Share Dealing Discussion Area

tradetime

dbs wrote: »

I want to start trading in shares with an online and telephone provider.
Selftrade
Sharedeal active
Both the above companies are quite cheap to trade with but are they reliable? can you get through on the phone lines? and is logging on a problem if the website is busy?

Is there any information I can find out about these type of brokers any where on the web? would I be better paying more for a better service?

On the Motley Fool website noticed a few people complaing about problems with selftrade recently.

Any advice welcome.

I'd say it depends whether you actually want to "trade" or invest. If you are investing, then any reputable company with broad access to the type of products you want will suffice, and it's just a matter of listening to opinions on customer service experience. If however you actually want to "trade" then you need a service that was designed for that, Selftrade and the likes were not made for traders and are totally unsuitable.

tradetime

pandybear22 wrote: »

Hey,

A quick outline:

Am looking to go on a big, long, holiday next year, which will cost a fair old whack. I've been saving for the past year and am already over half way there.

I also have a seperate savings isa, which is just money that sits there getting 4% (soon to be 6% thanks to MSE:cool: ) but what I do not need right this moment. Thus, am looking to "invest/play" with £1k of it, with a view to potentially paying for some of my holiday this way, and if I get my fingers burnt it will be lesson learned but not a big hinderance.

The question I'm really here to ask then is what share dealing account I should open with what I guess is a v small bankroll of £1k.
I have looked at HB and Halifax Sharebuilder, and am stuck between the two, although am perfectly open to other suggestions!

Also, do you think it is worth me investing in four/five companies of £200-£250 of shares each, or simpy not economically viable and i should be looking to lump it across a maximum of two?

Sorry if I sound rather naive, but am all rather new to the idea!

Tyvm in advance.

My advice, fwiw, keep your money in the best interest yeilding account you can. You refer to this money in relation to a big holiday next year, putting money to work for a year is not really investing, it is closer to position trading, and carries more risk than investing. The amount of money you have to put to work would imo cause you extremely high risk, commissions as a % of profits would be very high, and you would have to sacrifice any diversification.

toby_puppy

does anyone know when Banco Santander pay out their dividends now - my mum was expecting a payment into her bank of around £30 dividend on 9 November but it hasn't turned up. I found something about Santander dividends on google but I couldn't make sense of it - we just wanted to know if they are still going to pay out dividends to shareholders in November 08.
thanks.

sabretoothtigger

give it a week to clear

Lansdowne

Santander web site says
When will I receive my dividend payments?

Santander's record date is on the last working day before the dividend date. As a result, the dividend payment happens approximately 10 days later if you receive your dividend by mandate into your bank account. If your dividend is paid by cheque, you will receive the payment about three weeks after the dividend date.
Dividend dates for your diary
1st February
1st May
1st August
1st November
from http://www.santandershareholder.co.uk/dividends

"Approximately 10 days" is about now, not time to worry yet.

crispeater

please excuse me if i'm posting this on the wrong thread.

i want to purchase some shares for my children as their birthday presents (next year) but believe due to the financial market it might be better for me to buy them now? please correct me if i'm wrong. the thing is i dont know where to start i get so confused so quickly lol i would ideally like to buy them in something they would be interesed in ie chocolate or toys but i can imagine at this time of year they would be expensive and i dont really want to spend more than £100 on both of my children. so they will probably get what they are given!

can anyone help me as to which shares might be a good investment and how i'd go about purchasing them.

many thanks for any help

Optimist

crispeater wrote: »

please excuse me if i'm posting this on the wrong thread.

i want to purchase some shares for my children as their birthday presents (next year) but believe due to the financial market it might be better for me to buy them now? please correct me if i'm wrong. the thing is i dont know where to start i get so confused so quickly lol i would ideally like to buy them in something they would be interesed in ie chocolate or toys but i can imagine at this time of year they would be expensive and i dont really want to spend more than £100 on both of my children. so they will probably get what they are given!

can anyone help me as to which shares might be a good investment and how i'd go about purchasing them.

many thanks for any help

I fear nobody can give you the information as to which shares to buy as nobody knows and probably are not registered to give such advice anyway.

As to how you need a stockbroker but for the very small amounts your thinking of you are on a hiding to nothing when you put dealing costs into the equation.

How about a bank account putting in regular savings ?

sabretoothtigger

I guess you could buy them some RBS shares, cheap as chips but still one of the worlds biggest companies and owner of many well known brands like churchill, etc.

Their progress will most likely be reported in the news and maybe will provide an education to the children as to risk/rewards.

Probably a good thing children learn about bad credit as soon as possible, so if rbs do get nationalised they will learn even if they lose the money?

Im not suggesting rbs is a good investment for the next 5 years, the market certainly doesnt think so but then thats where the most profit is to be made, having confidence when others dont


Otherwise I would just suggest a tracker or tracker bond but I think the minimum one off investment is 500.
Premium bonds are slightly better then lottery tickets

crispeater

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Probably a good thing children learn about bad credit as soon as possible

this is one of the reason's why i'd like to get them some shares. so they start to understand a bit more about money and the ups and downs of it.

they have bank accounts which i put money into for them too i just wanted to do something different.

thank you both for your input

jebervic

Crispeater

I personally wouldn't buy RBS, but thats JUST MY OPINON, why not?, too many risks involved !, if I was to buy any banks, it would have to be barclays, I would also be keen on vodafone, British Telecom and Tesco.

All offer good dividend yield and lots of upside capital growth, however, I would wait a couple of months, as I expect the market to drop another 10-20% from here, only time will tell.

good luck.

Please note, I am not qualified to offer advice, only personal opinion.