Which Non-AJ Bell SIPP Platform

Chickereeeee

Mutton_Geoff said:

I asked them this question today and got a strangely worded reply:

We will only ever take fees from a SIPP account if it's a stand alone account, so while your trading account and ISA account are both linked to your SIPP, if you or we cancelled your direct debit instruction, the fees would still not come from your SIPP account.

Is the SIPP managed by another company at II - like iWeb use AJ Bell?
Maybe some issue with transferring money, if so.

SouthCoastBoy

I find this an interesting thread as I currently have an H&L account and have both a SIPP and S&S ISA account, however I find the pricing is high. I have a company DC pension which I need to move to a drawdown provider in the next couple of years. Due to fees I don't think it will be H&L, not sure which one to go for though, at the moment it is looking I may go for Interactive Investor, so I would be interested to hear of any experiences

Joey_Soap

SouthCoastBoy said:

I find this an interesting thread as I currently have an H&L account and have both a SIPP and S&S ISA account, however I find the pricing is high. I have a company DC pension which I need to move to a drawdown provider in the next couple of years. Due to fees I don't think it will be H&L, not sure which one to go for though, at the moment it is looking I may go for Interactive Investor, so I would be interested to hear of any experiences

HL wouldn't be my choice either. But to be fair, if you do not invest in funds, HL can be very cost effective. If you envisage investing in funds, I suggest II or AJ Bell depending on the size of the pot of money.

coyrls

SouthCoastBoy said:

I find this an interesting thread as I currently have an H&L account and have both a SIPP and S&S ISA account, however I find the pricing is high. I have a company DC pension which I need to move to a drawdown provider in the next couple of years. Due to fees I don't think it will be H&L, not sure which one to go for though, at the moment it is looking I may go for Interactive Investor, so I would be interested to hear of any experiences

I think Interactive Investor has improved over the years, there was a time when their administration and support was poor but it does seem a lot better now.  I actually left them in 2015 because they were so poor but was then transferred back to them, when Alliance Trust Savings was taken over by Interactive Investor in 2019 and I would say they are now much better than they were in 2015.

Secret2ndAccount

I transferred my SIPP from H-L to ii about a year ago (ii is much cheaper for a larger portfolio). ii did everything to make the process as simple as possible, and sent regular emails explaining what was happening, and where we were in the process. Process took too long but it seemed pretty clear to me this was H-L holding up progress rather than ii failing to act or to follow up.

I have contacted ii customer services a couple of times and received swift and helpful answers.

ii credited me with £250 for transferring in which was a nice boost. Effectively the first year's charges.

Secret2ndAccount

I have experience with H-L,  ii,  and iWeb

The slickest interface is H-L. If the platform fees were all the same, I would use H-L. ii's interface is fine, just not as shiny as H-L. iWeb offers a very basic interface. In fact I export the info from iWeb, and watch my portfolio in a spreadsheet. They hold my ISA for free though, so I can't complain too much.

I could transfer my ISA to ii and hold it there within the charges I already pay to ii (so again free). However, I feel slightly more comfortable being split across providers. It's not that I'm expecting either of them to go belly-up any time soon. It's more a concern over IT failures. What happens on the day when you try to log in and find that the service is down? This happened to me with iWeb a few weeks ago. At least I was still able to log in to ii and could have trade if I wanted to.

SouthCoastBoy

Thanks for the responses, all very helpful. I would stay with HL if the fees were more palatable, but I will have a pot of, hopefully, between 400k and 500k and 0.45% on first 250k, then 0.25% on the rest is just too expensive.

[Deleted User]

I use HL, very cheap for me as I only invest in Investment Trusts

Albermarle

SouthCoastBoy said:

Thanks for the responses, all very helpful. I would stay with HL if the fees were more palatable, but I will have a pot of, hopefully, between 400k and 500k and 0.45% on first 250k, then 0.25% on the rest is just too expensive.

Fidelity is  like a lower cost version of HL , with a less slick website , so also maybe worth a look .
For a fund your size the platform cost would be 0.2% for all of it . No extra charges for anything ( SIPP, drawdown etc ) except a £10 trading charge for buying shares /ETF's & ITs. Also for these traded products there is a capped platform charge of £45.
Plus a cashback offer ( around £750) although the deadline is in  a few days ( although like furniture sales they reappear again quite quickly )

Alexland

Albermarle said:

Fidelity is  like a lower cost version of HL , with a less slick website , so also maybe worth a look .

It's subjective but Fidelity have been investing in user experience and are just as good if not better than HL now.

SouthCoastBoy it depends on what type of investments you are making and the transaction frequency but percentage based charges are only good for small account valuations and once your account becomes significant then you would want to move onto a fixed price platform (such as iWeb/HSD or II) or one that is capped for exchange traded investments (such as Fidelity, HL or AJ Bell). At £45 pa (plus transfer cashback) the Fidelity SIPP can be amazing value in the right circumstances.