hsbc shares

Priscilla99

I have some HSBC shares (paper form) - should I change these to electronic shares - and how do i do it

gt94sss2

Priscilla99 wrote: »

I have some HSBC shares (paper form) - should I change these to electronic shares - and how do i do it

Should you do it? - your choice!

Advantages of paper certificates

It used to be if you kept share certificates in a company you received all their documents/annual reports etc, which some people read but many ignore.

Due to changes in the companies act, firms no longer have to send you this information on paper format but can send it electronically instead - however, many companies will still send paper copies if you request them.

HSBC also offer a 'SCRIP' dividend - which basically means they offer to give you new shares rather than cash - do you take the cash or shares? If you take the shares it might be easier to keep the paper certificates as most brokers wont collect SCRIP dividends on your behalf.

If you choose to hold the shares electronically, you wont automatically receive company communications (if you read them!) but the big advantage is that if you buy/sell shares it will be cheaper than holding paper certificates. You also won't appear on the companies share register (which can be a good thing - less junk mail!) but may find it harder to go to Annual General Meetings (if you go to them). You also no longer have to worry about looking after paper certificates which can get lost/mislaid etc..

How to do it

The two brokers I would recommend are:

1) HSBC InvestDirect who will charge you £11.95/trade to sell your shares but you do need to have a (free) HSBC current account if you don't already

2) Selftrade who charge £12.50/trade but have a referral scheme where you could get up to £80 for joining them (my own details are in post 242)

If you collect the SCRIP dividend then HSBC InvestDirect is the only broker I know who offers that option to its customers instead of automatically collecting any dividend as cash.

With both brokers, you would join them and then send a CREST transfer form together with your share certificates - the broker would then register them against your account and you could then sell them if you wished.

Regards
Sunil

equitydealer

One other advantage of certificates is that traders can not borrow your shares for shorting (Northern Rock comes to mind). http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/523475d2-6872-11dc-b475-0000779fd2ac.html

Halifax are £11.95 per trade and they are very good on forwarding company reports and voting forms if that's something you want to keep receiving.