Interactive Investor are they any good, beginning to have doubts

segovia

I have two SIPPS, one with AJ Bell and another with Interactive Investor.  Over the last three / four years I moved some savings and Self Employed Pension to both of them, the majority is with II.   

Interactive Investor screwed up one of my transfers, the agency they subcontracted to didn't complete 100% of my transfer request as as a result of market movements at the start of lockdown I claimed I incurred a financial loss. They disagreed and offered me £50.00, I took my claim to the Financial Ombudsman and won the case in August this year, they paid me £15,000.00. I was in regular contact with the FO during the claim and they said there is a backlog of claims against II and the FO had given them more time to respond. Even after the judgement I had to chase them to redress my losses, I was credited with £15,000.00 of my main investment but never received a full summary of how they arrived at the figure, I had to try and figure that out myself. I asked if it included lost dividends but never received a response and by this time the FO had lost interest so I accepted it.   

I have the same US ETF in my AJ Bell and I do in II, all dividends are reinvested in AJ Bell and they should be reinvested in II but they don't, I get a cash credit every quarter, which is in $ but I have to bu the ETF in £, I have to transfer the $ into £ to buy the ETF and then I assume it get transferred in to $. 

Cut a long story short ! - AJ Bell is trouble free and seamless, whereas with II I am always having issues. When I do finally get to speak to someone at II they are clueless. 

As I approach drawdown I am thinking I should move everything to AJ Bell. II's incompetence worries me, how do I know it isn't endemic throughout the organisation , how do I know my funds are competently managed ?  Anyone else worries about II ?

J  

jim8888

My dealings with them when I accessed my SIPP and TFLS was pretty good. I'd say not quite as good as Fidelity, but then I was dealing with a relatively small sum with Interactive Investor. I'd also say their website interface isn't as good or as clear as Fidelity's, which seems to make everything really simple. Fidelity have also been good at proactively communicating with me and seem to me to be a slightly better operator.

cloud_dog

II have had an aggressive strategy to grow the business, and have been continually taking over other providers.  I think it is likely the disruption caused by onboarding these companies and accounts which is likely a significant factor in II employees ability to deliver an acceptable service.

I had a bad experience with II (III as it was then) and have  been running away from them ever since.  I don't doubt II ability to deliver constant and good quality service but no business can continue without experiencing impacts to its delivery when undergoing significant spikes in growth and account administration.

fizio

hmmm - I have recently joined II with a ISA transfer from vanguard and opened a GIA - based on recommendations and reviews. I haven't done much in terms of dealings etc so no experience of that yet. I will add that a few people recommended AJ bell for drawdown and  go very positive experiences 

spg1

I transferred my SIPP from AJ Bell to II a couple of years ago (I had no issue with AJ Bell but II just worked out a fair bit cheaper for me). 

I have found II to be good so far – I like the simple and cheap fees (at least they are for my portfolio) and think their platform is very user-friendly. Other than scheduled maintenance I can’t remember the platform ever not being available.

I suppose it is like a lot of financial services these days – so much of it is automated that some customers can have a faultless experience, but if you’re unlucky things can be a pain to sort out with fewer humans on the customer service side of things. (I thought my business bank account provider was great for 10 years until a cheque went missing one day….)

I am slightly concerned that if Abrdn acquire II things may deteriorate in terms of costs/innovation as they will just be part of a much larger group, but I’ll cross that bridge if and when it happens.

segovia

Latest from II 

Please be advised that your dividends
in XXXXXXXXXXXXX ETF sedol B5XXXX are paid in
USD and are therefore ineligible for reinvestment. For dividends to be
reinvested, the base currency must be GBP and the dividend must be GBP10.00 or
more. You receive dividends in your ISA in GBP as this is a HMRC requirement,
this means any foreign dividend currencies are automatically converted to
GBP.

If its in an ISA its okay but if its in a SIPP it isn't !  what a load of !!!!!!, I have exactly the same fund in my SIPP with AJ Bell and they reinvest every quarter without any of this nonsense.  

See what I mean about baggage and II, over three years I have exchanged over a 100 emails with II, in the same period with AJ Bell - ZERO emails 

J

Secret2ndAccount

segovia said:

Latest from II 

Please be advised that your dividends
in XXXXXXXXXXXXX ETF sedol B5XXXX are paid in
USD and are therefore ineligible for reinvestment. For dividends to be
reinvested, the base currency must be GBP and the dividend must be GBP10.00 or
more. You receive dividends in your ISA in GBP as this is a HMRC requirement,
this means any foreign dividend currencies are automatically converted to
GBP.

If its in an ISA its okay but if its in a SIPP it isn't !  what a load of !!!!!!, I have exactly the same fund in my SIPP with AJ Bell and they reinvest every quarter without any of this nonsense.  

See what I mean about baggage and II, over three years I have exchanged over a 100 emails with II, in the same period with AJ Bell - ZERO emails 

You've got that backwards. ISA cannot contain currencies; SIPP can. Those are HMRC rules, so no point blaming ii for that.

handful

I've recently (about 4-5 months ago) opened a SIPP with II and have encountered no issues so far. I called them once to find out about the pension TR which seemed to take an age to appear and they answered my call quickly and effectively. So it's early days but all good so far. The app is nowhere near as user friendly as the HL one which I use for a SSISA but they are significantly cheaper. I chose them but there was little to choose between them and Fidelity who were my next preferred option.

Linton

I have been with ii for many years and find them fine. The fees are very good for a large portfolio especially as they include a free transaction per month.

ex-pat_scot

I've been with ii since they took over Alliance Trust, for my SIPP.
My circumstances are simple - £350k ish of VWRL ETF.
Costs are £20 per month.
Divis come through in USD$ rather than auto reinvested (which they were, under ATST). It's not hard to do a manual transfer USD to GBP then a manual purchase.

Once I get to decumulation, I will investigate the costs and features of their offering. At the moment I feel they are still fine for my purpose.

segovia

What I am annoyed about the most is the inconsistency of knowledge between agents.  I raised the issue of my dividends not being automatically reinvested and I was advised to select the option, this was six months ago. 

1, I was given misleading information about a process that would not work for my type of investments 
2, Its taken six months for someone to explain to me why they can't be reinvested  

Very poor service 

J