HSBC (Internet Banking) InvestDirect or "INVDIRECT +" Service

talksr

Hello fellow money-savers :money:, as many of you may have noticed (if you have HSBC internet banking), they have revamped the IB site and now you are able to quickly and easily set up new services and accounts. I came across an interesting service on my internet banking page called INVDIRECT + (In the ShareDealing section).

Its a super feature that allows you to gamble all of your hard earned money away on stocks and shares. I was just wondering if there are any moneysavers on the forum that have any knowledge of this service HSBC provide, and in particular charges they will spring on you. I have been through the t's&c's and also the 'rates and charges' page, so I am aware of the charges they will hit you with when you invest in something. I am more interested in any other charges such as ones for setting up the service or for canceling it. - I didn't notice anything in the T's and C's.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated :cool:

gt94sss2

I've been using the HSBC InvestDirect service for around 9 months now.

Its pretty much as described with the rates and charges explained here - and apart from these there are no other charges (including no
opening/closing fees, inactivity charges or maxi ISA/PEP fees)

HSBC InvestDirect also has a couple of nice unique features (as far as I can tell):

- if the company offers a SCRIP dividend, they will allow you to select this option as long as the share is not in an ISA/PEP
- if you buy a share and later decide you want a share certificate, they will send you one free - all other companies I have seen charge a minimum of £10/certificate for this.

There are two different 'types' of account, InvestDirect and InvestDirect Plus. They are pretty similar but with a couple of differences, mainly that the 'Plus' account has many more features (borrow money against shares, a frequent trader tariff and you can buy US shares)

On the other hand, with the 'normal' account you can trade shares without having the money in your account immediately - as long as its your current account 3 working days after purchasing the shares. With the Plus account, I believe you need to have the money in the appropriate account before you by the shares.

It depends on how often you would be trading, what value your average trade would be and would it be in an ISA/PEP or not, to know if one of these accounts is a good deal for you compared to another broker.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask.

Regards
Sunil

talksr

gt94sss2 wrote: »

I've been using the HSBC InvestDirect service for around 9 months now.

Its pretty much as described with the rates and charges explained here - and apart from these there are no other charges (including no
opening/closing fees, inactivity charges or maxi ISA/PEP fees)

HSBC InvestDirect also has a couple of nice unique features (as far as I can tell):

- if the company offers a SCRIP dividend, they will allow you to select this option as long as the share is not in an ISA/PEP
- if you buy a share and later decide you want a share certificate, they will send you one free - all other companies I have seen charge a minimum of £10/certificate for this.

There are two different 'types' of account, InvestDirect and InvestDirect Plus. They are pretty similar but with a couple of differences, mainly that the 'Plus' account has many more features (borrow money against shares, a frequent trader tariff and you can buy US shares)

On the other hand, with the 'normal' account you can trade shares without having the money in your account immediately - as long as its your current account 3 working days after purchasing the shares. With the Plus account, I believe you need to have the money in the appropriate account before you by the shares.

It depends on how often you would be trading, what value your average trade would be and would it be in an ISA/PEP or not, to know if one of these accounts is a good deal for you compared to another broker.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask.

Regards
Sunil

Thanks Sunil for your help and taking the time to reply all of your infomation is very useful. :A

I have applied, and have been given an InvDirect + account, I believe this is because on the application process, I clicked that I would be interested in US shares as well as british ones.

A wise, old friend of mine said to me it is not worth investing in stocks and shares unless you have a good few thousand pounds to do it with. Would you agree with this? I don't really have that much to spend, but can apreichate if you want to stand a chance of earning anything, really you need to be buying a rather large number of shares in order to pay for your buying and selling commission fees.

I am a real newcomer to all of this, but would like to gain some experience (also some extra money:rolleyes:!) and learn how the whole process works. Most of what I already know (not much), I have just picked up myself through common sense.

gt94sss2

talksr wrote: »

A wise, old friend of mine said to me it is not worth investing in stocks and shares unless you have a good few thousand pounds to do it with. Would you agree with this? I don't really have that much to spend, but can apreichate if you want to stand a chance of earning anything, really you need to be buying a rather large number of shares in order to pay for your buying and selling commission fees.

Hmm - some general advice..:

There are several things to remember when buying shares:

1) Its supposed to be a long term (5 years+) investment - of course people do invest for shorter periods but..

2) You are not supposed to invest money that you can't afford to lose. Now, not many people can afford to lose money but do remember that share prices do go up and down.

3) Do think about what you are going to invest in. You are much less likely to 'lose' money if you invest in big companies like

HSBC
Lloyds
Royal Bank of Scotland
BAT
BP
Shell
etc..

rather than small speculative companies which are likely to be much risker.

You may not make as much money as quickly but they are much safer. Also, don't underestimate the importance of dividends that companies pay - almost like receiving interest on your savings!

4) If buying shares in Europe or the US, you are opening yourself up to 'foreign exchange risk' - i.e. if you buy a share in the USA and it goes from $10 to $15 thats a 50% profit - but if at the same time the exchange rate goes from £1:$2 to £1:$2.50 - your profit goes down to only 20% in GBP

5) Its not the number of shares you own in a company that is important or how much they go up or down, but the % changes. Don't be tempted to buy shares just because they are cheap at 10p or 50p/each because you will have 'lots of them' - that is a classic mistake some investors make.

6) As for buying/selling shares - just remember (again) its %'s which count.

If buying shares costs £10, and you buy £100 worth, the shares would have to go up 20% before you make a 'profit' (due to selling costs) and stamp duty (which I am ignoring)

If you buy £1000 of shares instead, the shares only have to move 2% before you are making money etc..

This is the point I suspect your friend was saying.

There are some cheaper brokers than HSBC but some of them limit the dates you can buy on or charge fees if you don't use your account for a while.. so which is best for you may change over time..

You may find the Motley Fool a useful website - and don't forget its discussion boards..

Regards
Sunil

influence

I have been using investdirect for a couple of months. So far so good. Not the cheapest but at least HSBC will not close down when you wake up the next morning. So I don't have 'double' risk when I invest on a company via HSBC.

The slightly higher price also make me think double hard to ensure each buy is well worth. This is important. It is not a shopping spree but an investment. So I think the cost will give me the last chance to make sure I won't regret each click on the buy button.

Frankly, I did not apply for the Plus option since there are enough choices to play around with for new investors and YOU invest in the place you know best.