Halifax Sharedealling Account fee from 2022

Steve_xx

I received an email today from Halifax, stating that they are planning to introduce a £36 annual fee, details are as follows:

The fee changes at a glance

• Customer administration fee - taken from April 2022. We’re introducing a new £36 annual fee to cover the costs of running the Share Dealing Service, which includes our Share Dealing Account, ISA and ShareBuilder. The first fee will be taken in April 2022 so you have over a year to decide if the account is right for you. • ISA administration fee. From April 2021, we’ll no longer charge the annual £12.50 fee as this is being replaced by the customer administration fee. We’ll collect your final payment for the 2020/21 tax year in May 2021 in the usual way if you have an ISA. • Online dealing commission. We’re reducing the online dealing commission for UK Shares, International Shares and Funds from £12.50 to £9.50.

How we’ll collect your customer administration fee We’ll take payment for the new £36 fee from cash within your account in April each year, with the first payment collected in April 2022. If your account doesn’t have enough cash to cover the fee, we’ll take the remaining amount by Direct Debit or from your Debit Card. If you have more than one account with us then you’ll only pay this fee once, whether it is a Share Dealing Account, a Stocks and Shares ISA or a ShareBuilder Account. We’ll contact you nearer the time to remind you when the fee will be taken.

eskbanker

This has been mentioned in various threads over the past few weeks, but doesn't seem to have had one started specifically about it before now:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77947291/#Comment_77947291
https://www.halifax.co.uk/investing/start-investing/share-dealing-services/charges/changes-to-our-pricing.html
https://www.halifax.co.uk/assets/pdf/filestore/costandchargesapril21.pdf

bluebottle11

That's a shame I was just looking at S+S ISA charges as have reached the FSCS limit of £85k in my Halifax ISA and was surprised how well their management fees compared to other banks who all seem to charge about £40 pa. 
Haven't had the email yet, but would welcome recommendations for other banks/brokers. 

Steve_xx

So, the question is, who doesn't charge an annual fee, and can one transfer shareholdings to them?

eskbanker

Steve_xx said:

So, the question is, who doesn't charge an annual fee, and can one transfer shareholdings to them?

IWeb, which uses the same underlying platform, has a one-off fee of £100 rather than an annual one.  You don't say what type of account you'd be looking to transfer (ISA/SIPP/GIA?), but in principle they'll accept transfers, although this is dependent on them supporting the same investments, which shouldn't be taken as read....

Type_45

I worked out it will take two years to make a move from Halifax to Iweb break even:

After 2 years with Halifax:

£12.50 + (1 x £36) = £48.50

6 trades per year at £9.50 (from 1 April 2021) = £114

Total = £162.50

After 2 years with Iweb:

£100 fee

6 trades per year at £5 = £60

Total = £160

Question: can I transfer my VLS100 from Halifax to Iweb without any time out of the market? 

arnoldy

For the private investor these changes are good news because of the lower dealing fees - enables the small private investor to  reinvest dividends when they reach circa £1k, and make buy sell decisions with lower dealing costs to take advantage of volatility. 

colsten

I think I'll stick with Halifax SD regardless, as I can't find my best performing fund (XDEX) on any other platform. It should hopefully outgrow the annual charge by a multiple. If it doesn't, I have an issue much larger than £36.

Type_45

Well, I've taken the plunge and signed up with Iweb and filled in the transfer form.

I only have VLS100 accumulator, and plan to add to it about 6 times per year.

No frills suits me fine. And now that I've signed up with Iweb I can see that the UI is exactly the same as Halifax but with different colours.

I was looking forward to the HSD app, but it's still not available (to android customers who don't have a bank account with Halifax) and I'm bored of waiting for it. It's not essential.

I also got £25 for a complaint I made to Halifax, so that will go towards my Iweb fee and thus make it £75.

I can't believe how unbelievably tight I am with these fees when I think nothing of spending £20+ on a pizza.

SpeedSouth

Do iWeb offer the £2 per trade for regular investment's?   Seems that will remain at Halifax.

Type_45

adam81 said:

Do iWeb offer the £2 per trade for regular investment's?   Seems that will remain at Halifax.

I think so.