Stocks and Shares ISA

TractorFactor

I have no idea where to start with this.
Although I am reading through the guides now, I have no idea where to invest my money.

This money amounts to £1000 a year, of which gets paid in monthly.
Can I pay this direct into the ISA account or does it have to get paid to the intermediary account and I have to manually put it in the ISA?

It will be there for 10+ years, possibly 15+.

I see most places charge some money for investing.
HSBC charge a flat £2.50 per year (I think?) but others charge 0.45% of the money invested.  While they're probably within £5 of each other, is there a reason to use one of the other?  I'm not really bothered who I use but don't want to pick someone who is obviously expensive to run compared with others.

Any advice?
I know we're all different, but what platform do you use and do you find it easy?

Exodi

Where is the money coming from? It's unlikely you'll be able to pay the money directly from this source into your S&S ISA, but adding it manually isn't a big deal, I do it monthly and it's added and invested before the kettle has finished boiling.

There are plenty of platforms. As you're looking at a relative low balance/contribution, you should consider platforms with percentage based platform fees, or ideally no platform fees. While there are many that charge % fees, there are only a handful that charge no platform fee-  the most reputable probably being Trading 212.

I have a Cash ISA and S&S ISA with Trading 212 and it's one of the best platforms I've used. Their app is modern, and withdrawals (at least from Cash ISA) are typically instant. You can set up your bank account so you can click the account to deposit/withdraw to, so you're not typing in your bank details each time. Couple this with biometrics and your banking app on your phone and you can add money in literal seconds.

You will then need to pick a fund. Lots more reading to be done on there, but a global index fund is a good place to start. VWRL (Vanguard FTSE All World), FWRG (Investo FTSE All World) or ACWI (SPDR MSCI All World) are popular options.

TractorFactor said:

I see most places charge some money for investing.
HSBC charge a flat £2.50 per year (I think?) but others charge 0.45% of the money invested.  While they're probably within £5 of each other, is there a reason to use one of the other?  I'm not really bothered who I use but don't want to pick someone who is obviously expensive to run compared with others.

Yes there's lots of factors. Some funds (like Vanguard) only offer their own funds. Some funds (like Trading 212) only offer ETF's. Some funds have dealing fees, some don't. Some have good mobile phone apps or data, some don't.

Vanguard appears cheap on the surface (0.15% platform fee) or least compared to 0.45% for Hargreave Lansdown, but they introduced a penalty for accounts with balances under £32k.

There's no one-size fits all unfortunately.

TractorFactor

Exodi said:

Where is the money coming from? It's unlikely you'll be able to pay the money directly from this source into your S&S ISA, but adding it manually isn't a big deal, I do it monthly and it's added and invested before the kettle has finished boiling.

A bank account.

At the moment, I standing order some money from Current Account 0 to Savings Account 1, Savings Account 2 and Savings Account 3 - all automated every month.
But now I'm being caught by earning too much interest (the savings accounts are just in Chase 2.5%).  Shame I can't automate this as, while it may be simple for you, it's not for me.  I just want it automated so I can invest and leave / not monitor for a few years.

Maybe I'll re-look at Trading212, especially as I can see through MSE, they're giving away some free shares.
I'd prefer a more well known company like a bank, ideally one that I bank with to make things easy / less apps / less accounts, but if it's relatively modern and simple, then will certainly be worth a look.
Plus, if I can open a cash ISA with them, then that might be a good way of keeping everything together in once place.

Alexland

TractorFactor said:

I know we're all different, but what platform do you use and do you find it easy?

If you want easy then consider the Dodl app (run by AJ Bell a respected FTSE250 company) who can give you access to their own AJ Bell or cheaper Vanguard multi asset funds aimed at a various risk levels. For 10-15 years most people would find a Balanced aka 60% shares and 40% bonds portfolio would get the right balance of risk/reward but everyone is different in what impacts of a market crash they find acceptable.

https://dodl.co.uk/investment-isa (S&S ISA at 0.15% ongoing fee minimum £1 pm, cheaper than Vangaurd's min)
https://dodl.co.uk/investments/funds (AJ Bell multi-asset funds) or 
https://dodl.co.uk/investments/themed (click All-in-one for Vanguard multi-asset funds)

For a cheaper slightly more complicated platform consider Scottish Widows (was iWeb, owned by Lloyds Bank) who have no ongoing platform charge and offer free regular scheduled investing (and £5 for adhoc trades). On SW you can invest in multi-asset fund such as Vanguard LifeStrategy or HSBC Global Strategy.

https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/investing/ways-to-invest/share-dealing-services/share-dealing-isa.html
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/what-are-lifestrategy-funds
https://www.assetmanagement.hsbc.co.uk/en/intermediary/capabilities/multi-asset/hsbc-global-strategy-portfolios

Trading 212 mentioned above are also free but they don't support low cost multi-asset funds but if you wanted to go at a high risk level you might consider using them for Global Tracker ETFs such as the as All World ETFs mentioned above or just Developed World ETFs which would be my preference at that risk level if you don't want emerging markets exposure. This kind of stuff might drop around 50% in a bad crash. Or you could construct your own portfolio from multiple ETFs for lower risk but that's more advanced and would require regular rebalancing.

Also have you considered if making higher contributions into your pension would be more beneficial?

poseidon1

TractorFactor said:

Exodi said:

Where is the money coming from? It's unlikely you'll be able to pay the money directly from this source into your S&S ISA, but adding it manually isn't a big deal, I do it monthly and it's added and invested before the kettle has finished boiling.

A bank account.

At the moment, I standing order some money from Current Account 0 to Savings Account 1, Savings Account 2 and Savings Account 3 - all automated every month.
But now I'm being caught by earning too much interest (the savings accounts are just in Chase 2.5%).  Shame I can't automate this as, while it may be simple for you, it's not for me.  I just want it automated so I can invest and leave / not monitor for a few years.

I have reviewed your previous post below, and it is not at all clear to me why you have changed your requirement from a good interest paying cash ISA, to stocks and shares ISAs - 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6645419/is-multiple-isas-the-best-way-forward#latest

It's clear you are entirely  new to ISAs as a way to shelter your money from tax, but I do  wonder if it is wise for you to make a big leap to risky stocks and shares ISAs without properly exploring what higher interest rate cash ISAs can do for you intially. 

I am accepting at face value, that you do indeed have a £1000 per month you can commit for the next 10 to 15 years without needing to access.

However rather than deliberating over the mechanics of how to do so, I think it would  be sensible  for you to  first broaden your comprehension of investing generally, understand your own appetite for what degree of  risk you are prepared to take and how you would feel partway through your investment period if your investments were to markedly fall in value as a result of a stock market crash.

 Given your current lack of knowledge regarding saving and investing, are you (more importantly) also neglecting pension provision?

Are you in an employers scheme and taking full advantage of what they offer? Are you keeping track of your entitlement to a state pension based on your NI history? It could be that part of your available £1000  monthly saving/ investment monies might be best diverted to long term pension provision.

Perhaps time for you to step back a moment, take stock of your longer term objectives and how these can be best served by a mix of pensions and ISA savings /investing. At that point you will probably be better equipped to look at specific products and service providers mentioned by the other posters here.