New Investor Advice AJ Bell S&S ISA

Trundley27

Audaxer wrote: »

The ongoing fund charge for these funds on the L&G platform appears to be 0.76%. There may also be a percentage platform charge as well. You can also buy the L&G Multi Index funds through AJ Bell, and on that platform you will see that the ongoing fund charge is only 0.31%. On AJ Bell there is also a 0.25% platform charge, so even if there is no platform charge on the L&G platform, it seems to be better value to stick with AJ Bell and buy the L&G Multi Index fund there if it is a fund from that range that you decide to go for.

Sorry I have just read back through posts and read this post properly, obviously misunderstood the wording a little, no I still have the ISA open with AJ Bell I have just withdrew the cash.

So what your saying is I should invest the funds using AJ Bell platform but into L&G Multi Index?
I worked out the total fees for using AJ Bell L&G Multi Index Fund would come in = total @ 0.56%?

ColdIron

Trundley27 wrote: »

I worked out the total fees for using AJ Bell L&G Multi Index Fund would come in = total @ 0.56%?

Yes, if only it wasn't for that pesky £1.50 transaction fee to purchase the fund every month which will cost you £18 a year. On small amounts the percentage charge is almost completely insignificant, about £0.90 difference in this case between AJB and L&G for the first year. I haven't checked but the usual disadvantage with buying funds direct from the provider (like L&G and Vanguard) is that you are restricted to only their own funds, this might or might not be an issue for you

Ideally you would choose someone like Charles Stanley Direct or Cavendish who also charge 0.25% (plus the 0.31% OCF) but no transaction fee, however you may be running or of ISAs that you can open (has your wife put any money into L&G yet?). You could take the view that £18 isn't a deal breaker, it's only a few coffees every year after all, and keeps your options open if you want to buy funds from other fund managers. You could cut that £18 in half by purchasing every two months for instance. Or you could focus exclusively on cost. Either way you should sit down, prioritise your objectives and compare the full costs of each option

Trundley27

ColdIron wrote: »

Yes, if only it wasn't for that pesky £1.50 transaction fee to purchase the fund every month which will cost you £18 a year. On small amounts the percentage charge is almost completely insignificant, about £0.90 difference in this case between AJB and L&G for the first year. I haven't checked but the usual disadvantage with buying funds direct from the provider (like L&G and Vanguard) is that you are restricted to only their own funds, this might or might not be an issue for you

Ideally you would choose someone like Charles Stanley Direct or Cavendish who also charge 0.25% (plus the 0.31% OCF) but no transaction fee, however you may be running or of ISAs that you can open (has your wife put any money into L&G yet?). You could take the view that £18 isn't a deal breaker, it's only a few coffees every year after all, and keeps your options open if you want to buy funds from other fund managers. You could cut that £18 in half by purchasing every two months for instance. Or you could focus exclusively on cost. Either way you should sit down, prioritise your objectives and compare the full costs of each option

ColdIron, thank you for your reply. Every time I get a reply on this post it somewhat narrows everything down. We haven’t opened anything with L&G, but I have called Cavendish and Charles Stanley and asked if the Life Strategy 80 is available with them, they both replied yes. There charges are low, I think after reading though all the information I will go with one of these Platforms and invest in the Vanguard fund due to there low costs. Stanley was 0.25% (OCF) & 0.22% (Funds). Cavendish was the same on OCF but he didn’t have the (Funds % info) I think it will be very similar to Stanley.
Do you or anybody have a personal preference between the 2 Cavendish or Charles Stanley?

ColdIron

I've used CSD since 2014 and they do exactly what it says on the tin. No surprises, and on the rare occasion I've needed to contact them, customer support has been good. You can set up a monthly direct debit for as little as £50 to fund the account and give them instructions to purchase your fund(s) monthly

The only fly in the ointment I can see is that to vary the direct debit amount (£50/£100) you will need to send them a secure message or phone them every time you want to change it which could be a faff. You could commit to £75 for an easy life and you might want to add a few pennies to cover the charges. If this is important to you then someone like Hargreaves Lansdown will let you change it as often as you like online. I don't want to muddy the waters for you but while HL are generally more expensive than others, at your level you are still only talking an extra £0.90 for the first year and you can have direct debits as low as £25

Finally you say "Stanley was 0.25% (OCF) & 0.22% (Funds)" (sorry, can't be doing with that orangey peachy colour, it's hard to read, stop it) but to be clear - the 0.25% is not the OCF, it's the platform fee taken directly by CSD from cash in your account. The 0.22% is the fund OCF taken internally by Vanguard. The OCF will be the same regardless of who you hold the fund with

Trundley27

That is good to know Coldiron, I will be setting up with CSD and life strategy 80 I thought the reviews for this fund were better than the L&G Multi Index. I was going to go to L&G direct or Vanguard but now looking into the lower cost DIY platforms I likely now to go with CSD for this fund.

The way the lady explained to me as long as £50 p/m using my Visa card I can put as much as I want in up to the USA allowance but not setting up a direct debit I will just make manual payments of my chosen amount.

It has been a learning curve I have to say but I have finally got somewhere after this much appreciated advice from everyone.

ColdIron

Trundley27 wrote: »

The way the lady explained to me as long as £50 p/m using my Visa card I can put as much as I want in up to the USA allowance but not setting up a direct debit I will just make manual payments of my chosen amount.

Yes, funding the account with a debit card works. Be aware that if you make adhoc manual purchases there is a minimum of £100 and the first purchase will be £500 so you will need to use the monthly saving plan