Closing Fidelity account

fly-catchers

As I only had a small amount left in my Fidelity account I have decided to remove it all. Before the increase in charges occur. Do you have to officially close it or simply not having any funds in it is good enough?

Sea_Shell

I don't know for definite, but AIUI Fidelity appear to charge from £0 in an "open" account, £45 per month, unless you have reg payment plan set up, then it's % based.

Notepad_Phil

Sea_Shell said:

I don't know for definite, but AIUI Fidelity appear to charge from £0 in an "open" account, £45 per month, unless you have reg payment plan set up, then it's % based.

The £45 per month I'm pretty sure is a misunderstanding. I'm not with them anymore but on rereading the charges page I read it as currently £45 per year - though I seem to remember reading a post on here talking about some changes coming along in February which talked about an increase to £90.

And unless it's changed since I left them a few years ago, an account with no investments or any cash did not get charged any service fee.

I found their chat service usually quick and easy, so maybe send them a message to be 100% sure if you do think of leaving it open for future use.

fly-catchers

Yes it’s £45 a year. Going up to £90. I rather lazily left what was left of my Halifax/HBOS/Lloyds shares with them. But now intend to use it to buy my missing State Pension year with it. That’s better value than leaving it with them I think!

masonic

The new charging structure can be found here: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/eumultisitev4prod-live-eb461540d2184169bb77db2b062d9318-f268f99/PI UK/pdf/legal/Direct_Key_features_document.pdf

For accounts under £25k, it is £7.50 per month (£90 per year). It doesn't explicitly state an empty account is not subject to the flat fee.

Sea_Shell

Sorry my bad...it's £45 pa, but it still reads like it applies from "£0 to less than £7,500"

jamesperrett

This is what Fidelity's help page has to say about it - 

How do I close my Fidelity account?

To close your account you need to make a full withdrawal or move all of your holdings to another provider. Once this has been done Fidelity will close your account; how this is done depends on what instruction has been received.

When you make a full withdrawal the account will stay open for 12 months to allow for any residual dividend payments to be applied and available for withdrawal. You may continue to receive documents for up to a year from when your account is at zero balance. After 12 months the account will close. Click here for a guide on how to withdraw cash from your account and bring the balance to zero.

If you have transferred your account to another provider, your account will automatically close and any residual cash received into the account after this will be paid to your new provider.