‘One free trade per month’ question

Mellow_gogo

Hi, I’m in the middle of transferring a couple of cash ISAs from different providers into a Stocks and Shares ISA via Interactive Investor, in order to invest in a selection of the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds.

I’ve just done this with my first newly arrived cash ISA transfer- 2 more are expected within the next week or so. I’m on the ’basic’ £9.99 per month package which allows ‘one free trade per month’. This is my first foray into the S&S /platform world, and so my question is- if I purchase funds when each one of my cash ISAs arrives, would each one count as a ‘trade’?  Therefore should I either space these purchases out or simply wait to lump them together, in order not to trigger any charges? 

Thanks in advance for the benefit of your greater knowledge/ experience...

george4064

I don’t see why they wouldn’t each be counted as a ‘trade’, unless you nominated to invest in those funds as part of your transfer request?

jaybeetoo

You can trade for free in as many investments as you want if you use the regular monthly investment.  You can set it up to invest and then cancel it after the investment day.

The free trade is actually a trading credit of £7.99.  If you did a dividend reinvestment, for example, that would only take 99p from your trading credit.

MX5huggy

Why did you go for ii and not Vanguard direct? 

Mellow_gogo

MX5Shuggy, once you go over around 80K, the annual charges work out cheaper with ii. My total ISA transfers will be higher than that amount.  

jaybeetoo

A portfolio of greater than £80k is when ii is cheaper than Vanguard direct.

Mellow_gogo

Thanks guys, looks like it’s as I thought, but jaybeetoo that sounds like a good idea!

EthicsGradient

The 'free trade per month' means you get a new free trade once a month. Each one lasts up to 90 days, so if you want to delay a trade for some reason, you can, for a bit. As jaybeetoo says, if you can accept the date for regular investing, you can buy for free by scheduling the purchase for one month and then stopping it before the next one.

RM

If you are planning to do several trades, why not up your subscription to the 13.99 one. It isn’t that much more, to achieve what you want.

Mellow_gogo

RM, yes in the grand scheme of things the cost difference is minimal. I want to get the funds purchased and cash invested as quickly as possible really, so I think upping the subscription for a time is the way to go. 

I spent so much time reading around the whole area as I’m new to all this, but I didn’t consider these nuts and bolts!

jwbuckland

Hi, if you are looking to use II, it’s worth going through TopCashback. I managed to get £150 cashback for opening an ISA with them.