S&S's ISA's - The optimum cost saving strategy?

GTG

I have existing ISA money with Alliance Trust Savings but have come to the conclusion that it may be more cost effective to have different plan managers for different asset classes and levels of dealing. e.g for someone wanting to invest in "funds" then Hargreaves Lansdown would be the most cost effective because of their practice of rebating intial charges, for someone wanting to deal frequently then perhaps a manager like T D Waterhouse with a volume discount might be more appropriate. In the case of my Alliance plan, because it's dealing charges are not the cheapest it's suitable for the long term holding of shares, IT's and gilts as there is n't an annual admin. fee. (Their investment chioces for equities are rather restricted though). Please note these may not be the best/cheapest I'm just getting an idea across.

I still have this years S&S allowance to use and obviously next years on 6th April this year. I'm considering different plan managers to achieve the cost savings as mentioned above. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who adopts this type of strategy or for anyone who has any views on it.

GTG

In the absence of any interest to my OP, he's another question.

I've looked at quite a few plan managers and have picked out three favourites for my 07/08 allowance. They are:

1) Selftrade

2) Interactive Investor

3) The Motley Fool.

I appreciate the last two are agents for (if that's the right terminology) Halifax Share dealing.

I'm looking for some coments please to help me decide, good or bad.

Anyone....... ?

cheerfulcat

Hi, GTG,

I have followed a similar strategy, using Selftrade for shares, especially those I want to hold in certificated form, and Alliance Trust for ITs. Also HL for my SIPP.

I have used the Halifax service in its incarnations as iii and Motley Fool and can only say I thought it was rubbish. Dreadful interface and sloppy service.

HSBC and TD Waterhouse are two providers I have looked at, with the intention of spreading my ISAs ( just in case! ). HSBC is more expensive than Selftrade for trades at £16.95 a pop but there is no annual charge for the ISA. TD Waterhouse also has no annual charge as long as the balance is more than £3600, and trades cost £12.95.

HTH!

tradetime

I have recently returned to the UK from living abroad for quite a number of years, all these ISA type offerings are new to me, and am reading up on all the information I can find.
For those of you who have obviously looked quite closely at all the offerings, I notice H&L and Selftrade seem to get the strongest recommends, I see from the demo that Selftrade has an odd type of order interface from what I am used to, I suspect the others may be the same, do any of them offer Direct Acess style trading interface?
It also seems a little difficult to workout how big the range of stocks on offer are. I am largely interested in etf's, is it reasonable to assume that most etf offerings would be available through the likes of H&L, Selftrade, and TD Waterhouse?

dunstonh

I am largely interested in etf's

Forget HL then. HL is a fund supermarket. Selftrade is a self select ISA.

GTG

cheerfulcat wrote: »

Hi, GTG,

I have followed a similar strategy, using Selftrade for shares, especially those I want to hold in certificated form, and Alliance Trust for ITs. Also HL for my SIPP.

I have used the Halifax service in its incarnations as iii and Motley Fool and can only say I thought it was rubbish. Dreadful interface and sloppy service.

HSBC and TD Waterhouse are two providers I have looked at, with the intention of spreading my ISAs ( just in case! ). HSBC is more expensive than Selftrade for trades at £16.95 a pop but there is no annual charge for the ISA. TD Waterhouse also has no annual charge as long as the balance is more than £3600, and trades cost £12.95.

HTH!

Great, I thought there must be another mortal out there with a similar strategy. Looks like I may forget the "Halifax incarnations" then.

I read something good about HSBC probably on MSE and perhaps from you . I liked T D Waterhouse IIRC for their range of international stockmarkets one can deal in foreign stocks. Not that I need this facility ATM but a way of future proofing my requirements. What put me off was the inactivity fee of £10 +VAT per quarter, see here http://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk/gettingstarted/ratecard.cfm .

Selftrade OK then?

gt94sss2

GTG wrote: »

I read something good about HSBC probably on MSE and perhaps from you . I liked T D Waterhouse IIRC for their range of international stockmarkets one can deal in foreign stocks. Not that I need this facility ATM but a way of future proofing my requirements. What put me off was the inactivity fee of £10 +VAT per quarter, see here http://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk/gettingstarted/ratecard.cfm .

Selftrade OK then?

I use Selftrade and HSBC - both are fine.

Its worth noting that if you do more than 9 trades a quarter HSBC charges go down from 11.95/trade (16.95 in an ISA/PEP) to £6.95/trade (£11.95 in an ISA/PEP)

Its also worth noting that Selftrade have a referral offer where it is possible to get up to £80 for joining Selftrade (information here - my own details are in post 282)

Like cheerfulcat I have tried the Halifax service via the Motley Fool and it was very poor.

Regards
Sunil

gt94sss2

tradetime wrote: »

I am largely interested in etf's,

If you are interested in holding etf's within an ISA account, I think Selftrade is your best choice.

While Selftrade do have an annual fee of £25 for ISA accounts, they are unique in that they allow commission free purchases (not sales) of ETFs with their ISA/PEP accounts - if you purchased ETFs more than 2 times/year Selftrade will thus be cheaper than going via another broker.

As I mentioned in my last post, Selftrade also have a referral offer where it is possible to get up to £80 for joining Selftrade (information here - my own details are in post 282) - which would also pay for the first few years of annual fees!

Regards
Sunil

cheerfulcat

dunstonh wrote: »

Forget HL then. HL is a fund supermarket. Selftrade is a self select ISA.

Not quite, dh. Both HL and Selftrade offer an execution-only brokerage service. It is perfectly possible to buy ETFs through HL. It's just more expensive.

Hi, GTG -

I read something good about HSBC probably on MSE and perhaps from you

It was probably Sunil ( that's where I got the idea, anyway! )

I liked T D Waterhouse IIRC for their range of international stockmarkets one can deal in foreign stocks. Not that I need this facility ATM but a way of future proofing my requirements. What put me off was the inactivity fee of £10 +VAT per quarter

That was something I meant to look into. On the page where the charges are listed it says that the inactivity fee does not apply to ISAs; however I am not sure whether it's possible to open only an ISA, without opening a trading account as well.

tradetime

Thanx all for the info, inactivity fees are potentially not a big problem for me.
From what I have seen, it may be a choice between TD Waterhouse and Selftrade. (useful info that Selftrade does not charge for etf purchases, if this extends to all etf's that would possibly put it in front assuming it has a wide enough offering)

gt94sss2

tradetime wrote: »

From what I have seen, it may be a choice between TD Waterhouse and Selftrade. (useful info that Selftrade does not charge for etf purchases, if this extends to all etf's that would possibly put it in front assuming it has a wide enough offering)

I believe Selftrade's ETF offer includes all ETFs traded on the London Stock Exchange including those issued by:

iShares (http://www.ishares.net/)
Lyxor (http://www.lyxoretf.co.uk/
db x-trackers (http://www.dbxtrackers.co.uk/)
Spa (http://www.spa-etf.com/)

They and HSBC also offer international share dealing in the USA and Europe though unlike TDW they don't offer shares traded in Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.

Regards
Sunil