AJ Bell raising cap on shares custody charge

masonic

Chickereeeee said:

Doesnt anybody else find monthly fees, as opposed to quarterly, annoying? I am not hyper-anal abouts such things, but like my (MSMoney) records to reflect the cash balance in the accounts. It will be three times the the work to enter monthly transactions. 

I prefer monthly to quarterly. Any good accounting software has a scheduled transaction system and such transactions can therefore be entered automatically. The benefit of monthly is that less cash needs to be maintained in the investment account to cover fees.

BrockStoker

masonic said:

Chickereeeee said:

Doesnt anybody else find monthly fees, as opposed to quarterly, annoying? I am not hyper-anal abouts such things, but like my (MSMoney) records to reflect the cash balance in the accounts. It will be three times the the work to enter monthly transactions. 

I prefer monthly to quarterly. Any good accounting software has a scheduled transaction system and such transactions can therefore be entered automatically. The benefit of monthly is that less cash needs to be maintained in the investment account to cover fees.

What accounting software would you recommend masonic?

masonic

BrockStoker said:

masonic said:

Chickereeeee said:

Doesnt anybody else find monthly fees, as opposed to quarterly, annoying? I am not hyper-anal abouts such things, but like my (MSMoney) records to reflect the cash balance in the accounts. It will be three times the the work to enter monthly transactions. 

I prefer monthly to quarterly. Any good accounting software has a scheduled transaction system and such transactions can therefore be entered automatically. The benefit of monthly is that less cash needs to be maintained in the investment account to cover fees.

What accounting software would you recommend masonic?

I use GNU Cash, although I'm not sure you should take that as a recommendation - there are probably better tools out there, but as I am a Linux user it is convenient and free.

BrockStoker

Thanks masonic. Free sounds good to me, but alas, I'm looking for something for Windows.

coyrls

Chickereeeee said:

Doesnt anybody else find monthly fees, as opposed to quarterly, annoying? I am not hyper-anal abouts such things, but like my (MSMoney) records to reflect the cash balance in the accounts. It will be three times the the work to enter monthly transactions. 

If you set it up under bills in MS Money, you can set it to be automatically applied each month with no data entry required.

masonic

BrockStoker said:

Thanks masonic. Free sounds good to me, but alas, I'm looking for something for Windows.

It is also available for Windows: https://www.gnucash.org/download.phtml

BrockStoker

masonic said:

BrockStoker said:

Thanks masonic. Free sounds good to me, but alas, I'm looking for something for Windows.

It is also available for Windows: https://www.gnucash.org/download.phtml

Thanks. Just downloaded it!

hoc

bowlhead99 said:

hoc said:

The 40% increase on ISA fees is neither merited nor justifiable given the competition. This must be based on their calculated assumption customers with other accounts will retain their ISA with them for simplicity as in just a few years they've almost completed the transition from competitive with the cheapest to marginally cheaper than the big expensive names. It's "just a few more pounds" each year until it isn't because at a certain point if paying a premium people will expect a premium service and product.

The proof of that is whether customers abandon them and new customers stop signing up. Otherwise, the costs are 'justifiable' considering what other firms want to charge for services. Every fee increase or structure change that a provider brings in is going to be one that they have given some thought to, in terms of what can get them the money they need for the desired level of profit without alienating too many of the customer types that they want.   The £20 extra from the higher cap now being used on the pension (only if it holds £48k+ of exchange-traded assets) is under 0.05% a year on £50k and 0.01% on a £250k portfolio of that type of asset. 

As you say, it's 'just a few more pounds' that won't make me rethink my strategy or move.  For me, the product is a premium one to IWeb while not being a more expensive pension product than e.g. ii for holding shares / exchange-traded stuff. A mix of 'transaction fees and percentage based'  will still be fine for investors who don't want to pay bigger percentages on lots of assets but don't have such a big portfolio with the particular asset types that make 'high fixed fees' at II a good solution compared to AJ Bell's.

In many cases combinations like an ISA with iweb and a SIPP with II will do the same job for cheaper. At this rate Youinvest will become more expensive than HL soon.

I'm sure the spirit of MSE is that it can always be cheaper to shop around in multiple places to build your own package of goods and services. I can get a cheaper deal on my weekly shop and same or better quality by parking and queuing in turn at Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, and a greengrocer; or I could go just go to my nearby Tesco Extra and get everything from one place and not mind that it is a little more expensive than the best I could do. 

For me, ii may be be more expensive for the pension given they want £240+ a year for it rather than Youinvest wanting £120 plus transaction fees, but of course everyone has a different profile of assets. IWeb don't have the same range of funds offered by Youinvest nor cover as many foreign stock exchanges for international stocks, so I wouldn't use them for my ISA, while they'll be fine for many of course.

My point was about the ISA fee increase, you are over focusing on SIPP. Referring to the argument you built up to in your thesis in the last paragraph, iweb covers the major global exchanges, more than most people need for an ISA. As for funds, if you really do mean funds then Youinvest is incredibly poor value due to uncapped fees and to avoid this you're back at ETF off regular market. If you are into foreign exchanges and SIPP then you'll be aware Youinvest earn the big money not from the transaction fee but the forex commission by converting back and forth to GBP each time, ii don't play this game. So, yes, you may be different or may not be doing a true comparison but for most cases a free ISA with iweb is the right choice. For SIPP I would still recommende Youinvest in some cases but not if you're dealing with funds or frequently trading in foreign markets.

Alexland

bowlhead99 said:

The £20 extra from the higher cap now being used on the pension (only if it holds £48k+ of exchange-traded assets) is under 0.05% a year on £50k and 0.01% on a £250k portfolio of that type of asset. 

All these tiny little percentages add up. My spreadsheet tells me we are spending over £100 per month on investment accounts and fund manager charges across our various accounts despite using some of the cheapest and most suitable products on the market. By the time we retire in a few decades time such costs might even be more than our council tax. AJ Bell even increased the charge cap on their Junior ISA a product that Fidelity are now giving away for free.

DavidT67

Yep, that JISA fee increase is particularly egregious; 50% increase from £5.00 pq to £2.50 pm