Broker charges, locked in?

eskbanker

moneytroll said:

At the time when I chose AJ Bell (from memory), all brokers were charging exit fees. However the majority of brokers also offered cashback, to cover transferring shares to them. I never really thought that brokers would stop offering this incentive (I now don't know of any broker that does this now).

So your complaint is really more about platforms stopping (discretionary) cashback offers than retaining (contractual) exit fees then?

moneytroll said:
I don't think it is either fair or helpful to keep banging on about how "I should have known" because it doesn't help the situation now

As you might expect, I disagree that I'm banging on about it, as I was simply replying to your assertions that they're "ridiculous".  It's not just about revisiting the past though, you were seeking ideas about how to avoid the pitfalls, so one is clearly to factor exit fees into your broker evaluation criteria going forward.

moneytroll said:

At the time when I chose AJ Bell (from memory), all brokers were charging exit fees

[...]

I don't think it is either fair or helpful to keep banging on about how "I should have known" because it doesn't help the situation now nor did this apply back then.

As you say, there's not much mileage in looking backwards but are you saying that they did or didn't levy exit fees when you joined?

moneytroll said:
I can't remember if it was you who provided a link to the FCA site where they looked at the exit fees issue, but you omitted from your post that the reason the FCA dropped the discussions is because many brokers in fact dropped charging exit fees.

No, I included in my post that "the FCA was looking into exit fees but, after a couple of players dropped them voluntarily, they abandoned their consultation a few months ago", which mirrors their own wording, although to be fair they do also suggest that this is the broader 'direction of travel':

there has been a marked shift in the market away from exit fees, with at least two major platforms announcing that they would no longer be charging exit fees.  The FCA welcomes the direction of travel by the investment platforms sector in phasing out the use of exit fees.

moneytroll said:
many brokers in fact dropped charging exit fees. clearly because many customers must complain about this and they felt it was unreasonable to charge them (or are you going to tell me they dropped them out of their own good will?).

I was just observing that their decision wasn't as a result of regulatory change - you can speculate about their motives to your heart's content, but do you have any evidence that it was instigated as a result of customer complaints or being considered unreasonable?

moneytroll said:
I came to ask here whether it has become a standard in the industry to be able to insist on waiving exit fees or whether other customers / clients found other ways around such charges, to make the move to another broker more smoothly. If that's not the case, you can just say so and omit the patronising tone of "you should have known better".

It's hardly unusual on a discussion forum to explore a subject in more detail than simply giving a monosyllabic yes/no answer, but if you've been investing extensively across a variety of brokers over fifteen years, you must have some idea about how the industry is operating!

moneytroll said:

Are you an IFA, is this what it is?

No (is that monosyllabic enough?).

moneytroll

eskbanker said:

It's hardly unusual on a discussion forum to explore a subject in more detail than simply giving a monosyllabic yes/no answer, but if you've been investing extensively across a variety of brokers over fifteen years, you must have some idea about how the industry is operating!

I do. All are pretty !!!!!!. But some are more !!!!!! than others.
God, your posts are insufferable.