to do it and what to actually invest in, but was wondering whether you could give me a bit of a steer on which company I should invest through.

Through my research the companies that appear to be spoken about the most are Bestinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown and Charles Stanley Direct.

Bestinvest currently have a competition on their website to win £15,240, an iPad mini or John Lewis Vouchers, so they are currently standing out the most for me, which I know is silly considering the many different factors I need to consider, but everyone seems to be pretty much offering the same service, however I've also seen them in the press a lot lately.

Does anyone invest with any of these companies? If so what do you think I should be thinking about when deciding which company to go for?

Thanks,

Elea

jimjames

Check their charges if they all offer the investments you want.

Do you think the service one offers over the other is worth paying almost double for?

colsten

Monevator have just updated their broker guide http://monevator.com/find-the-best-online-broker/

I wouldn't be lured by a competition for an iPad mini. Choose the best platform and you can buy many iPads yourself.

le_loup

But the cheapest platform may be far from the best.
Do some searches here by using the name of each potential provider.

colsten

le_loup wrote: »

But the cheapest platform may be far from the best.

Did you bother reading the link? Cost is massively important, and unless you know differently, there's not much room for "customer service" on an investment broker platform. They are all providing a commodity service, there is really not much room for added value or similar to differentiate themselves from their next nearest competitor. Apart from Marketing hot air.

Mistermeaner

Charles Stanley are doing me fine at the moment. No complaints re service and use of website. They were cheap at time I joined them. 0.25% annual charge and seem to offer all funds etc (managed to find everything I have looked for anyway)

masonic

colsten wrote: »

Did you bother reading the link? Cost is massively important, and unless you know differently, there's not much room for "customer service" on an investment broker platform. They are all providing a commodity service, there is really not much room for added value or similar to differentiate themselves from their next nearest competitor. Apart from Marketing hot air.

The article does also say:

Yes, we want their website to work, we’d prefer them to not screw us over, go bust or send us to the seventh circle of call centre hell… These things we take for granted.

But the trouble is that you can't take those things for granted.

Some people are reliant on dividend income, so would not be prepared to invest through a platform where dividends are routinely paid 1-2 months late. It might be important for them to have their queries answered promptly, or at least within a few weeks. They might be investing into bond funds within an ISA and require income tax to be reclaimed by the platform on their behalf.

If they can discover that a prospective platform has failings in those areas, perhaps it would influence their decision. The suggestion to look at other factors beyond cost is a good one, even if cost is the initial factor used to select a few possibilities.

bigfreddiel

I use TD Direct, no charges, no annual fees, only dealing charges -been with them for 20+years - suits my needs

Cheers fj

le_loup

colsten wrote: »

Did you bother reading the link?

Of course I have and was aware of Monevators analysis long before you pointed it out.
Do you realise how aggressive you have become on this site? Probably not.
However if you have had experience of a really bad provider, III, for example you would realise that I do know what I'm talking about!
Cost is NOT the only consideration. Thank you and goodnight.

singhini

Elea - im thinking of investing in a self-select ISA and currently I know very little about how to do this. Therefore I went to Youtube and looked it up. Perhaps this might help you find out abit more about companies and types of investment strategies.


Lastly - if you don't know what to do with the money, give it to Greece (boy do they need a helping hand)

Kendall80

colsten wrote: »

Did you bother reading the link? Cost is massively important, and unless you know differently, there's not much room for "customer service" on an investment broker platform. They are all providing a commodity service, there is really not much room for added value or similar to differentiate themselves from their next nearest competitor. Apart from Marketing hot air.

For me, customer service/platform UI would be important differentiators between two platforms of the same price. However, I'm almost always inclined to go for the cheapest offering.


I use CSD for my monthly investing ISA and Bestinvest for my SIPP. 0.25% and 0.3% respectively.