Future Proofing my life: Deposit saving then MFW journey in under 13 years

Suffolk_lass

LadyWithAPlan said:

I have moved my Fidel ISA s&s to Vanguard this month as they are putting the fees up from Feb 1st  if you have less than £25k in. Last time I moved old isas from Hargreaves into Fidelity they took forever - lost some funds !! etc  as they held different classes of funds and I got a goodwill payment it was such a mess. So this time I have switched everything over first before transferring including all my lovely REITS into Vanguard funds so I am in the market and no sales processes to  get messed up by Fidelity.

The cost difference is also a lot even without the new  Fidelity fee - - I will look when it is all transferred. but on £20k in s&s ISA been about £6/month just in platform fees - so about £70 per year in Fid  vs my Vanguard at £32k  (so 60% more) on the last year have been £41.51 (avg £3.46pm) 
I know I can only have Vanguard funds in the Vanguard isa/sipp but thats a big difference especially as many of the V funds also have lower mgt fees.
I do have a small Har Land SIPP acct as well for non Van funds,  shares , REITS etc and I may in the future have another S&S isa outside Vang - but as it is partly holding house deposit money as well its fine.

 I don't think you can only have the Vanguard funds in their own platform as I have a number of theirs in our family ISAs on the  Charles Stanley Direct platform. Of course you do then pay their platform fee as well as the fund fees but they are lower than Fidel or Har Lans.

I looked up how to close my Fidel account and it said you have to remove all the funds and then after a year they will close it. So I did. My tax is different to yours so I took mine as a cash transfer and bought premium bonds and topped up the EF ready for the Solar purchase we have planned. We did not need to keep it in an ISA tax protected wrapper. It had lost over 6% in the last year, what with Truss and co's "trash the economy" plans aftermath and Fidel's fees. The total growth over ten years was a lot less than 5% and it had been significantly weaker for over four years than my self-invested pot with a similar risk portfolio

SuperSecretSquirrel

SL you can hold Vanguard funds on other platforms, but I think only Vanguard funds on the Vanguard platform.

Suffolk_lass

SuperSecretSquirrel said:

SL you can hold Vanguard funds on other platforms, but I think only Vanguard funds on the Vanguard platform.

I think I misinterpreted the original post - yes you are right, I read it back to front, iyswim

LadyWithAPlan

@Suffolk_lass @SuperSecretSquirrel Yes I transferred any funds which were not Vanguard into Vanguard .. all ahead of the move to Vanguard.

However my transfer has currently been cancelled as Fidelity couldnt find me on their system!  V just wrote and told me so ... I mean I have only been with Fidelity for 2-3 years and have just changed over £13k of funds on their site from L&G etc to vanguard but I dont exist ! I have  £20k + in that ISA...
I have emailed Fid to ask them to sort this out .. but this is why I have moved all the funds in vanguard  first so Fidleity dont have to buy and sell them . It was a mess when I moved to them and it seems it is a mess moving from them. I dont trust theor systems at all. Wisely it seems.

• Morale of the story is dont use Fidelity..

Hargreaves and Vanguard at least have working systems and come back within a day, Fidelity promise a 2 day plus response.

I am back form the States and in shock in the cold. 

LadyWithAPlan

TallGirl said:

LadyWithAPlan said:

I have moved my Fidel ISA s&s to Vanguard this month as they are putting the fees up from Feb 1st  if you have less than £25k in. Last time I moved old isas from Hargreaves into Fidelity they took forever - lost some funds !! etc  as they held different classes of funds and I got a goodwill payment it was such a mess. So this time I have switched everything over first before transferring including all my lovely REITS into Vanguard funds so I am in the market and no sales processes to  get messed up by Fidelity.

The cost difference is also a lot even without the new  Fidelity fee - - I will look when it is all transferred. but on £20k in s&s ISA been about £6/month just in platform fees - so about £70 per year in Fid  vs my Vanguard at £32k  (so 60% more) on the last year have been £41.51 (avg £3.46pm) 
I know I can only have Vanguard funds in the Vanguard isa/sipp but thats a big difference especially as many of the V funds also have lower mgt fees.
I do have a small Har Land SIPP acct as well for non Van funds,  shares , REITS etc and I may in the future have another S&S isa outside Vang - but as it is partly holding house deposit money as well its fine.

I know what you mean about fees I am thinking if I should DIY rather than use my so called Wealth Manager. Look like I am paying £220 a month in fees and there might be more on top. At least I have prompted myself to look into it as a start so well done you for sorting it.

Enjoy your holiday spending money on plane WIFI sounds good if you can work while flying it is so boring.  

£220 a month in fees! Ouch!
Honestly if you feel confident just put the funds into tracking  index funds and low cost ETFs - even Warren Buffett said just stick money in the S&P 500 and leave it .. I have a lot of Vanguard VHYL  and Global Small Cap as well. I have most of the Vanguard funds now - I am underweight agin in the UK but maybe look at a mix of US, V2AM, Europe and world and just leave it

In his 2017 letter to shareholders, Buffett took note of the high fees of hedge fund managers and offered what he called a simple equation: “If Group A (active investors) and Group B (do-nothing investors) comprise the total investing universe, and B is destined to achieve average results before costs, so, too, must A. Whichever group has the lower costs will win.”

His advice to investors: “When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients. Both large and small investors should stick with low-cost index funds.”

I did indeed do lots of work on the plane out and even photographed and sorted into the cloud 18 months of business spend receipts go me!

@savingholmes - tax return is 90% there I just need to check something tomorrow before pressing green - and sending them loads of money. Luckily I always put 20% aside of all invoices that come in, or more later in the year into Premium bonds - the hard part is withdrawing the money from them!

SuperSecretSquirrel

That's shocking service from Fid! 😱 I have been considering transferring the whole lot to Vgd's platform myself recently, just to minimise fees. Now I'm thinking maybe I should do so before my investments disappear in a puff of smoke! I'm already all in on vanguard products, so it should hopefully be a simple stress free task.

You are really living life on the edge with your tax return 🤣 The deadline is tomorrow - go go go! 🤣

LadyWithAPlan

SuperSecretSquirrel said:

That's shocking service from fidelity! 😱 I have been considering transferring the whole lot to vanguard's platform myself recently, just to minimise fees. Now I'm thinking maybe I should do so before my investments disappear in a puff of smoke! I'm already all in on vanguard products, so it should hopefully be a simple stress free task.

You are really living life on the edge with your tax return 🤣 The deadline is tomorrow - go go go! 🤣

Given the markets I think the fees at present make such a difference and if you own all Van anyway why not have it on their platform which is so much cheaper (like a third of the cost I believe )

Yes it has been a shocking service twice now with Fidelity - when I transferred funds in from Hargreaves  - took months and funds were hanging in the wind  and some completely disappeared - I spent 3 months saying what about X fund... and they  had sold a fund that was in a different class than they had and not then processed the cash  - eventually I got a £150 goodwill gesture as it took over 3 months to sort and you dont want your funds not viewable after 3 months.
Now they have cancelled my transfer cos they cant find me - I dont think - My name and my DOB, address , NI details are all correct. I have secure messaged them and just  called them today  - their new charges go up Feb 1st as well and they planning to charge me the whole £7.50 fee on ~Feb 1st (£90/yr)  even though my transfer request was put through over a week ago and even March too if it drags on.
Their new fee is £90 a year if you have less than £25000 with them (unless you have a savings plan with them - something that was hidden in the small print) - that is a huge fee
I argued for a goodwill payment against the high February  fee as now my transfer will take weeks more. They have said yes to £10 so ... MSE WINNING
 
Again I wouldn't trust the Fidelity systems with my savings. Hargreaves are more expensive, vanguard less but both their tech systems are better. I do like the Hargreaves platform - so I have a small SIPP there - for non Vanguard investments such as some shares and also some REITS with various watchlists largely so I can use their systems.

Tax filings 
My tax is 90% filed on the  system. I just need to clarify something and also see what money I can pull from everywhere - I do have the tax saved in my premium bonds but I really dont want to cash it out before the end of jan draw  
However rent and a large CC bill from my travels needs paying as well.
I also have to help 2 friends sort and file theirs out - so doing one this eve and one is popping over tomorrow afternoon.  I have got their accts up to date and reconciled (the things we do for love) but now they need to actually file so they always want me on the phone or there in person to help them with the questions 

SuperSecretSquirrel

You've given me just the nudge I needed, transfer is now in progress 🙂 I don't think my Fid fees would have been increasing (>25k), but they are higher than holding directly with Vgd anyway, so I may as well consolidate on the cheaper platform 👍

My tax account specified "To avoid penalties, you must pay by 11:59pm on 31 January 2023". I know it's an immediate £100 fine for filing a day late. I'm not sure what happens if you file on time but pay late as I've never been tempted to give it a try 😅

Oh and good luck with the PBs, I loved winning with money that wasn't really mine when I stoozed 😁 There are two £1m prizes paid out each month, so I guess that's one for each of us on Wednesday 😎

themadvix

I think if you file on time you just paid interest on the monies owed (not that I have experience, having always completed my tax return in the summer 😇 - mainly so the rest of my savings can be put into pension asap!). 

savingholmes

Best of luck with filing and the money shuffle. Hope your funds turn up soon - that's ridiculous.