Opening SIPP with Fidelity - procedures (or process)

dunroving

nobby2250 wrote: »

I agree with you that is why I asked the question. I paid with my debit card so it worry me and this is my first time dealing with this thing The bloke I spoke to gave me his extension number in case I need to ask more question or helping to set up online account so it is quite assuring. He also said that buying or selling will involve a few days. Since it is a long term investment I am not that fuss as long as the fund I send get to their account safely - that is the main thing

The other thing to be aware of if you're not already aware, is that the HMRC top-up takes several weeks. Some fund platforms apparently almost immediately add the 20% but Fidelity waits until HMRC pays them and then they buy units at whatever is the prevailing rate on the day. If the market is going up, that means you get fewer units and if it's going down, the reverse is true. The 20% will show as "Fidelity SIPP cash" ... "uncleared amount". Yet another thing I had to call them about and that they were happy to explain. So far I have found them very helpful and not at all condescending like some financial professionals can be towards clients in my previous experience.

ETA: Another thing to consider, as we are getting towards the end of the tax year, is that while a payment/unit purchase is pending, you can not make other contributions to the SIPP. I think this is only a period of a couple of days (it is until the payment is received, AFAIK) but worth knowing if you planned to time a number of contributions within a short period of time. The confirmation email I just received (just purchased £2,000 of units) was as follows:

"Thank you for making additional contributions to your Fidelity SIPP.

We will make your investment and send you a confirmation as soon as possible. You will then be able to make further changes to your account." (my bold added)

nobby2250

dunroving wrote: »

The other thing to be aware of if you're not already aware, is that the HMRC top-up takes several weeks. Some fund platforms apparently almost immediately add the 20% but Fidelity waits until HMRC pays them and then they buy units at whatever is the prevailing rate on the day. If the market is going up, that means you get fewer units and if it's going down, the reverse is true. The 20% will show as "Fidelity SIPP cash" ... "uncleared amount". Yet another thing I had to call them about and that they were happy to explain. So far I have found them very helpful and not at all condescending like some financial professionals can be towards clients in my previous experience.

ETA: Another thing to consider, as we are getting towards the end of the tax year, is that while a payment/unit purchase is pending, you can not make other contributions to the SIPP. I think this is only a period of a couple of days (it is until the payment is received, AFAIK) but worth knowing if you planned to time a number of contributions within a short period of time. The confirmation email I just received (just purchased £2,000 of units) was as follows:

"Thank you for making additional contributions to your Fidelity SIPP.

We will make your investment and send you a confirmation as soon as possible. You will then be able to make further changes to your account." (my bold added)

Thanks for the information. It would be interesting to see when my online detail arrived and get into my account. The bloke said one is in today, the other should be in tomorrow but I didnt ask which one in. I did put one with Fidelity and one with Vanguard. I still need to learn a lot about this. Currently seems like a bit of minefield
As crazy as it might sound the decision to open SIPP was spur decision. I dont have any pension and reading this forum just making me thinking for future and spur my decision :rotfl:

FTB202

I have similar experience with opening Fidelity SIPP, like nobby2250.
Did some research and decided to invest £2500 with them to get first year free of charges. So did it during my day off work (21.03.15). Tried to use 2 different debit cards - both rejected. A message was coming on the screen stating there is "a system error".
I decided to try again on Monday (23.03). This time my bank sent me a text message asking to confirm if transaction was made by me. I confirmed and they said to wait 10 minutes before trying again. This time it went through and I got a reference on the next page. The money left my account. But I didn't receive any confirmation via email.
25.03.15 - Transaction shows on my online statement as Fidelity.co.uk. Also direct debit has been set up same day.
27.03.15 - Two exactly same single-page letters arrived stating: "Thank you for letting us know you wish to amend your retirement age. We've updated our records. No further action is required from you". I discarded one letter.
Hope next week will get more updates from them.

Gram_Parsons

Fidelity are aware of issues with the SIPP online application process using Firefox browser. I got to the final page after inputting details of five policies to transfer only to get an error. I phoned them up and only then heard about these known issues - why they can't put a note on the site saying to use a.n.other browser I don't know. Went through the whole thing again with Internet Explorer and it went through fine.