Tracker Fund - Go direct or via platform?

Perdu

To add to the "Nope" list:

Selftrade
The Share Centre
DeGiro
Telegraph
and not forgetting Alliance Trust

For completeness, I called the Motley Fool and got a favourable reply. Same £80 pa flat fee so assumed they use same systems as iii. Rang again out of curiosity and confirmed this is the case. Prompt, courteous and helpful response both times - I know it's only the "front end", but it does help.

Grey gym sock makes the very good point that poor service would be less of an issue for my limited requirements at this stage, so I'm inclined to go with one of the cheapies to save several hundred a year.

I'm leaning towards TMF over iii, but as ever would welcome any last minute comments.

Just a thought - as they're that cheap, might there be any advantage to going half each with both?

MrBeans

Personal preference would be to go with one platform - just simpler.

I've lost track of whether you're going for a unit trust or an ETF, but if an ETF Hargreaves would charge you 0.45% capped at £45 (not sure if that's per ETF/share or overall). I think that's right. I am a customer (and fan) of Hargreaves - their site is easy to use and their service is good, but as you say there are cheaper options particularly if you want to hold unit trusts.

http://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/isa/savings-interest-rates-and-charges

Perdu

Halfway through cashing in of Very Expensive Offshore Bond - doing it in bits for peace of mind.

Opened a Direct savings account with NS&I and moved the first £100k into it. Not great rates but it's safe there while I sort the equities bit.

Decided on Motley Fool for platform - I'm aware of potential admin problems, but their front end service seems outstanding. Easy online application, then posted certified ID docs from France on Tuesday - received email Thursday evening to say ID received and trading account opened.

Transfer of another £100k direct to TMF is happening now, with plans for 2 further transfers of £50k in the next week or so.

I have no plans for this £200k for some time, other than possibly to utilise some (French) tax relief by buying/selling annually to realise gains.

In view of this - might there be a practical advantage to splitting the cash into 2 or 3 funds instead of just one? I had thought to go for VLS80 - would it be a daft idea to consider adding some sort of combination of VLS60 + VLS100 also?


Would welcome comments and suggestions. I've added to this thread to give a bit of background info - I'll undoubtedly have further questions so let me know if I should make a new thread for clarity instead.

grey_gym_sock

you could just buy VLS80; and then if you want to realize a gain after a year, sell it and buy a mixture of VLS60 and VLS100. and then swap back to VLS80 after another year.

or you could swap between the income and accumulation units of VLS80 - if you don't mind which you hold.

of course, in some years it will be down, so you won't have gains to realize.