X-O Sipp new charges... WOW!

Shedman

I've just got back of hols and seen the XO charges increase. Not happy with them at all. Wife and I just opened them in February on basis of the low cost aspect (is going to be short term 1-2 years use only for the tax uplift) and now this is going considerably increase up the overall cost by £100s especially for the wife's which is only £10k.

Called them up and had a vent (politely) at a CS rep today. Clearly from the reaction they are getting quite a few such calls. Anyway as we can still transfer out for free we are going to move the wife's (possibly mine as well) somewhere else (HL now seem reasonable for low value sums - I did make the point that it was strange X-O are using the excuse of complexity of the new rules to increase their charges but HL are managing to reduce theirs!). Very disappointed with X-O as I use them for my share dealing and ISA and have been happy with that. Shot themselves in the foot I reckon

spartacus173500

clivep wrote: »

I transferred my L&G Stakeholder pension of £70k+ to Fidelity last year as Fidelity allowed partial transfers out free of charge. I could then move out 2 x £7k to other new schemes that were subsequently cashed in under the small pot rules a month ago when I reached 60.

The plan is that in each of the next 6 years until I get my state pension I shall pay £2,880 a year into my Fidelity SIPP and withdraw £14k+ as an UFPLS (Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sum). This should be free of fees but Fidelity have yet to send me any info on how they will be handling an UFPLS and whether there's minimum pot requirement.

Sounds promising -Could I open a SIPP now with nominal £1,000, transfer in Stakeholder Pension ex AEGON and then withdraw 25% cash free, and then pay in / withdraw similar to above.

Thrugelmir

Shedman wrote: »

I did make the point that it was strange X-O are using the excuse of complexity of the new rules to increase their charges but HL are managing to reduce theirs!).

The obvious comment is so what? Supermarkets sell milk at different prices. Jarvis have a different target market no doubt. As there's considerable difference in the scale of the their respective operations.

especially for the wife's which is only £10k.

On commercial grounds a good reason to increase fees to discourage unprofitable business.

clivep

spartacus173500 wrote: »

Sounds promising -Could I open a SIPP now with nominal £1,000, transfer in Stakeholder Pension ex AEGON and then withdraw 25% cash free, and then pay in / withdraw similar to above.

It should be possible but there's still nothing from Fidelity on how they'll be doing things from April. I did my initial £2,880 investment and transfer instructions all on the same Fidelity application form.

As my annual withdrawal will be as an UFPLS then the rest of the pot remains uncrystallized and technically I don't believe I'll have gone into drawdown. If you take the whole 25% initially then you'll be going into drawdown with the pot being crystallized and any further contributions going into an uncrystallized pot... you'll have to make sure Fidelity allow this.

Shedman

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The obvious comment is so what? Supermarkets sell milk at different prices. Jarvis have a different target market no doubt. As there's considerable difference in the scale of the their respective operations.



On commercial grounds a good reason to increase fees to discourage unprofitable business.

In response to Thrugelmir the point being is that they sold themselves as a low cost fixed charge provider that suited small SIPP pots and hence effectively targeted people such as my wife and then with very short notice (given its a bit more involved moving SIPPS around especially on the cusp of a new tax year than say changing energy suppliers) announced changes that seriously impacted on such pots. Anyway there were other things that XO/Liberty were less than clear on that compounded the issue.

Anyway we can get out without charge before 5April so off to HL ..

where_are_we

I have opened a Fidelity SIPP (charges less than my HL SIPP) with £13K.The £75K fund size applies to drawdown but I plan to do a small UFPLS (this is not drawdown as Clivep states earlier) each year to get me up to my PA.Top Cashback are offering £87.49 for >£10K new SIPP investments up to 5th April.Fidelity are also waivering the .35% service charge for the first 12 months.

EdGasket

clivep wrote: »

The downside is that their platform charge is a 0.35% per annum service charge. This is indeed less than H-L who also charge a % but much higher than a lot of the fixed fee offerings.

I transferred my L&G Stakeholder pension of £70k+ to Fidelity last year as Fidelity allowed partial transfers out free of charge. I could then move out 2 x £7k to other new schemes that were subsequently cashed in under the small pot rules a month ago when I reached 60.

The plan is that in each of the next 6 years until I get my state pension I shall pay £2,880 a year into my Fidelity SIPP and withdraw £14k+ as an UFPLS (Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sum). This should be free of fees but Fidelity have yet to send me any info on how they will be handling an UFPLS and whether there's minimum pot requirement.

You are misinformed about 'small pot' rules. That only applies if the total of all your pensions is less than £16K, not if each seperate one is small in itself. If what you say were true, everyone would be slicing up their pensions into 'small pots' wouldn't they!

clivep

where_are_we wrote: »

I have opened a Fidelity SIPP (charges less than my HL SIPP) with £13K.The £75K fund size applies to drawdown but I plan to do a small UFPLS (this is not drawdown as Clivep states earlier) each year to get me up to my PA.Top Cashback are offering £87.49 for >£10K new SIPP investments up to 5th April.Fidelity are also waivering the .35% service charge for the first 12 months.

Best of luck with the cashback. I'm due £83.33 from TopCashback on both my wife's and my own SIPP but haven't had any payout yet. First they didn't track then were rejected as "terms of offer net met - minimum investment of £10,000 not made". As our applications included both cash of £2,880 and transfers in bringing the total to £75K each I believe we qualified. Mine has just been rejected again but perversely my wife's one has now been accepted and should be moving on to payable. I've spoken to Fidelity about this and they agree the SIPPs should qualify and are investigating it from their end.

clivep

EdGasket wrote: »

You are misinformed about 'small pot' rules. That only applies if the total of all your pensions is less than £16K, not if each seperate one is small in itself. If what you say were true, everyone would be slicing up their pensions into 'small pots' wouldn't they!

Sorry to have to correct you, but I am completely accurate on the small pot rules. These were changed last March from 2 x small pots of £2K to 3 x small pots of £10K and are available irrespective of any other pensions you may have.

You may be confusing this with the cashing in of total pension savings if less than £30K (up from £18K previously) but I don't know where you got a £16K figure from.

EdGasket

clivep wrote: »

Sorry to have to correct you, but I am completely accurate on the small pot rules. These were changed last March from 2 x small pots of £2K to 3 x small pots of £10K and are available irrespective of any other pensions you may have.

You may be confusing this with the cashing in of total pension savings if less than £30K (up from £18K previously) but I don't know where you got a £16K figure from.

Well as you can take the entire pension as cash now, however big it is, if you want then there is not much point splitting into smaller post anymore is there?