One off sell small number of shares

Ex_Bill

Hello, I hold just 105 shares in Telecom Plus.   I wish to sell 50 of them, currently at £20.22 per share.   I can't find a broker who will deal in such a small number of shares/value.    I do not want to open an account because I only have these shares and at my age I won't buy any more.  I need to sell before 15th July when they become XD.
It seems so complicated for small people to simply sell them. Does this attitude mean that because i only own so few I am 'stuck with them'.    I have the shares in paper certificates.
Can anyone please offer some simple advice of how to go about it and suggest a broker who will deal at a reasonable commission rate?  Thank you.
Barry Bowles

refluxer

Your cheapest option will be to open an online nominee account with a company like x-o, post the share certificates to them (along with a Crest transfer form) and then sell once the shares are converted from paper to electronic.

There are no ongoing charges for having the account so it doesn't matter if this ends up being the only trade you do with them. The only charge you'll pay is the £5.95 dealing fee.

https://www.x-o.co.uk/

You'll probably struggle to open an account, post the certificates and sell before 15th July though.

Ifts

You could use someone like X-O.co.uk share dealing services (£5.95 per trade) for a cheap method of selling the shares.

Open a Share Dealing account with X-O.co.uk (part of Jarvis Investment Management Ltd) - free to open and no annual account charges - then transfer your share certificates in to your account (to be safe send the shares in by registered post) and sell them for £5.95 per share holding.

How do I transfer in stock that I hold in the form of certificates?

https://www.x-o.co.uk/how-to.html#transfer-broker


And if you don't want to go down the route of transferring them into electronic form you could use:

http://www.sellmysharecertificates.com/

(which like X-O.co.uk is also part of Jarvis Investment Management Ltd) and sell at a fixed commission of £22.50 per holding.

edit: refluxer beat me to it.

george4064

+1 recommendation for x-o.co.uk

wmb194

Ex_Bill said:

Hello, I hold just 105 shares in Telecom Plus.   I wish to sell 50 of them, currently at £20.22 per share.   I can't find a broker who will deal in such a small number of shares/value.    I do not want to open an account because I only have these shares and at my age I won't buy any more.  I need to sell before 15th July when they become XD.
It seems so complicated for small people to simply sell them. Does this attitude mean that because i only own so few I am 'stuck with them'.    I have the shares in paper certificates.
Can anyone please offer some simple advice of how to go about it and suggest a broker who will deal at a reasonable commission rate?  Thank you.
Barry Bowles

Any broker will be more than happy to deal with you, they just want their commission and a thousand pounds worth isn't an uncommon size of holding for a retail investor.

They go ex-dividend on Thursday the 14th - the 15th is the record date - so given today's date it might be tight to them beforehand. It doesn't really matter though as even if you don't you'll still be entitled to receive the dividend when it's paid on 05/08/22.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

mmm, usually share price drops after dividend, so sell now, before dividend, or take dividend then sell, shouldn't be much difference.

MisterMotivated

If you decide to sell them via x-o, I believe their regular share dealing account has no closure charges, but they charge a £60 fee to close an ISA

wmb194

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

mmm, usually share price drops after dividend, so sell now, before dividend, or take dividend then sell, shouldn't be much difference.

Yes, all things remaining equal in theory it shouldn't make a difference to the net amount received but of course there are different tax treatments between dividends and capital gains/losses. Although the numbers in this case would probably be trivial, this could be a factor.

I don't know about the OP but quite a lot of inexperienced investors worry/think that they need to continue to own the shares past the ex-dividend date and on the dividend payment date in order to receive it.

WillowLea1962

Another option will be to use the Share Registrars, likely to be one of Equinity, ComputerShare or Signal, who usually offer certificated holders the option to sell through them

msallen

WillowLea1962 said:

Another option will be to use the Share Registrars, likely to be one of Equinity, ComputerShare or Signal, who usually offer certificated holders the option to sell through them

But will undoubtedly be more expensive that x-o