Want to open new General investment account

csgohan4

dunstonh said:

Mainly passive funds like tracker funds in US and UK markets. S&P 500 fund or FTSE 100 fund.

I am not in active trading.

You may not be trading but you are making active decisions with that selection.
FTSE100 is a dire index.  Over 20 years of consistent underperformance compared to its peers.   No expectation that will change given its extremely poor asset make up.    So, why does it appeal to you?

Even the FTSE All share has been pretty much static last 5 years as well, and this covers more than than the FTSE 100

FTSE ALL SHARE: MARKET OVERVIEW

3,398.45

 -43.10 (-1.25%)

Day high
3,441.55

Day low
3,384.68

83705628

csgohan4 said:

tcallaghan93 said:

cloud_dog said:

OP, ignore tcallahan93, he's got a scotoma to anything that doesn't fit in to their view

What's that saying.... Lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics.

Based on what you have said, possibly iWeb or maybe II as you will be making use of the free trades.

EDIT:   Alternatively, why not make use of the cheap dealing function of Vanguard and then periodically transfer it to a better provider, i.e. iWeb?

/
That's a solid idea. As for frequent or infrequent trading I wouldn't say that a few trades a month is frequent but standard if you're paying in monthly, but that's just a matter of perspective, I don't know if anyone has the data on that.

And about ignoring dunstonh, they'vebeen extremely aggressive and rude lately to a number of posters, myself included. They said what they said about the FTSE 100 as if it were fact. It was opinion misrepresented as fact or consensus.
OP did not ask for comments about their fund selection but about platforms. Dunstonh keeps derailing threads with nonsensical rants, positing opinions as facts and being rude to anyone who does not agree with them.

To be fair FTSE 100 hasn't been all that good either and this is a 20 year overview, This is why I am anxious to invest in UK equities given the lack lustre performance. I'll probably put that money into EM or more global equities

FTSE 100: MARKET OVERVIEW

6,125.77

 -85.67 (-1.38%)

Day high
6,211.44

Day low
6,099.06

/
It's a fair enough observation and this thread is about platforms not investments so not the place for a debate, but briefly:
a. 1/1/2000-1/1/2020 FTSE 100 suffered -3% negative speculative return/rerating as some call it (PE was higher than the S&P 500's at the peak of the dot-com bubble so to say the valuation is because of the companies in the index is a misnomer),
b. was neck and neck with global equity until speculation about the EU referendum, on a total return basis,
c. that's the capital not return index, can only do an apples for apples comparison with the total return, and
d. IMHO this is/may be a classic example of why past performance could/may/will not be indicative of future returns IMHO

bowlhead99

tcallaghan93 said:

Why not Vanguard? 

The long answer is that in a previous thread, OP gave a backstory that they had noted that a number of platforms were not accommodating to people with foreign tax affairs, and that although they only had UK tax residency, they also paid some indian tax, so thought that they may not be able to open accounts with some platforms. 

They said that when they followed up with Vanguard about the fact that they paid some foreign tax, Vanguard came back and said they couldn't have an account.  That sounds like Vanguard's interpretation of their own rule that you can open and maintain an account only if "you are (i) a UK resident and (ii) solely pay tax in the UK". 

From a regulatory (international tax reporting) perspective, the rule to make things easy for Vanguard only really needs to be "you are (i) a UK resident and (ii) you are not resident in any other jurisdiction and are not a US citizen", which is a rule that would avoid any 'automatic exchange of tax information' reports needing to be filed by Vanguard to HMRC in relation to the customer for HMRC to pass to foreign jurisdictions. 

But it takes longer to write that in the T&C, so perhaps in trying to make the language less clunky for investors they have created an unnecessary restriction on what kind of investor they can accept.  The fact that someone happens to have some Indian deposit accounts or India-sourced investment income and is required to pay Indian tax on them is not at all relevant to Vanguard in terms of Vanguard's own tax reporting obligations, because they would not need to report the person's Vanguard account balance to India, because the person is not a tax resident of India. 

It may be that Vanguard have intentionally chosen to use this simplified version of the rule (which denies accounts to more people) because if you are a person with complex tax affairs or a lot of international income from obscure jurisdictions, there may be more risk that you are a type of customer they don't want (from the perspective of avoiding customers who might be money launderers or terrorists or involved in financial crime) even if you have a UK address. 

However it may just be that when they say 'solely pay tax in the UK' they only intended to capture people who had foreign tax residences, which is what their rivals mostly do, but their frontline support staff are not trained to explain that fully to a prospective customer and it's better for them to err on the side of caution.

Amittal6 said:
Are there any other good options ... either fixed fee or % fee & if someone can refer me as well. 

I am happy with AJ Bell Youinvest who are slightly more expensive for funds than Vanguard (0.25% plus £1.50 dealing fees rather than 0.15% all in) but have a wider range of products. No cheaper than Cavendish which you have already mentioned, but could be better if you are mostly buying ETFs (where the percentage-based fee is capped and charges to buy each month are low).

If you want fully fixed / transaction based fees then IWeb are cheap (fund range a bit more restricted than Youinvest) but as IWeb don't have a monthly 'regular investment' option it could cost you more when you add up all the transaction fees through a whole year, depending on amounts involved. Example, two or three funds being added each month for 12 months is 24-36 fivers of transaction fees, and it would be cheaper on a small account to use AJ Bell or Cavendish. Or to just bundle the trades into larger amounts and take it in turns which fund to buy each month (or even just each quarter).

Halifax Sharedealing is basically the same product as IWeb with higher transaction fees for ad-hoc, one-off trades,  but does have a discounted 'regular investing' option for transaction fees so can be more competitive if you are buying on a fixed monthly schedule and won't need to do ad-hoc trades.

Snowman's spreadsheet is good to get your head around the price options from different models for different patterns of activity.

Referrals for specific platforms (once you've decided what platform you want) would be found on the separate Referrers board (filter to that category on the Advanced forum search tool) so as not to disrupt discussions here.

amittal6

msallen said:

tcallaghan93 said:

Why not Vanguard? They're very competitive for the amounts you're talking about until you get upto £50k-£100k, and have everything you want, above that amount  I think iWeb are the absolute cheapest for infrequent traders. 
I use both, prefer Vanguard, iWeb is fine.

But the OP is not going to be an infrequent trader. They are proposing at least one trade a month, maybe multiple as they talking about a number of index funds.

Vangaurd is saying no to me since I have some deposits outside of UK (primarily in India) because of which they are saying am not eligible to open Gen Inv Account. Hence looking for vanguard alternative.

amittal6

bowlhead99 said:

It may be that Vanguard have intentionally chosen to use this simplified version of the rule (which denies accounts to more people)

Mr bowlhead99 - you just blew my mind with your amazing explanation and hitting the right points. You explained it really well. Hence I am still in dilemma to continue with Vanguard as I am tax resident of UK and more importantly, even if I have foreign or overseas income, I would rather report in returns filed annually with HMRC rather than me considering myself as dual tax resident.

Do you think I would go ahead and close the gen Inv account with Vanguard (since I have opened it and then realise that I do not meet this paying-tax-outside person condition) or continue with Vanguard since officially I should be allowed to open the gen inv account out here against vanguard conditions? I am happy to write to their legal/compliance department if that is one of the solution?

amittal6

bowlhead99 said:

No cheaper than Cavendish which you have already mentioned, but could be better if you are mostly buying ETFs (where the percentage-based fee is capped and charges to buy each month are low).



Snowman's spreadsheet is good to get your head around the price options from different models for different patterns of activity.

Referrals for specific platforms (once you've decided what platform you want) would be found on the separate Referrers board (filter to that category on the Advanced forum search tool) so as not to disrupt discussions here.

I am inclining towards canvendish online due to good enough universe to select funds (from mainly index tracker funds), low cost of only 0.25% (afte Vanguard ~0.15%) and good reviews.

My primary drive would be to do regular investing - 3 or 4 transactions like drip feeding in index funds of US and UK and all set up with occasional lumpsum as and when collected.

Let's see how this Vanguard saga goes, but cavendish online looks to me near possibility. AJ Bell just would prove to be quite costly if they are charging for every dealing and I am goign to do a lot with regular investing in mind. Thanks again to you!