Interactive Investor are they any good, beginning to have doubts

granta

Thrugelmir said:

granta said:

ex-pat_scot said:

Alexland said:

ex-pat_scot said:

My circumstances are simple - £350k ish of VWRL ETF.
Costs are £20 per month.

I do similar with more in VEVE ETF but on Fidelity it's only £3.75 per month plus £1.50 for quarterly divi reinvestment.

They would offer you £500 transfer cashback to pay their fees for the next decade or longer with tax relief.

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/pension-transfer/?intcmp=hero1_sipp_cashback-offer_nov_2021#cashback-offer

That sounds a peachy offer. 
However I note the quoted SIPP fee is 0.2%, which would work out at about £720 pa. 
I can't see how the £3.75 per month fee arises.

£45 flat fee if you only hold ETFs

ETF's while cheap fee wise do have disadvantages. As with any investment enter with your eyes wide open. Investment banks will create ETF's for absolutely anything if it generates them profit. Likewise change the remit if neccessary without prior warning. 

Thanks, I agree. I've been slowly looking into ETFs. Currently hold HMWO and I would only be looking to hold that in my SIPP, or VEVE/VWRL. So there would be the risks with holding 100% equities, the lack of £85k protection etc. But anything else I should consider for these specific ETFs? I won't be buying any of the specialist/themed ETFs etc.

ex-pat_scot

I'm in VWRL - it's Vanguard rather than investment bank, and they are mutual so the profit motive is not the same.
Also the investment mandate for funds generally sets out the principles and approach that any fund will take, and is not something that can readily be abandoned under normal investment governance.

I am not interested in specialist / exotic funds, whether ETF or otherwise.
I want whole of market, global tracker, low cost, large scale.  Dull and reliable. Low risk. VWRL does that for me. (I guess I'm just a beige sort of guy at heart).

Alexland

Thrugelmir said:

ETF's while cheap fee wise do have disadvantages. As with any investment enter with your eyes wide open. Investment banks will create ETF's for absolutely anything if it generates them profit. Likewise change the remit if neccessary without prior warning. 

There are some pretty wacky traditional funds too which are also best avoided. Obviously there are a number of things to understand about selecting ETFs such as ensuring there is physical replication, going for the large ones with small market spread, maybe going for Ireland domicile for the advantage on US dividends, etc but overall there is no generally accepted problem investing in a sensibly chosen ETF.

EdSwippet

Thrugelmir said:

ETF's while cheap fee wise do have disadvantages. As with any investment enter with your eyes wide open. Investment banks will create ETF's for absolutely anything if it generates them profit. Likewise change the remit if neccessary without prior warning. 

This is not unique to ETFs. It is equally true of unit trusts and OEICs.

Albermarle

ex-pat_scot said:

Alexland said:

Just don’t blame me if you hate the Fidelity service as individual experiences will vary.

I used to have a group scheme with Fidelity from 2001 to 2014 or so, when I consolidated into Alliance Trust SIPP. I had no issues with them previously, and rather expect to have no real need of anything remotely nonroutine, until I start decumulating in 2.5 years or so.

Fidelity website had a reputation for being a bit clunky , but has improved in the last couple of years , so you should be OK.
Another plus point for me is that there are no extra/hidden charges.

segovia

EdSwippet said:

Thrugelmir said:

ETF's while cheap fee wise do have disadvantages. As with any investment enter with your eyes wide open. Investment banks will create ETF's for absolutely anything if it generates them profit. Likewise change the remit if neccessary without prior warning. 

This is not unique to ETFs. It is equally true of unit trusts and OEICs.

I am 100% ETF's and no reason to complain with their performance, this was after reading Lars Kroijer 

segovia

Alexland said:

michaels said:

What are the pros/cons of ETF vs holding an investment fund for SIPPs?  Are there differences in protection etc?  I am invested in a world index tracker fund and pay 240 a year in II (and fund fees of about 12 basis points) but could I do the same more cheaply via an ETF elsewhere (and snag a switching bonus)?

Well you don't get any FSCS protection on the ETF although with the account valuations we were talking about £85k doesn't make much difference but still we have stopped transferring lump sums across to our SIPPs and have in recent years just been letting the money build up in our workplace pensions which since moving to a master trust gives me access to a developed world tracker at 0.19% so only around 0.05% more expensive than a large amount of VEVE (also 0.12%) on Fidelity (around 0.01% when capped). Obviousy there are trade fees on Fidelity for exchange traded investments where on II you might use trade credits. If you are in a big liquid ETF then you shouldn't see much market spread even when trading large six digit values and of course with traditional funds you often get a similar dilution levy etc.

cloud_dog said:

Don't Fidelity charges apply to the person, across all accounts held with them?

Albermarle said:

Correct .

I thought the exchange traded cap was per account but I might be wrong as we only have SIPPs and free JISAs not adult ISAs but if it is per person then I don't see how they would apportion the capped £3.75 fee between multiple accounts?

Just checked my A J Bell account and if you are 100% ETF then the costs are capped at £10.00 per month, which is half what I am paying at II. 

segovia

ex-pat_scot said:

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.

That was my issue with II, I asked how I could get my divs auto invested and they said "tick this box" and then after six months they were still coming as a $ credit which I had to convert into £ so I expect there is a buy/sell currency loss somewhere.  In contrast, AJ Bell in the exactly the same ETF does the div investment automatically. There could be a currency conversion cost in the background but I don't see it.  

Albermarle

Alexland said:

michaels said:

What are the pros/cons of ETF vs holding an investment fund for SIPPs?  Are there differences in protection etc?  I am invested in a world index tracker fund and pay 240 a year in II (and fund fees of about 12 basis points) but could I do the same more cheaply via an ETF elsewhere (and snag a switching bonus)?

Well you don't get any FSCS protection on the ETF although with the account valuations we were talking about £85k doesn't make much difference but still we have stopped transferring lump sums across to our SIPPs and have in recent years just been letting the money build up in our workplace pensions which since moving to a master trust gives me access to a developed world tracker at 0.19% so only around 0.05% more expensive than a large amount of VEVE (also 0.12%) on Fidelity (around 0.01% when capped). Obviousy there are trade fees on Fidelity for exchange traded investments where on II you might use trade credits. If you are in a big liquid ETF then you shouldn't see much market spread even when trading large six digit values and of course with traditional funds you often get a similar dilution levy etc.

cloud_dog said:

Don't Fidelity charges apply to the person, across all accounts held with them?

Albermarle said:

Correct .

I thought the exchange traded cap was per account but I might be wrong as we only have SIPPs and free JISAs not adult ISAs but if it is per person then I don't see how they would apportion the capped £3.75 fee between multiple accounts?

I  thought the flat fee of £45 was per person. Anyway I just had a look at my latest quarterly Wealth statement to check.
I have a mixture of funds and ETF's/IT's in both a SIPP and an ISA.
They take the fees separately for each .  I was able to confirm that the £45 for the ETF/IT part is a cap across both SIPP and ISA and it is charged in proportion to what is held in the SIPP and ISA.

As mentioned before it almost seems an unbelievable deal  . If you hold all shares/ETFs/IT's , then it is £45 only for a full SIPP drawdown account and they pay you cashback to transfer in . Then maybe a few £10 trading charges .
It can only be a loss making deal for them, but probably the large majority of their customers do not take advantage of it, or are even aware of it . Market share retention/growth is playing a part I guess in their battle with HL. II etc 

Albermarle

granta said:

ex-pat_scot said:

granta said:

ex-pat_scot said:

Alexland said:

ex-pat_scot said:

My circumstances are simple - £350k ish of VWRL ETF.
Costs are £20 per month.

I do similar with more in VEVE ETF but on Fidelity it's only £3.75 per month plus £1.50 for quarterly divi reinvestment.

They would offer you £500 transfer cashback to pay their fees for the next decade or longer with tax relief.

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/pension-transfer/?intcmp=hero1_sipp_cashback-offer_nov_2021#cashback-offer

That sounds a peachy offer. 
However I note the quoted SIPP fee is 0.2%, which would work out at about £720 pa. 
I can't see how the £3.75 per month fee arises.

£45 flat fee if you only hold ETFs

Ah! Deep in the key features separate document.
I'm still trying to work out if  I can transfer in specie, in case I get stung on bid/offer spread when transferring out of VWRL into cash. I'd be surprised if Fidelity didn't offer it, but want to ensure I dont get stung with excessive transfer fees.

Yes, it's not heavily promoted, funny that! Someone on the forum posted recently about how they managed to reduce their overall fee of 0.2% once over £250k using a combination of ETfs and funds. I need to get my head around the maths of that as that would be my preferred combination.

I plan to do in specie as well despite the time lag as I've learnt the hard way that delayed cash transfers are more costly.

Maybe it was me .
For example if you have £200K in funds and 200K in Investment Trusts /ETF's .
Your overall platform fee is o.2% . So for the funds it is £400. For the others it is theoretically also  £400 but capped at £45.
So the overall charge would be £445 pa , marginally over 0.1 % .

I have done 6 transfers into Fidelity with cash . Four from DC pensions, one from a S&S ISA and one from a cash ISA.
One took < 48 hours ( from Aviva) and the others all took about a fortnight .