Best way to buy Apple shares?

Drumhum_2

I have a bit of spare cash that needs investing. I have been an Apple computers follower for many years (ok Apple geek or fanboy if you like) and I've laughed many times at the "official" comments on the future of Apple only to be proved right over time. I'm thinking if I am so knowledgeable about this company why don't I just put my money where my mouth is and invest in some Apple shares? I certainly would have made money if I'd done this in the past!

So I want to buy some shares in Apple. If it goes well perhaps it will even open up a new world of "share trading" for me :-)

So, I want to know the best way to go about this. I want to buy say, £3000 of apple stock and keep it till I think I should sell it. Perhaps this will be in six months perhaps in six years - who knows.

I've looked at Hoodless Brennan, who apparently are "cheap" but I note I'd be paying 5/quarter, perhaps for years. This also makes me wonder what other hidden costs there are connected with share trading in general. Hoodless B also say they provide access to the American markets yet AAPL does not appear on their downloadable list of "List of IRS Stocks for Foreign Trading" (?). These websites do kind of assume you know what you are doing!

So Can anyone give me any advice or instruction on how I should play with some Apple shares?

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble!

TIA

ianmr65

Most banks run share dealing services. And will hold the stock in a sharedealing account / isa/ or whatever suits. Look on your banks website, i'm sure you'll find something.
At it's simplest you trasfer money into the dealing account, and make a buy order on whatever share you want, and they make the purchase and hold the shares for you. And will sell for you as well. They normally charge fees for all this, but they are low in comparison to the total you are investing, even cheaper if you do it all all line.
This means you don't have to worry about holding the certificates, or proving you actually own the shares, when you come to sell.
The share ownership will be recorded on the company (you have bought share's in) register. So in the event of a problem with the bank, your shares will be perfectly safe.

There are lot's and lots of other ways of investing, in units, and funds, but you should speak to an IFA for those (independant financial adviser)

gt94sss2

Drumhum wrote: »

So I want to buy some shares in Apple. If it goes well perhaps it will even open up a new world of "share trading" for me :-)

Have a look at Selftrade - they will charge you a flat fee of £12.50 to buy US shares. They also have no inactivity or annual charges on their standard dealing accounts.

In addition, if you are referred by an existing customer to them, you can get upto £80 via their refer a friend scheme - the details of which are here (my own details are in post 295)

Regards
Sunil