stocks and shares ISA - platform: Fidelity vs Barclays Smart Investor

ultrasilvam

Hello. Can you please help me compare Fidelity fees to Barclays Smart Investor, for ETFs and shares? Unless I am totally misreading it, Barclays Smart Investor (0.1% on ETFs and shares and £6 for dealing) seems to be cheaper than Fidelity (0.35% on ETFs and shares and £10 for dealing). I'm thinking of opening a stocks and shares ISA for the next tax year with Barclays, as they have some shares and ETFs not available on Fidelity. Thanks. 

MDMD

Barclays have a minimum £4 a month fee, so £48 per year, max £125. Fidelity cap the fee at £45 per year if holding exchange traded instruments,

Albermarle

Fidelity also have a minimum fee of £45 for all types of investments , which would kick in for a pot of less than £7500 , unless you had a regular investment plan.
Fees in more detail (fidelity.co.uk)

ChilliBob

So if your portfolio was 20,000 and comprised 1 fund (an ETF)
Fidelity: 45+10 = 55
Barclays: 48+6 = 54
The more funds you buy the better Barclays becomes compared to Fidelity.
When you hit year two, if you assume you max out the allowance at 40,000 then it's the same as above.
Year three with 60000 then Barclays becomes more expensive at £60 platform fee.

So I guess it depends on how many funds you intend to buy, and the type of funds, if you stray outside of ETFs then Fidelity costs change and increase. 

I'd not even considered Barclays before as I'd not seen it mentioned on here. I was thinking of using Fidelity for my partners ISA and just getting 1-2 ETFs, but you've got me thinking about Barclays now. But I suppose it's only a short term thing though as in year three, assuming costs on platforms remain the same, Barclays becomes more expensive AND if you wanted to move it to say Fidelity, and they didn't have the same funds I guess that'd be bit of a pain! 

Albermarle

Barclays hardly ever get mentioned on here but it seems their charges are quite competitive.
They do charge for buying and selling funds, but their standard platform fee is lower than Fidelity ( and HL and AJ Bell)
It is worth noting that they charge extra for a SIPP and extra again for drawdown , which HL & Fidelity do not  .

ChilliBob

It does seem to me that once you go over say 50k Barclays would be more expensive, assuming you just had ETFS from Fidelity. I've not looked at the range of ETFS from Fidelity to know if that's a huge limiting factor or not
My suspicion is not. 

ultrasilvam

Thank you. I'm with Fidelity now and investing regularly (by DD) in 2 funds and 2 ETFs. I pay 0.25% as I was switched from Cavendish, but I after the first year it will increase to 0.35%. The challenge is that I would like to buy some shares that aren't available on Fidelity and I was hoping to do it through my stocks and shares ISA. Can't switch to Barclays either as the index funds I already invest in aren't available on Barclays (only the ETFs are). So I guess I'd have to buy those shares outside the ISA if I really want them. 

Albermarle

There are plenty more fish in the sea ,
Compare the UK's cheapest online brokers - Monevator

coastline

Years ago Fidelity brokers switched to Schwab who in turn switched to Barclays around 20 years ago. In 2017 Barclays set up a new website and reset all fees and I think ended a cap arrangement ? If you are dealing IT's ETF's and Shares then 0.1% fee isn't that bad. Funds are 0.2% fee. At the end of the day who knows how long capped fees last at other brokers ? Buying at £6 is competitive. Dealing uses the " price improver " where they scan the market for a decent quote from at least 30 market makers ?. This might not happen with other platforms as they might only use a few market makers ? Little things help when you are active in the market. 
No idea how accurate the link is but you can compare situations. I don't understand the star ratings as some only offer limited packages but get a high rating ?
Investment Fees Calculator - Boring Money

Alexland

Albermarle said:

Barclays hardly ever get mentioned on here but it seems their charges are quite competitive.

It's because of the £4 per month minimum ongoing charge (before trade fees) which is almost enough to do a £5 trade on iWeb each month. So for a small GIA or ISA account valuation you would be better paying a percentage elsewhere and for a large account you would be better on iWeb even though the increased account opening charge takes a while to payback