Alternative to Halifax Share Dealing Service

phil3012

I've currently got around £200 worth of share across a Halifax Share Dealing and Halifax Share Builder account.

I've had the account since around 2007 and has met my needs well.

Halifax are now going to start charging £36 a year for their Share Dealing Service which I can't justify given the value of the shares. I've no plans to sell the shares given they aren't worth what I paid for them, in the hope they may go up and tend to reinvest the dividends in more shares in the two companies.

Are there any alternative accounts/services I could transfer the shares to with lower charges??

I don't currently have a stocks and shares ISA if that's an option? 

Albermarle

The obvious question , is it really worth bothering holding just £200 of shares in any account ?
Much easier just to invest all of it in a passive index tracker in a S&S ISA. If it is a platform that charges a % charge , the cost will be minimal. 
Hopefully you have other savings , pensions etc as £200 will not pay for much !

phil3012

Albermarle said:

The obvious question , is it really worth bothering holding just £200 of shares in any account ?
Much easier just to invest all of it in a passive index tracker in a S&S ISA. If it is a platform that charges a % charge , the cost will be minimal. 
Hopefully you have other savings , pensions etc as £200 will not pay for much !

I do have other savings, one of the investments was a small flutter which is what the Share Builder account was all about and breaking even. The other was shares in a bank that unfortunately took a hammering and have never recovered.

wmb194

phil3012 said:

I've currently got around £200 worth of share across a Halifax Share Dealing and Halifax Share Builder account.

I've had the account since around 2007 and has met my needs well.

Halifax are now going to start charging £36 a year for their Share Dealing Service which I can't justify given the value of the shares. I've no plans to sell the shares given they aren't worth what I paid for them, in the hope they may go up and tend to reinvest the dividends in more shares in the two companies.

Are there any alternative accounts/services I could transfer the shares to with lower charges??

I don't currently have a stocks and shares ISA if that's an option? 

You could open an account with e.g., AJ Bell and transfer the shares in specie. It has an annual fee of 0.25% for holding equities - so 50p on £200 - and it has a dividend reinvestment option for most shares. According to AJ Bell's annual cost calculator it states that Hargreaves Lansdown's annual cost would be zero so I'd take a look at it, too. It looks like transfers out from Halifax stockbrokers are free of charge.

https://www.halifax.co.uk/investing/start-investing/share-dealing-services/transfers.html#transfer

Alternatively you could sell the shares and buy them back in a cheap broker like Freetrade or Trading212. Freetrade often has an account opening incentive of a free share. I don't think they have automatic dividend reinvestment options but you could just do it manually for free.

If you take this route another consideration might be the timing of a sale to make best use of your annual CGT allowance.

ColdIron

Any of the percentage fee providers will be cheap. Hargreaves Lansdown charge £0 in their general account and less than a quid a year in an ISA. Dividend reinvestment is 1% (£1 minimum)

But on £200 are they worth keeping?

GeoffTF

Halifax charges you if you sell, but it charges nothing to transfer out. I assume that your shares are in dealing accounts (otherwise the £36 charge would not be new, if I remember correctly). I suggest that you transfer to a Freetrade General Investment Account (GIA), where trading is free as the name suggests.

maxsteam

You can either transfer the shares or sell them and use the funds to open another account. Trying to transfer the shares may attract fees and problems. Selling will incur fees. The choice is yours. There's an obvious temptation to do nothing in which case your £200 investment will simply disappear in a few years. Other low cost platforms to consider include Degiro, Fineco and x-o.co.uk (Jarvis).

wmb194

maxsteam said:

You can either transfer the shares or sell them and use the funds to open another account. Trying to transfer the shares may attract fees and problems. Selling will incur fees. The choice is yours. There's an obvious temptation to do nothing in which case your £200 investment will simply disappear in a few years. Other low cost platforms to consider include Degiro, Fineco and x-o.co.uk (Jarvis).

As I stated in my post, transfers out from Halifax are free. Brokers don't usually charge for transfers in.

wmb194

GeoffTF said:

Halifax charges you if you sell, but it charges nothing to transfer out. I assume that your shares are in dealing accounts (otherwise the £36 charge would not be new, if I remember correctly). I suggest that you transfer to a Freetrade General Investment Account (GIA), where trading is free as the name suggests.

Freetrade doesn't currently offer transfers in to its GIA but apparently it's coming.

https://freetrade.io/general-investment-account/general-investment-account-transfers

Shedman

X-O.co.uk is free with £5.95 fee for buying or selling.  Transfers in are free and there's no non-activity fee.   Decent no frills service. Part of Jarvis Investment group which is a stock market listed company

phil3012

Thanks for the advice everyone, has given me a few options to think about.