Have I worked these differences between Vanguard and IWeb correctly?

isayhello

For an S&S ISA with Vanguard and a pot of 100k the platform charge would be 0.15% = £150 per year.
The same pot in IWeb would be £100 platform fee and if you did 10 trades per year at £5 each = £150 per year.

I understand on Vanguard you can pay for trades but there is also the free option so just comparing based on only using the free option.

Based on the above is it correct to assume that IWeb is better to use once your pot is at a high number like 80-100k and you might only do upto 10 trades per year.

Am I ok to assume that IWeb is also a fairly safe and reliable platform like Vanguard and can feel confident in putting a large amount into it.

jimjames

The thing you've not included is that iWeb is £150 first year and then £50 each year afterwards as the £100 fee is one off joining. If you have no trades then there is no cost for iWeb.

iWeb is owned by Halifax. I use them and have no concerns having a large portfolio there.

eskbanker

It's not necessarily a case of either/or - some choose to use a platform like Vanguard for transactions with no fees (for fund purchases) and then sweep up the accumulated purchases after, say, a year into the long-term portfolio held with IWeb, to get the best of both worlds....

talexuser

I've used iWeb for years now, no problems for a large portfolio. I just let dividends get to above 5 or 600 or so and then the £5 reinvestment fee is insignificant. I rarely churn unless a fund really starts to lose out and use dividends to rebalance. Even selling and buying to use up the max capital gains allowance each year to re-index stuff for the future does not cost that much in proportion (nothing compared to stamp duty).

Use a low % platform with free trading when starting out to find your feet with funds, once you get on the way to 100k look for a fixed cost platform and the saving in fees will be really significant over the years. 

isayhello

jimjames said:

The thing you've not included is that iWeb is £150 first year and then £50 each year afterwards as the £100 fee is one off joining. If you have no trades then there is no cost for iWeb.

iWeb is owned by Halifax. I use them and have no concerns having a large portfolio there.

Ah true @jimjames I see it's not a recurring fee, it's a shame I missed it when it was a smaller fee.

How do you find the platform to use? does it open up a lot more funds and shares for you to use? and you're able to also buy Vanguard funds on there?

isayhello

eskbanker said:

It's not necessarily a case of either/or - some choose to use a platform like Vanguard for transactions with no fees (for fund purchases) and then sweep up the accumulated purchases after, say, a year into the long-term portfolio held with IWeb, to get the best of both worlds....

Thanks @eskbanker that seems like a sensible idea, do you find any negatives with using IWeb?

eskbanker

isayhello said:

eskbanker said:

It's not necessarily a case of either/or - some choose to use a platform like Vanguard for transactions with no fees (for fund purchases) and then sweep up the accumulated purchases after, say, a year into the long-term portfolio held with IWeb, to get the best of both worlds....

Thanks @eskbanker that seems like a sensible idea, do you find any negatives with using IWeb?

I'm happy enough with them, as a home for a couple of 'fire and forget' funds in an ISA, but can't comment on their customer service (as I don't think I've ever had to contact them) or investment range (given I'm only holding very mainstream stuff), so others may have different experiences.

ColdIron

The site is a bit dated and not as slick as others but all the functionality is there. But for long term buy and hold how often will you use it? The only action my accounts see is an annual Bed & ISA. It's a very small price to pay for the low cost

The choice of investments is a little smaller than some of it's competitors but far far wider than Vanguard

I am a happy IWeb user

I understand on Vanguard you can pay for trades but there is also the free option so just comparing based on only using the free option.

Funds are free to trade at Vanguard. Only ETFs can cost if you want live trading, but free with the batch trading option

isayhello

Are there ever any offers that lower the opening fee for IWeb? I remember it was much lower a while ago.

Alexland

No offers just the account opening price changes every few years. Another happy iWeb user not that I login very often as I track my investment accounts elsewhere.

mika_dm

Only downside  found with iWeb compared with Hl for example, iWeb doesn't deal on some European markets for shares. Cannot buy shares in Swiss, Swedish, Danish, Norse markets(might be some others, but these I checked).

Website looks like from 1990, but it does the job. Customer service is acceptable, I dealt with them only through online chat, but were ok.