Interactive Investor is now more expensive than Hargreaves Lansdown!

jaybeetoo

Interactive Investor recently increased their fees to £21.99 a month or £263.88 a year for holding a trading, ISA and SIPP account.

If you just hold shares, cash, ETFs, investment trusts then Fidelity is £90 a year and Hargreaves Lansdown is £245 a year!

I never thought I'd ever see HL cheaper than ii.

Clearly, Abrdn are trying to get some return from buying ii.

artyboy

Is that true for Fidelity, regardless of the size of your holding? Their fees table only mentions the £90 cap for holdings of under £25k and where there is no regular savings plan in place...

dunstonh

Most platforms are loss making in the DIY world.  They price with a view to building enough assets under management that attracts a buyer or the hope they can get enough where the volume gets to a level where they stop bleeding money.   Or they attract enough that allows them to steadily increase the fees over time knowing they may lose 20% but keep 80% paying more.    

Abrdn's two other platforms are profitable.

MX5huggy

iWeb’s one off £100 fee that’s currently waved for new accounts seems like the best bet.

jaybeetoo

artyboy said:

Is that true for Fidelity, regardless of the size of your holding? Their fees table only mentions the £90 cap for holdings of under £25k and where there is no regular savings plan in place...

• The portion of the fee you pay on exchange-traded investments (shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), etc.) within an ISA or SIPP is capped at £90 (£7.50 a month).

jaybeetoo

MX5huggy said:

iWeb’s one off £100 fee that’s currently waved for new accounts seems like the best bet.

They have a £45 a quarter charge for SIPPs, £180 pa which is cheaper than ii

michaels

Can't see any of the numbers quoted except for II who do a cheaper version now for sipp only.

Fidelity are a percentage starting at 0.35%, iWeb are 180pa and HL are an even higher percentage than Fidelity....

squirrelpie

I can't speak for the other platforms but H-L's charges, including the caps leading to the numbers quoted are clearly stated on https://www.hl.co.uk/charges

jaybeetoo

michaels said:

Can't see any of the numbers quoted except for II who do a cheaper version now for sipp only.

Fidelity are a percentage starting at 0.35%, iWeb are 180pa and HL are an even higher percentage than Fidelity....

Fidelity - 

• The portion of the fee you pay on exchange-traded investments (shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), etc.) within an ISA or SIPP is capped at £90 (£7.50 a month).

HL - ISA - 

Shares

Including UK and overseas shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, VCTs, gilts and bonds.

0.45%

capped at £45 per year

HL - SIPP - 

Shares

Including UK and overseas shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, VCTs, gilts and bonds.

0.45%

capped at £200 per year

MeteredOut

jaybeetoo said:

MX5huggy said:

iWeb’s one off £100 fee that’s currently waved for new accounts seems like the best bet.

They have a £45 a quarter charge for SIPPs, £180 pa which is cheaper than ii

Or if £50K or less:

Account charges of £22.50 if the SIPP value is £50,000 or less, or £45 if the value is above £50,000

Might be a better choice if just starting out, with a view to transferring later.

I notice, however, they use AJ Bell, who seem to only charge 0.25%, so going direct with AJ Bell might be better for for those starting out and until it passes £36K, at which point it matches the iWeb £22.50/quarterly charge.

Albermarle

jaybeetoo said:

Interactive Investor recently increased their fees to £21.99 a month or £263.88 a year for holding a trading, ISA and SIPP account.

If you just hold shares, cash, ETFs, investment trusts then Fidelity is £90 a year and Hargreaves Lansdown is £245 a year!

I never thought I'd ever see HL cheaper than ii.

Clearly, Abrdn are trying to get some return from buying ii.

The low cap on exchange traded products for HL and even lower with Fidelity, can not be directly compared with II charges . If you compare them for a client holding mainly OEIC funds, then II will win out for anyone with more than £100K. All these platforms are 'horses for courses' when it comes to charging structure.

Of course if you only hold shares/IT's/ETF's then the £90 cap with Fidelity is an absolute bargain. It is cap over all holdings, SIPP & ISA, and apart from a trading charge when you buy the shares etc there are almost no other charges, even when you are in drawdown.
It clearly can not be profitable, and it has been questioned in previous threads 'why do they do it?' 
The answer seems to be 1) Keeping market share at a loss 2) The number of actual clients benefitting from it is relatively small. Your average UK investor, pension holder is normally 100% in OEIC funds.