Sending Share Certificates in the Post

WPRSEngineer

I hold some paper share certificates, I want to turn them into digital certificates. To do this I need to send them to another organisation (either a broker or the share registrar who issued the certificates - in this case Equiniti. 

I have been told I need to fill in a form and then send the share certificates to Equiniti. 

However I'm nervous sending these documents in the post as they have a quite high value. 

If someone were to intercept this post would they be able to 'steal' my shares?

This matters as it influences the level of insurance I acquire for the postage, although if there is a risk of theft then this may be problematic as the highest level of coverage offered by the Royal Mail is not enough to cover the loss of the shares. 

Any guidance would really be appreciated!

Will

The_Unready

Hi,

I sold some shares in a company that had Equiniti as a registrar when I was an executor for my father's estate - it was about £27,000 worth or so, if I remember correctly. The shares were also held as certificates.

I just sent them in the post using the Special Delivery service. They got there OK and I received a cheque in the post a couple of weeks later.

I suppose if they hadn't made it I would be adding a different story to this post now

Note that I had taken photocopies of all the certificates prior to sending them.

WPRSEngineer

Thanks for the information,

I guess I’m a little paranoid. But as the certificate represents the shares I’d like to know if someone could in theory intercept and transfer the shares out of my name and into theirs. 

wmb194

WPRSEngineer said:

Thanks for the information,

I guess I’m a little paranoid. But as the certificate represents the shares I’d like to know if someone could in theory intercept and transfer the shares out of my name and into theirs. 

In theory, possibly, but in practice it's highly unlikely as they aren't bearer instruments, they're registered in your name to your addess. If it still works the way it used to, when something changes with your holding e.g., it's registered in a new name, the registrar will send you a letter to notify you and it'll tell you to contact it if it's not something you initiated.

Btw, Equiniti is expensive. If you don't have a broker of your own x-o.co.uk is a good choice as it costs just £5.95 per trade or you could use its other service which doesn't require opening an account,  https://www.sellmysharecertificates.com// Both of these are run by Jarvis, a reputable broker and is listed on the LSE of you want to look it up. IIRC, in the past other posters have said they had no problems sending their certificates to it by registered post.

refluxer

As far as I understand it, the shares are already registered to you and the certificate is just your proof of ownership. If someone else was able to obtain it, I would imagine it would be very difficult to transfer the shares into their own name simply because they have the certificate.

The cost of replacing a share certificate depends on their current value - you can see the charges listed here. Sending them through the post has always carried a level of risk but that risk is higher at the moment considering the current state of the Royal Mail postal service IMO, so I always send mine using the 'Special delivery guaranteed by 1pm' service which costs £6.85 for a normal size/weight letter. When post is sent via this service, it is treated totally separately to the 1st and 2nd class mail, plus it's trackable. The default insurance cover is £750 which I would like to think (but don't know for sure) would cover the charges for a lost certificate, which I would imagine is the most you would expect to be covered for.

Equiniti can be quite expensive for share-dealing - I chose X-O who charge a flat commission fee of £5.95 for trading. To give you an idea of how quickly they operate, when I last posted a paper certificate to them via the 1pm special delivery service I just mentioned, it was posted on Tuesday, arrived on Wednesday and the shares were processed by X-O and ready to sell by mid-afternoon on the Thursday. I actually sold some shares last week and that all went fine, too. The site is fairly basic, but simple, functional and works well. 

When choosing an online broker, you'll need to register and set up an account before you start posting off certificates so there will be a delay before you can get going. IIRC, X-O send your initial online log-in password through the post. Once you are set up with a broker, it's simply a case of posting off the certificate along with a Crest transfer form. I also tend to include a brief cover-note too just for completeness, as the Crest form doesn't include a field for account numbers.

Alexland

Another +1 for selling share certificates via a Jarvis X-O nominee account as they are a very capable bunch of people, excellent value and delivered a great service to me. I sent them multiple certificates which only took a few days to load into my account and sold them all in a single 5.95 trade, withdrew the money then closed the account.

Vortigern

Most on this forum (including me) would recommend using Special Delivery when sending share certificates by post.

Why don't Equiniti use SD when sending shares out to the shareholders?

Vortigern

WPRSEngineer said:

This matters as it influences the level of insurance I acquire for the postage, although if there is a risk of theft then this may be problematic as the highest level of coverage offered by the Royal Mail is not enough to cover the loss of the shares. 

You don't need to insure for the value of the shares. 

As far as I know, you need to insure for the cost of replacing certificates that are lost in the post. Equiniti would require an indemnity before replacing lost certificates. See the link in refluxer's post above.

WPRSEngineer

Thank you everyone for your consideration and effort in answering my questions. It sounds like Royal Mail 1pm delivery is the way to go. I’ll have a look at X-O as well. I believe Equiniti would charge £0.10 per share up to £60! for selling so ~£6.00 sounds like a really good deal to me.

wmb194

WPRSEngineer said:

Thank you everyone for your consideration and effort in answering my questions. It sounds like Royal Mail 1pm delivery is the way to go. I’ll have a look at X-O as well. I believe Equiniti would charge £0.10 per share up to £60! for selling so ~£6.00 sounds like a really good deal to me.

Perhaps you own shares in a company it offers a special rate for but I'd have Equinti confirm that as it sounds too little: its fees appears to vary but to sell certificates online it says 1.5% minimum £45, phone 1.5% min £60 and by post 1.9% min £70. 

Another option might be to open an account with Equinit's broker, EQi. That appears to offer online trades for £10.95 and I'd presume you could lodge your certificates with it in the same way you can with X-O. You need to watch out for ongoing account fees, though.

https://equiniti.com/uk/help-and-support/buy-sell-share/charges-buy-sell

Alexland

wmb194 said:

Another option might be to open an account with Equinit's broker, EQi. That appears to offer online trades for £10.95 and I'd presume you could lodge your certificates with it in the same way you can with X-O. You need to watch out for ongoing account fees, though.

EQi is closed to new customers - it's just the unwanted remains of the Interactive Investor takeover that will exist until they can do a deal with another provider to pickup the accounts they don't want on their own platform such as CTFs, LISAs, etc.

https://eqi.co.uk/info/new-customers