Transfer from Vanguard to iWeb

badger09

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I have.  The original transfer back in November (when I started this thread) went wrong because it became impossible for Vanguard to disentangle previous and current years' subscriptions, so I cancelled it and began it again in the new tax year.  It did take several weeks but that was down to c-19 (I transferred right in the middle of the early lockdown period) and I suspect it will be a bit faster now.  As advised on here, I transferred it as stocks and residual cash, thereby avoiding the £5 trading fee and not having my investments out of the market at any point.

Just be aware that your Vanguard percentage gain/loss measurement doesn't come across to iWeb, and neither does iWeb mark your starting point, so it's a good idea to keep a manual record of both if you want to track your own performance.  I'm using iWeb as a passive dumping ground, so it's pretty easy to see how much I've gained/lost on the funds I moved across.  If you intend on investing in Vanguard in the future, you can ask them to keep your ISA open.  That's what I've done, so prior years' subscriptions just sit there in iWeb and the monthly and occasional sums I invest this year go into Vanguard.  

Glad you got it sorted (eventually).

bogleboogle

Am I right in thinking that once you hold >£16,666 (thus incurring an annual platform fee >£25 on Vanguard) there is no advantage to keeping your money with Vanguard vs iWeb (assuming iWeb hosts your preferred fund(s))?

george4064

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I have.  The original transfer back in November (when I started this thread) went wrong because it became impossible for Vanguard to disentangle previous and current years' subscriptions, so I cancelled it and began it again in the new tax year.  It did take several weeks but that was down to c-19 (I transferred right in the middle of the early lockdown period) and I suspect it will be a bit faster now.  As advised on here, I transferred it as stocks and residual cash, thereby avoiding the £5 trading fee and not having my investments out of the market at any point.

Just be aware that your Vanguard percentage gain/loss measurement doesn't come across to iWeb, and neither does iWeb mark your starting point, so it's a good idea to keep a manual record of both if you want to track your own performance.  I'm using iWeb as a passive dumping ground, so it's pretty easy to see how much I've gained/lost on the funds I moved across.  If you intend on investing in Vanguard in the future, you can ask them to keep your ISA open.  That's what I've done, so prior years' subscriptions just sit there in iWeb and the monthly and occasional sums I invest this year go into Vanguard.  

Many platforms allow clients who have recently transferred onto the platform to set their cost price to whatever the client says, this alleviates the issue of the gain/loss measurement not carrying across. This isn't to say that iWeb will allow you to do this, but it certainly is possible.

FWIW I have done this when transferring from HL to AJBell YouInvest.

tel_

I am thinking of transfering my VLS fund to iWeb for the same reasons. However, I have deposited money into my LS fund with Vanguard this financial year. Can I still transfer it to iWeb, or do I have wait until the tax year is finished in April 2021? 

I plan to start contributing new money to a different fund with Vanguard instead shortly.

Aylesbury_Duck

tel_ said:

I am thinking of transfering my VLS fund to iWeb for the same reasons. However, I have deposited money into my LS fund with Vanguard this financial year. Can I still transfer it to iWeb, or do I have wait until the tax year is finished in April 2021? 

I plan to start contributing new money to a different fund with Vanguard instead shortly.

In my experience you're best doing one of two things:

Transfer it now, and stop adding to Vanguard until the transfer is complete or you'll just complicate matters.
Leave it until the new year and transfer it all then.

Also make sure you aren't contributing new money to two S&S ISAs in this year.

[Deleted User]

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Transfer it now, and stop adding to Vanguard until the transfer is complete or you'll just complicate matters.
Leave it until the new year and transfer it all then.

If we initiate a transfer in April and it is complete by June, should we not invest until June? I thought iWeb had an option to transfer investments upto prior year? So theoretically there shouldnt be an issue continuing contributions for current year to old ISA?

cloud_dog

bogleboogle said:

Am I right in thinking that once you hold >£16,666 (thus incurring an annual platform fee >£25 on Vanguard) there is no advantage to keeping your money with Vanguard vs iWeb (assuming iWeb hosts your preferred fund(s))?

The iWeb £25 fee is a one-off, account opening fee. 

If you ignore that fee then, if you make a single trade with iWeb, once a year, that equates to Vanguard platform charge on £3334.  So, if you hold more than £3334, transferring it to iWeb and having to incur a £5 transaction fee, you will be better off.  If you are retaining the investment and transferring in situ then there is no £5 iWeb transaction charge and you will be saving yourself the ongoing Vanguard 0.15% platform fee.

bogleboogle

cloud_dog said:

bogleboogle said:

Am I right in thinking that once you hold >£16,666 (thus incurring an annual platform fee >£25 on Vanguard) there is no advantage to keeping your money with Vanguard vs iWeb (assuming iWeb hosts your preferred fund(s))?

The iWeb £25 fee is a one-off, account opening fee. 

If you ignore that fee then, if you make a single trade with iWeb, once a year, that equates to Vanguard platform charge on £3334.  So, if you hold more than £3334, transferring it to iWeb and having to incur a £5 transaction fee, you will be better off.  If you are retaining the investment and transferring in situ then there is no £5 iWeb transaction charge and you will be saving yourself the ongoing Vanguard 0.15% platform fee.

Can you explain the bit in bold? iWeb has transaction fees of £5 per transaction? If so, that would explain why many prefer to stay with Vanguard (the trade-off then being no platform fees vs no transaction fees). 

Aylesbury_Duck

Deleted_User said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Transfer it now, and stop adding to Vanguard until the transfer is complete or you'll just complicate matters.
Leave it until the new year and transfer it all then.

If we initiate a transfer in April and it is complete by June, should we not invest until June? I thought iWeb had an option to transfer investments upto prior year? So theoretically there shouldnt be an issue continuing contributions for current year to old ISA?

They do have that option, but in my experience, the simpler you can make it, the better.  My situation ended being more complicated than it needed to be, which is why I cancelled the transfer and did it at year end.  Vanguard struggled to separate prior from current year subscriptions.  They didn't say it was impossible, just that it was complicated and taking time.  I elected to cancel and start again in April just so I wasn't sitting on a pending transfer for weeks or even months.  It also meant I was happy to carry on subscribing up to my £20k in Vanguard to the end of the year, knowing I wasn't adding potential further complications.

Aylesbury_Duck

bogleboogle said:

cloud_dog said:

bogleboogle said:

Am I right in thinking that once you hold >£16,666 (thus incurring an annual platform fee >£25 on Vanguard) there is no advantage to keeping your money with Vanguard vs iWeb (assuming iWeb hosts your preferred fund(s))?

The iWeb £25 fee is a one-off, account opening fee. 

If you ignore that fee then, if you make a single trade with iWeb, once a year, that equates to Vanguard platform charge on £3334.  So, if you hold more than £3334, transferring it to iWeb and having to incur a £5 transaction fee, you will be better off.  If you are retaining the investment and transferring in situ then there is no £5 iWeb transaction charge and you will be saving yourself the ongoing Vanguard 0.15% platform fee.

Can you explain the bit in bold? iWeb has transaction fees of £5 per transaction? If so, that would explain why many prefer to stay with Vanguard (the trade-off then being no platform fees vs no transaction fees). 

The £5 trade charge equates to the 0.15% Vanguard would charge you per year on £3333.33, whereas iWeb don't charge you a platform fee (once the initial £25 charge has been made to open the account).  Both platforms charge the fund fee of 0.22% so they're equal there.

In other words, if you're like me and have a reasonable sum in Vanguard from prior years' subscriptions (c.£60k), my options are:

Leave it in Vanguard.  Platform fee of 0.15%, £90 p.a., plus £132 p.a. in fund charges.
Move it to iWeb.          Platform fee of zero, plus £132 p.a. in fund charges.  I have paid £25 to open the account.

So if I leave that £60k sat untouched for 10 years, Vanguard will cost me £875 more in charges in that period.  If I wanted to move investments around once a year, Vanguard wouldn't charge me for doing so but iWeb would, £5 each time.  Still only £50 in those ten years so I'm still £825 up.

So my strategy, as kindly recommended by badger09 some time ago, is to dump prior years' money into iWeb and build my £20k allowance this year on Vanguard, because I drip-feed money in each month and Vanguard don't charge me for doing so, or for moving funds around.  Then next April I will transfer the £20k to iWeb and the whole process begins again.