Stocks & Shares ISA

jamieh92

Hi there,

I have played around with investing for a while and whilst I do understand it all, I don't put enough time into looking at all of the company financials and fundamentals etc. As a result I just want to put a bit of money into funds for now.

Does anyone know what are the best ones out there? For me Cavendish seem to be by far the cheapest but are so rarely recommended.

Cheers,

Jamie

MallyGirl

you have asked about the cheapest funds and then suggested a platform/broker.

Cavendish provide the means to invest but then you still need to choose what to invest in.

Both the funds (or shares/ETFs/etc) and the platform itself have fees associated. The platform fees depend on what you hold (type and value)

Audaxer

jamieh92 wrote: »

I have played around with investing for a while and whilst I do understand it all, I don't put enough time into looking at all of the company financials and fundamentals etc. As a result I just want to put a bit of money into funds for now.

Just stick with funds for good. No need to risk investing in individual shares.

jamieh92

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I was on the phone at work whilst writing that.

Yeah I get that they're the platforms and I have to choose the correct fund in which to invest in but I need to choose the cheapest platform for me. Now obviously that depends to a degree how much I invest and as I don't plan to put a huge amount in at first, a few thousand, I feel a % fee would be better and with that Cavendish seems to have the lowest fees.

Is there an issue with that platform that means people don't tend to use it? It's run by a fund that has higher fees but seems more popular?

Jamie

eskbanker

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/ gives an overall summary of the market but there are at least a couple of sites where you can plug your own numbers in and see which fits your specific needs best, based on your own investment plans:

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5583030

I'm not aware of any significant negatives about Cavendish, although some will be put off by the fact that you can't buy shares through them.

I don't know if there's any simple summary of the range of funds offered by the various platforms, as some will undoubtedly offer more than others....

jamieh92

Thanks mate, that was really helpful. Definitely seems like Cavendish has the lowest fees apart from Vanguard which has limited choice (maybe create an account on both).

Now to open account and spend even longer choosing which fund to go for! Any advice?

TARDIS

Best to choose the fund(s) first, then the platform out of those that have your desired fund(s).
As you've already said vanguard is cheapest if you want their limited offering so you really do need to choose the fund first to get the cheapest (assuming that's your main criteria)

jamieh92

Well surely the fund charges are the same regardless of which fund? Granted not all of the funds are available on every platform but I have heard that Cavendish provides a pretty comprehensive range and all the alternative funds have much higher fees and exit fees, therefore to choose another platform based on a fund, it would have to make a lot more money... At least with the few thousand I'm investing.

Alexland

jamieh92 wrote: »

Definitely seems like Cavendish has the lowest fees apart from Vanguard which has limited choice (maybe create an account on both).

Just remember you can only contribute new money into one S&S ISA in each tax year.

jamieh92 wrote: »

Well surely the fund charges are the same regardless of which fund?

I assume you mean the fund charges are the same regardless of which platform? Some platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown have negotiated discounts to the fund charges and this is enabled via a different unit class of the fund. Still on the funds which already have a low OCF you are fine with Vanguard or Cavendish.

Also for infrequent 'buy and hold' fund investments it's also worth considering the iWeb fee structure which has no ongoing charge.

Alex.

jamieh92

Sorry yeah I did.

Yeah I looked at those two but I don't like the idea of exit charges and being tied into something.

Thanks for all your help

TheShape

I have my S&S ISA with Cavendish. I've never had any problems with them. Admittedly I've only performed a limited number of transactions with them but their customer service was very good when I transferred another S&S ISA to them and had a few problems (caused by some confusion over my previous platform's customer number/account number). Phone has been answered very promptly when I called them to resolve the issue.