Halifax Sharesaver

johng_uk

The one saving grace with not investing heavily and expecting great gains is that it takes pressure off yourself I guess.

I have read Bernice Cohen "The Wealthy Investor", one of the Motley Fool books, am currently reading "Stock Investing For Dummies" (an apt title if I ever saw one!) and will be moving on to "Be Your OWn Stockbroker" by the FT. The trouble is that I read 2 of the books ages ago and just started the 3rd so can't remember much!

Yes penny shares are a high risk option and not for the faint hearted. Not really my kind of investment at this stage. I merely suggested them as a possible option due to the small investment vs charge conundrum.

God knows lol. I think the best option is to push on with it and see how you do. Another potential problem is that if you get fed up with it, the selling costs would definately wipe out any gains over the first few years at least.

eggedd2k

nah I wouldn't sell if I got fed up - just leave it invested even if its for years.

johng_uk

A few links I found:

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/funds-investments/halifax-co-uk-sharedealing-sharebuilder-shtml/1035068/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_June_11/ai_87071671

http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=halifax+sharebuilder&aje=true&id=070907010434&ct=0&page=2

The first one states that you can deal in real time also. I thought that this was THE drawback with this plan - The fact that you had to choose a specific date when you sign up?

Just 3 stupid questions:

1) When is the 0.5% deducted - Before or after the fees are?
2) When are dividends usually paid?
3) Is it £1.50 pm PER TRADE (i.e if you bought 3 diff batches would it cost £4.50) - Or is it £1.50 per month that you trade IN?

Ta!

eggedd2k

Dividends are paid when the company invested in pays them yearly/interim. I would imagine stamp duty would be paid after the fee is paid.


It's 1.50 per trade. That's why it may be best to invest bi monthly. Either that or invest in two companies one each month alternating them.

debbie42

eggedd2k wrote: »

I would imagine stamp duty would be paid after the fee is paid.

With the "normal" Halifax share dealing service, if you say you want, say, £1000 value of shares, as opposed to a fixed number, then it includes the dealing costs (incl. stamp duty) when calculating the overall amount. I don't know if the Share Builder works in the same way as I've never used it.

debbie42

johng_uk wrote: »

I couldn't be bothered checking a virtual system although you wouldn't lose any cash on them (not to rubbish your good idea Debbie).

Hey, no worries, I do have a watch list of shares, but also find that having an actual monetary interest in the shares makes it far more involving. I'm probably not patient enough to have a virtual portfolio.

debbie42

johng_uk wrote: »

Yes penny shares are a high risk option and not for the faint hearted.

So are some large caps at the moment. One of my shares are RBS. I have some speculative shares in a gold mine that haven't nose dived nearly so much.

billy78

Debbie,

I use the sharebuilder to drip feed, although with it being commission free at the moment I'm trying my best to take advantage of it until the end of June.
As far as stamp duty is concerned, it is deducted prior to execution.
So, for example if you wanted to invest £50 in company X, it will break it down as £49.75 consideration and 25p stamp duty. Obviously after June it will also deduct £1.50 per trade on top.
I'm in it for the long term, ie, 20 -30 years hopefully, but I too will be trading every other month to minimise the commission issue.

Bill.

eggedd2k

Bill's got the right idea in my opinion. A monthly amount over 20-30 years is how this system is designed to work.

Bill - do you invest in the same company month in month out or do you alternate? Ideally I'd like to alternate to build up the portfolio.

billy78

Egg,

At the moment I'm splitting between three companies as there is no commission.
After June I'll be alternating, certainly between two of them, with the third being an 'as and when' kind of investment.
I've also got a couple of 'hopefuls' (penny shares really) that I've used this commission free time to add to my portfolio, hopefully to grow in the future. But, as I said, my main focus will be on my big two.

Bill.