New AJ Bell Youinvest charges

alanobrien

Thrugelmir wrote: »

When did businesses become charities. Third parties imposing arbitrary
caps will simply reduce choice further. You'd soon get very upset if Government interfered in the companies you've invested in.

In cases like this i would welcome government "interferance" or as i would call it consumer protection. if my utility supplier or broadband supplier increases charges half way through a contract i can choose to go elsewhere foc. They are service providers as are AJ Bell. What if the increase was 1000% or more is that
still ok ?

I am all for non interference in business, the exception being sharp practice which i consider to be the case here.

itm2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

When did businesses become charities. Third parties imposing arbitrary
caps will simply reduce choice further. You'd soon get very upset if Government interfered in the companies you've invested in.

For any that were in doubt, I can confirm that AJ Bell is definitely not a charity. If I interpreted their 2015 financial statements correctly they made a £15m profit on £60m turnover.

Incidentally I got a couple of calls from AJ Bell the morning after I sent them my complaint. They explained why they were making the changes (so that “smaller investors didn’t subsidise the costs of larger investors”), and confirmed that my own fees would “only” be increasing by 70%. I feel much better about everything now.

sorcerer

I will be sticking with them for the time being, but only because the cost of moving will cost me 1000s of pounds. But I am going to change my tactics and buy more investment trust in future, to stop the charges getting even more out of control.

Thrugelmir

itm2 wrote: »

For any that were in doubt, I can confirm that AJ Bell is definitely not a charity. If I interpreted their 2015 financial statements correctly they made a £15m profit on £60m turnover.

Buy the shares then. :cool:

itm2

talexuser wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374

you'll need a lot of time to read all that, but looking at a few pages at the middle and near the end should give a flavour of the experience

Thanks for the link. I've waded through some of it but lost the will to live with 80+ pages remaining. Alot of random complaints - was there a specific issue with III that you were referring to (e.g. something that I can search for in that thread), or was it a general dissatisfaction with their service?

masonic

itm2 wrote: »

Thanks for the link. I've waded through some of it but lost the will to live with 80+ pages remaining. Alot of random complaints - was there a specific issue with III that you were referring to (e.g. something that I can search for in that thread), or was it a general dissatisfaction with their service?

Presumably it was the fact that transfers took months to complete, investments disappeared and were lost in limbo, numerous errors were made such as investments being transferred into accounts belonging to different customers, investments being moved out of ISAs and SIPPs into normal trading accounts, wrong number of units being credited to the destination account. One or two people were still sorting out the mess 6 months later.

There is a lot to be said for transferring in cash, even if it means being out of the market for a few days.

bigadaj

masonic wrote: »

Presumably it was the fact that transfers took months to complete, investments disappeared and were lost in limbo, numerous errors were made such as investments being transferred into accounts belonging to different customers, investments being moved out of ISAs and SIPPs into normal trading accounts, wrong number of units being credited to the destination account. One or two people were still sorting out the mess 6 months later.

There is a lot to be said for transferring in cash, even if it means being out of the market for a few days.

Would agree in principle and avoid iii for the feedback on service issues.

There is a drawback in transferring cash though, just moved to an iWeb sipp and moved into cash over the last ten days or so; bloody market has gained about £4k in that time!

It was in insurers fund so would have to be moved in any case, and I'm saving a few hundred a year in platform costs, but my other concern was in trading costs, which are a couple of hundred quid in comparison, still could have worked to my advantage with a drop in the markets.

smyla_2

This change is particularly annoying. I've had a SIPP with AJ Bell for around 4 years - worth approx. £350,000, all in Funds. My husband was looking to move the DC element of his pension (AVC's) from his company administered scheme into a SIPP. I recommended AJ Bell and less than 3 months ago he moved £750k into a new SIPP, again all in funds. So we've had a massive hike in charges (to £2000 per year between us, up 500%.) and its particularly annoying as while his transfer was in progress they must have known about this imminent massive hike!!
We'll definitely move and are still contemplating who to have a good moan to (AJ Bell?, Ombudsman?, MP?)

itm2

smyla wrote: »

We'll definitely move and are still contemplating who to have a good moan to (AJ Bell?, Ombudsman?, MP?)

I'm doing all 3. I've also started a petition to get it raised in the House (see above).

coyrls

smyla wrote: »

This change is particularly annoying. I've had a SIPP with AJ Bell for around 4 years - worth approx. £350,000, all in Funds. My husband was looking to move the DC element of his pension (AVC's) from his company administered scheme into a SIPP. I recommended AJ Bell and less than 3 months ago he moved £750k into a new SIPP, again all in funds. So we've had a massive hike in charges (to £2000 per year between us, up 500%.) and its particularly annoying as while his transfer was in progress they must have known about this imminent massive hike!!
We'll definitely move and are still contemplating who to have a good moan to (AJ Bell?, Ombudsman?, MP?)

The route is a formal complaint to AJ Bell and when (not if) they reject it, the Financial Ombudsman Service.