Apart from Barclays, who else is bidding for TD Direct?

chris1

Apart from Barclays Stockbrokers, anyone know who else is bidding to take over TD Direct?
Thanks.

chris1

Any ideas of who would or would not bid would be welcome - I'm thinking of opening an ISA with TD Direct but don't want to end up stuck with someone I don't want.

If fact any feedback on them would be welcome.

Thanks.

Prudence1

How did I miss this. I have an account with TD Direct.

So, replying in order to follow.

chris1

Prudence1 wrote: »

I have an account with TD Direct.

What do you think of them?

bowlhead99

chris1 wrote: »

What do you think of them?

Decent service, I've probably been with them a decade or more.

I think of them as kind of the opposite from someone like a Hargreaves Lansdown, as HL were all about their funds offering while TD started as a stockbroker rather than a fund shop and built out a funds offering later.

This means the broking side for TD is very strong compared to others that have just added it in to a fund platform offering because they have to.

For example on the unwrapped account - you can trade with extended settlement (eg T+5, T+10, T+20); you have a purchase limit to allow you to settle in cash before funding due, rather than needing to have all the cash cleared in your account when placing the order; you have a multi currency account that covers lots of currencies, so your proceeds from dollar or euro or disposals can be used to buy dollar or euro shares later without bouncing back to sterling and losing twice on the exchange.

They also cover a lot more international markets than some others and usually have decent price improvement on share spreads because they are not just using one or two market makers to get quotes.

So if you're buying shares and ITs and ETFa the offer is solid, and the transaction fees are fine (FX fees are steep but mitigated by the currency account) and the inactivity fees or annual ISA admin fees are waived if you have a reasonable balance in your account.

For funds, it does the job, but does not have too much in the way of bells and whistles. It is mid priced at 0.3% on funds under admin. Someone like HL or Fidelity probably claims better customer service but charges 0.45 or 0.35. Someone like Charles Stanley or Youinvest is cheaper at 0.25, or 0.20 plus transaction fees.

I have most of my ISA and unwrapped investments with TD but use Youinvest for my SIPP, no major motivation to move any of them.

*edit* as you mentioned specifically an ISA being the type of account you wanted to open, the comments about multi currency accounts and being able to trade extended settlement don't apply, because HMRC ISA rules don't allow holding foreign currency cash or any form of margin trading or credit.

Still, the ISA offering is sound, and if you have an ISA then any linked unwrapped trading account would have its inactivity fees waived, and they'll give you the ability to "bed and ISA" unwrapped holdings for a cut price.

george4064

bowlhead99 wrote: »

*edit* as you mentioned specifically an ISA being the type of account you wanted to open, the comments about multi currency accounts and being able to trade extended settlement don't apply, because HMRC ISA rules don't allow holding foreign currency cash or any form of margin trading or credit.

Still, the ISA offering is sound, and if you have an ISA then any linked unwrapped trading account would have its inactivity fees waived, and they'll give you the ability to "bed and ISA" unwrapped holdings for a cut price.

I was going to ask you about the currency options within an ISA wrapper, but your edit beat my post! At least my understanding was correct (about the HMRC rules that only GBP £ currency can be held within an ISA.

TD does sound interesting as an option for a platform for anyone considering. I would do a lot more research into the platform myself if I weren't so happy with HL (95% of my investments are included in the £45 pa cap).


If I ever reach the stage of filling up my ISA for a given tax year and thus looks to use the non-ISA part, I will certainly look into TD Direct.

bowlhead99

Effectively if you have enough share/IT/ ETF investments to hit the £45 cap at HL (i.e. £10k+), you have enough to qualify for the ISA admin fee waiver at TD (i.e. £5k+). So by moving you could reduce the £45 to nil, and reduce the funds charges on your other 5% of your portfolio to 0.3% instead of 0.45%.

But switching a large number of holdings could involve "transfer out" costs from the ex-provider which the new provider may not want to swallow, and that current level of fees, to me, would just get written off as a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" thing, or "better the devil you know".

So as you say, sitting tight is probably fine, and then if or when you want a new type of account, don't be afraid to try a new provider to satisfy your curiosity with that new account and decide over time who you think is the best for the old rump of assets.