Hargreaves Lansdown

Zola.

I am learning about investing and happy to experiment with some spare cash to get a feel before considering what to invest in more seriously.

I opened an account with HL and loaded in £100 and bought a couple of units in "S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD" at 55 quid. The £12 fee was fairly expensive for my tiny testing deal, but at least now I sort of know the process etc. I probably should have bought more for a bit of value, especially with the £12 fee haha.

HL seems a nice site as it is fairly straight forward to deal with, are there other sites that you would recommend and that are easy to use for medium cap punts at a cheaper rate?

Should I open a stocks and shares ISA? I just opened a basic "Vantage Fund and Share" account.

Any advice is appreciated.

Delete33

I have opened a S&S Isa with HL, £50 a month, started with CF Woodford Equity Income. First timer but I am in it for the long term.

ColdIron

I would at the very least read what HL charge for various investment products before experimenting with other sites. If you had bought funds or unit trusts it wouldn't have cost you anything. There are ongoing charges for different products that you would be well advised to become familiar with as well before spending any more of your money

Plus

It's well worth using a S&S ISA rather than an unwrapped account for the reason that, in a S&S ISA, you don't need to keep records of your transactions for tax purposes. An unwrapped account is liable for dividend tax and CGT and so you need records to prove what you (don't) owe. All of that goes away if you have an ISA.

HL are pretty expensive - see Monevator's table of cheap brokers for comparison. I'm not sure how they compare on 'ease of use', but for a small fund investor Charles Stanley might be worth a look.

sandsy

The Share Centre offer a practice account so you can see the look and feel of their offering:

https://www.share.com/accounts/other-accounts/practice-account/account-overview/

adindas

£100 for £12 fee ????????????? Lol ...

Anyone with common sense could easily see that something is not right here. But it is different if you consider this as a learning curve rather than investing money.

Zola. wrote: »

I am learning about investing and happy to experiment with some spare cash to get a feel before considering what to invest in more seriously.

I opened an account with HL and loaded in £100 and bought a couple of units in "S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD" at 55 quid. The £12 fee was fairly expensive for my tiny testing deal, but at least now I sort of know the process etc. I probably should have bought more for a bit of value, especially with the £12 fee haha.

HL seems a nice site as it is fairly straight forward to deal with, are there other sites that you would recommend and that are easy to use for medium cap punts at a cheaper rate?

Should I open a stocks and shares ISA? I just opened a basic "Vantage Fund and Share" account.

Any advice is appreciated.

BananaRepublic

It is worth rearching each platform you like the look of, as they do vary. I avoided iii after reading user feedback. My experience of Fidelity and YouInvest is that they are good, the latter is better (more modern software) and cheaper.

dunstonh

I opened an account with HL and loaded in £100 and bought a couple of units in "S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD" at 55 quid. The £12 fee was fairly expensive for my tiny testing deal, but at least now I sort of know the process etc. I probably should have bought more for a bit of value, especially with the £12 fee haha.

Its not just the £12 going in. Its the £12 coming out. You have written off about 3-4 years growth in one go.

You have also gone into more advanced investment options when conventional unit linked funds would likely have been better and you have a selected a single sector fund at the higher end of the risk scale (currency as well as equity risk and single sector).

Rather than waste money as you have done so far, do some more reading first.

br1anstorm

Since the recent reforms in the way brokers, advisers and "platforms" charge commission and fees on investments, and for advice, it has become both easier and more difficult to figure out which intermediaries or advisers offer the best value for money, whether for ISAs, SIPPs, or just investing in stocks, shares and funds.

Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the biggest. Most seem to regard it as one of the most user-friendly and efficient. But its service comes at a price.

As dunstonh says (and despite his demoralising comments he means well......) there really is no alternative to reading-up about the various firms that offer investment services and advice.

A key point to bear in mind is that one broad, and fundamental difference when it comes to cost-comparisons is that some providers charge flat-rates irrespective of the amount(s) invested, while others charge percentages. So flat-rate fees and charges tend to be a better deal for those investing large sums; while percentage rates can be better for those with smaller amounts. On top of that, most platforms charge fees for buying and selling, with discounts or reduced rates for frequent traders.

Several platforms (including HL) offer the opportunity to set up a "virtual" portfolio just to get the hang of how things work.

I would recommend the guide to direct platform investing produced by analysts "The Lang Cat". They have drawn up useful comparative tables showing how different platforms charge; and they have an entertaining and informative approach to assessing the qualities of the various providers. Their guide can be downloaded from http://langcatfinancial.co.uk/white-paper/come-and-have-a-go-too/.

There are of course other similar comparison tables - eg on the Daily Telegraph website and elsewhere.

Happy reading, and best of luck.

weenie15

Funds are free to buy and sell with HL (ie no £12 fee) but will be subject to the 0.45% fee.

Here's a useful place to check out and compare other brokers: http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

Zola.

I have opened up a ISA with HL and will user that instead.

I knew of course my first small purchase was entirely gung ho.... But I'm just going to let it sit there and see what happens.

I plan to put larger amounts into diversified ETFS and then use small amounts for punts.