Am I too cautious with my choice of broker?

Rollinghome

Perhaps we need clarification of what "their website is constantly crashing" means and whether anyone else has experienced that. 

Despite using the site since 2011, it's something I've yet to see. For a few thousand, HL is fine. For a few million, even at the discounted rate unless limiting the type of investments, it isn't.

jimjames

IanManc said:

Deleted_User said:

I use iweb for my buy-and-hold passive GBP denominated investments. For this they're ideal as it's super cheap but it's definitely not a site suitable for frequent traders, their website is constantly crashing for one thing, and it's painful to use, for another. And also they charge a WHOPPING 1.5% on foreign currency investments.

I have used Iweb for many years. The website is very easy to use and in all the years I've been a customer it has never crashed once while I've been using it.

Same here. I've never, ever experienced the iWeb site crash. It suggests more of a browser issue on the laptop than a site issue.

I'm not sure about too cautious being the word to use if you've spent £40k on trading. Unless your portfolio is in the high hundred thousands or more that seems a huge drain on the performance returns.

demontfort

Thanks for all your comments, I'll have a look at iweb as at least it's owned by big bank.. I also have a lot of cash and shares so need to use a well established broker. HL fees look to be in same ballpark as HSBC though with no annual fee though but it doesn't seem worth moving everything across for the sake of £42 especially as I bank with HSBC.

 It doesn't sound like I'm missing out on too much at the minute though given the service I get on HSBC and Lloyds is pretty good, saving £5 on a £10-15k trade is neither here nor there.

On a similar vein, has anyone tried any of the Level 2 data packages with Interactive Investor or others? Is it worth if for a casual trader?  I make on average 2 trades a day but it varies, I can be put 10 trades through on a busy day but then not trade again for a week.

Alexland

demontfort said:

It doesn't sound like I'm missing out on too much at the minute though given the service I get on HSBC and Lloyds is pretty good

If you are using Lloyds Share Dealing then are you aware that like iWeb it is also operated by Halifax Share Dealing with each brand having charging policies to target different customer types. If you are regularly trading shares then iWeb would work out cheaper in the long run although they are currently suffering extended transfer delays but it's usually quicker if transferring between HSD brands as they use the same nominee holding account so assets do not need reregistering.

demontfort said:

saving £5 on a £10-15k trade is neither here nor there.

On a similar vein, has anyone tried any of the Level 2 data packages with Interactive Investor or others? Is it worth if for a casual trader?  I make on average 2 trades a day but it varies, I can be put 10 trades through on a busy day but then not trade again for a week.

I have no idea why anyone needs to trade that often but saving £5 will add up over enough trades.

wmb194

jimjames said:

IanManc said:

Deleted_User said:

I use iweb for my buy-and-hold passive GBP denominated investments. For this they're ideal as it's super cheap but it's definitely not a site suitable for frequent traders, their website is constantly crashing for one thing, and it's painful to use, for another. And also they charge a WHOPPING 1.5% on foreign currency investments.

I have used Iweb for many years. The website is very easy to use and in all the years I've been a customer it has never crashed once while I've been using it.

Same here. I've never, ever experienced the iWeb site crash. It suggests more of a browser issue on the laptop than a site issue.

I'm not sure about too cautious being the word to use if you've spent £40k on trading. Unless your portfolio is in the high hundred thousands or more that seems a huge drain on the performance returns.

Definitely isn't a browser issue. Like I said, these issues are usually fixed quite quickly so if you're not getting quotes regularly you could definitely miss the times online quotes and trades aren't working. Usually when it happens it gives you a screen where you can instead submit your order to be executed at best by one of its traders but other times it gives weird error messages along the lines of, 'HBOS not recognised' plus some codes. I'll take a screenshot the next time I see it.