ISA choices

gozaimasu

Which of these is best:

Scottish Friendly Investment ISA,  Shepherds Friendly Stocks & Shares ISA, Foresters Friendly Society, Fidelity Stocks and Shares ISA

As far as I'm concerned I don't trust any of these as they seem like a scam since you will always receive less out than you pay in. A quick search through the forum shows others are of the same view, but they also got told off for calling it a scam. Are these products worse than your bog standard S&S ISAs? Never invested before but Quidco are offering £30 extra cashback on these products so wanting to find out which one is going to make me a profit.

eskbanker

gozaimasu said:

As far as I'm concerned I don't trust any of these as they seem like a scam since you will always receive less out than you pay in.

Not true!  There has been some coverage of the market value reductions applied by at least one of these recently, but it's not valid to extrapolate that as if it was a fact.

Personally I'd steer clear of the friendly society ones as they're not renowned for value for money, whereas Fidelity is either whole of market or close to it, meaning that you can invest in what you want and therefore your outcome will be dependent on your own investment choice rather than the ISA itself.

Are you actually interested in investing in a S&S ISA or are you just looking to make a quick (but small) buck on a £30 cashback offer?

masonic

Friendly Society charges are high, so the cashback may just be a portion of the charges you'd be paying. Performance is also often poorer than the equivalent low cost fund, so it is unlikely the addition of cashback will make the deal worth it.

It is always worth doing the sums yourself, the total fees payable is disclosed in the product information. I avoid cashback deals involving S&S ISAs as I want to use my ISA allowance elsewhere, but have taken up a couple of non-ISA investment accounts for cashback - opportunities that are worth it don't come around often.

gozaimasu

eskbanker said:

Are you actually interested in investing in a S&S ISA or are you just looking to make a quick (but small) buck on a £30 cashback offer?

I've always wanted an S&S ISA so the idea with this is to make a quick buck from Quidco and then as soon as I get the cashback, transfer out the ISA to a better value provider where I can leave the money long term with minimal charges. If I went for Fidelity it would be £70 total.

masonic

gozaimasu said:

eskbanker said:

Are you actually interested in investing in a S&S ISA or are you just looking to make a quick (but small) buck on a £30 cashback offer?

I've always wanted an S&S ISA so the idea with this is to make a quick buck from Quidco and then as soon as I get the cashback, transfer out the ISA to a better value provider where I can leave the money long term with minimal charges. If I went for Fidelity it would be £70 total.

You should check the terms of the offer - there may be a minimum holding period, there may also be exit fees. The latter is less likely at Fidelity than the other options you mention, but some providers do still charge for transfers.