Degiro

Alphamare

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares/11666509/Cheapest-ever-broker-lets-you-trade-shares-for-under-2.html

Does anyone use them?

dunstonh

I doubt they will get much coverage until they offer tax wrappers. However, the minute they offer tax wrappers, the costs go up for them. It is also not regulated by the FCA. So, it will need to be to offer wrappers and the charges will go up more as it will need to pay levies in the UK. So, it will be more interesting when they are regulated and have wrappers as to whether they can still offer those prices on a sustained basis.

With another platform being reported in the press today that it is under strategic review (Alliance Trust) it seems there are more exits and closures than new entrants nowadays.

grey_gym_sock

apart from lack of tax wrappers, and being regulated in the netherlands instead of the UK, something to note is that degiro's terms allow them to lend out your shares - which adds an extra type of risk, which you don't have with most UK platforms.

you can avoid that by opting for degiro's "custody" account. but the "custody" account has additional charges for receiving dividends, which is in effect rather similar to paying account charges or inactivity charges - i.e. it's no longer especially cheap.

also, most people (especially if just starting out investing) should be holding funds (unit trust or OEICs), not shares. which degiro don't offer. and most people who do hold shares should be trading them very very rarely - which makes the size of the trading fees much less important. it's more important to avoid, or at least minimize, account fees and inactivity fees, when holding shares, but there are plenty of platforms/brokers for that.