S&S ISA newbie

Greenstar62 · 18 April at 8:31AM

Hi. I want to put £30k in a S&S ISA. It is currently in 2 Santander FRISAs totalling £40k which mature on 1 May. Ideally, I'd like to use Santander's managed S&S ISAs. I'm not confident re DIY investing. MSE says it's cheaper to use a platform such as CSD than a bank. Can anyone give me an approximate idea of annual fees for £30k in a Santander as opposed to using CSD (or similar) to help me decide? I've seen percentages but it looks complicated.

InvesterJones · 18 April at 8:52AM

Santander have a handy website which shows you this: https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/savings-and-investments/investments/fees-charges-and-key-documents

There you can see an example with easy maths, of a £10k investment. To work out the fees for a £30k investment you just multiply this by three = £105 annually for the platform fee.

The platform fee is the main fee to compare between platforms. Some platforms charge a %, some a flat rate, some a capped rate, some charge per transactions. With Santander it's a straight percentage based on the rates given at that website.

Dodl is a platform by AJ Bell, their fees are 0.15%. So for a £30k investment this would be £45 annually.

Scottish Widows Share Dealing has no fees for holding, but a £5 fee when buying or selling. If you only buy once a year that would be £5 annually.

(There are other fees that the funds you invest in will charge internally, but these do not usually vary between platforms and they are automatically taken from the value of the fund so you don't need to pay them seperately)

Money_Mad · 18 April at 9:25AM

There are quite a few platforms out there offering 0% platform fees with the likes of T212, InvestEngine and Lightyear being good examples

flaneurs_lobster · 18 April at 9:33AM

You mention Charles Stanley Direct - I've just opened a S&S ISA there so I've looked at the fees - platform is 0.3% of the holding min £5/mth, so £90/yr on £30k. If you were to invest only in CS Multi-Asset Funds then the fee is waived.

Trading fees for funds are £4/trade, but you get £60 every 6 months as credit. Again, those CS MAFs attract no fees.

Cashback offers in play here too, Topcasback have £150 for investing £500, CS have £300 for transferring £20k to them (these should both be viable).

There's a referral scheme too, another £300 available to the person referred.

Greenstar62 · 18 April at 9:58AM

Many thanks to all 3 of you. I now have a much clearer idea of it all.

Albermarle · 18 April at 10:32AM

Although the fees for the investments you choose are taken within the investment, they still have an overall impact, so make sure you do not pick investments with high fees !

colalba · 18 April at 10:59AM

if you do decide to change platform be aware you should not just take the money out but instead do a formal Transfer to preserve the tax free status. Just a case of filling in a form.