(not) HL anymore because of costs

Robie

Superscrooge wrote: »

I'm doubtful that HL will negotiate exit fees when you are leaving them? But you lose nothing by asking?

It might be worth taking the opportunity to reassess your investing objectives and whether you need so many funds? 20 different funds is a high number for a £63k investment.

Thank you Scrooge. That makes sense indeed. I will speak with her about it as I also think that is too many funds.

Robie

jimjames wrote: »

I'm with Cavendish but I'm also with iWeb. I use Cavendish for regular savings into my ISA but iWeb for the main part of my portfolio. Paying £25 one off fee made sense to me as it means I then have no further annual fees except trading which on my main portfolio is minimal. You might want to separate them if it's more cost effective. You'll also save £50 HL fee if you leave account open I believe.

Interesting Jim. So, if I understand correctly, you keep some funds in Cavendish to which you contribute regularly while some funds in iWeb which are only ever traded infrequently!

Also, keeping HL account open. Can I keep an empty account open? Also, do I not need to 'move' my ISA (even if it is 1 or 2 funds) to Cavendish from HL (meaning having to close the HL account)? Can I just transfer funds from HL to ISA?

jimjames

Yes that's correct about my accounts.

You can transfer individual funds not a whole ISA, I've done that before. As long as the account has more than £50 in it then it doesn't get closed I believe.

Robie

jimjames wrote: »

Yes that's correct about my accounts.

You can transfer individual funds not a whole ISA, I've done that before. As long as the account has more than £50 in it then it doesn't get closed I believe.

Thank you Jim - your responses much appreciated.

sorcerer

I have 12 investments trusts in my trading account and I currently pay 0% charge per year. Here's hoping HL don't change it. Only pay for my trading costs, which I try to keep to a minimum.

Robie

sorcerer wrote: »

I have 12 investments trusts in my trading account and I currently pay 0% charge per year. Here's hoping HL don't change it. Only pay for my trading costs, which I try to keep to a minimum.

Thanks for the reply.

It is really a question of which trusts matches the funds she has also. I am not so good at this stuff and I think she got lucky.

bowlhead99

Robie wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

It is really a question of which trusts matches the funds she has also. I am not so good at this stuff and I think she got lucky.

Investment trusts and ETFs which can be bought cheaply by a broker on a stock exchange and don't cost much to hold, can be the way to go if you can find what you want. And if you don't know what you want because you've never given it much thought and one day just found yourself with 18 funds... wouldn't hurt to just start all over again.

The exchange-traded or index tracking nature of ITs and ETFs can be higher risk or more complex than what is available in the oeic / unit trust world. So if she wants to keep the exact same funds and doesn't mind paying the platform fees that Cavendish would charge but doesn't like the idea of the HL exit fee, an alternative is Youinvest. They charge a platform fee of 0.25% on funds, like Cavendish, but they have a deal where they'll cover your exit fees from previous provider up to £500 if you transfer a sizeable account to them and stay a while.

Obviously if you're not doing much trading it's more expensive to pay a percentage of a large ISA pot as a platform fee just for holding funds and not doing anything with them, so something like an IWeb or Halifax Sharedealing account with much lower fixed fees and a 'transactional" approach to charging, might suit.

Robie

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Investment trusts and ETFs which can be bought cheaply by a broker on a stock exchange and don't cost much to hold, can be the way to go if you can find what you want. And if you don't know what you want because you've never given it much thought and one day just found yourself with 18 funds... wouldn't hurt to just start all over again.

The exchange-traded or index tracking nature of ITs and ETFs can be higher risk or more complex than what is available in the oeic / unit trust world. So if she wants to keep the exact same funds and doesn't mind paying the platform fees that Cavendish would charge but doesn't like the idea of the HL exit fee, an alternative is Youinvest. They charge a platform fee of 0.25% on funds, like Cavendish, but they have a deal where they'll cover your exit fees from previous provider up to £500 if you transfer a sizeable account to them and stay a while.

Obviously if you're not doing much trading it's more expensive to pay a percentage of a large ISA pot as a platform fee just for holding funds and not doing anything with them, so something like an IWeb or Halifax Sharedealing account with much lower fixed fees and a 'transactional" approach to charging, might suit.

Thank you Bowlhead.

Yes, you are absolutely right that it is never too late to start. Perhaps, something for my wife to look into. I suppose it is a question of finding the right IT which match her funds.