Stocks & Shares ISAs

droopsnoot wrote: »

I have a question I didn't want to start a new thread for, hopefully someone can confirm this - if I'm drip-feeding into an S&S ISA each month, so have already paid some into it for this tax year, can I open a new S&S ISA with a different provider and put money into that? Or does my monthly contribution make that impossible? I've been drip-feeding into the same ISA for a couple of years if that makes any difference.


I did have a look through the guide, and on the gov.uk ISA guide, the latter makes me think I cannot open a new S&S ISA.

With respect to S&S ISA you can only contribute to one S&S ISA per tax year. Nothing wrong with having S&S ISAs with different providers, as long as you only contribute to one of them in a given tax year.

Note: I believe there are changes for ISAs for the future which may change the rules, but they are yet to be confirmed.

I am thinking of opening a S&S ISA with HSBC as thats where I have my normal bank account and cash ISA.

Interesting choice. Not one you would expect.

Bank financial products generally are poor value for money and limited.

1) I wanted to know if there are any initial charges with opening one up, I am already aware of annual fees (around 1.2% total).

Generally not nowadays. Although it does depend on the assets you put inside of the ISA. (some will have dilution levies, bid/offer spreads etc).

2) How do I pay in, is it literally a case of me transferring whatever I want into the account like with a cash ISA? Ideally I would pay in a varying amount each month depending on how much I earn.

monthly, quarterly, yearly, ad-hoc. by cheque, bank transfer etc.

) Is this managed online similar to online banking, i.e. it will show me the balance whenever I log on and all that kinda thing.

It is obviously very different to a bank account. However, many providers have online valuations.

snowqueen555 wrote: »

Hi

I have a few questions, I am thinking of opening a S&S ISA with HSBC as thats where I have my normal bank account and cash ISA. At the moment I am just wanting to try it out and not putting in large amounts so convenience is priority for me right now.

1) I wanted to know if there are any initial charges with opening one up, I am already aware of annual fees (around 1.2% total).

2) How do I pay in, is it literally a case of me transferring whatever I want into the account like with a cash ISA? Ideally I would pay in a varying amount each month depending on how much I earn.

3) Is this managed online similar to online banking, i.e. it will show me the balance whenever I log on and all that kinda thing.

Thanks

Thanks

I used Hargreaves Lansdown. They are very helpful, replying to messages within 24 hours with easy to understand answers, and have one of the best and easiest to navigate websites. You can indeed see the value of your holdings everytime you login.

They are, however, one of the more expensive of providers.

Just my opinion, of course.

So the newest proposed reduction of First Direct's cash ISA rate has finally moved me from thinking "hmm, must sort out my investments sometime now that I know I don't need the cash imminently" to "right, I need to get this sorted by January".

I have £60k and I want to stick the whole lot in one of those Vanguard funds and leave it there for 5-15 years. This would be in the hope of getting better growth than 1.3% per year. I would potentially throw in another £15k a year, either monthly or in a lump.

Some queries - your thoughts on any of them would be appreciated:

Firstly, I have formed the belief that bonds are a waste of money - I'm not clear whether this is because they are expensive to buy or because they are getting low returns or whether these are two sides of the same coin. Anyhow, based on this I'm thinking that rather than putting 100 into a V80, I might as well put 80 into a V100 and view my Santander 123 cash balance as being, in effect (in the context of balancing my risk a little bit), the remaining 20? I don't want investment advice per se, just a sounding board for whether my thinking is logical or whether I'm misunderstanding.

Secondly, should I wait until after the Autumn Statement on Wednesday - or even the Budget next March - before making the leap, on the grounds that if the Chancellor does anything with the pensions tax relief system to make pensions less attractive to the people with the money to invest (or reduce the amount they can put in) then it's likely to affect the stock market?

And thirdly, I'm looking at platforms. With a large-ish value and since I'm planning only a few purchases per year of just one holding, x-o appears to give me a good deal with no fees at all other than £5.95 per purchase plus £1 for putting in more than ten grand at a time plus a one-off £50 when I close it. Is that correct (again, my question is: am I missing something about how this all works)? Also, I have never heard of them outside of the context of being an ISA platform - are they associated with one of the banks? Are they established/respected? And are there any rumours of them increasing their fees or changing their charging structure? (Oh, and do they let you invest in Vanguard? Bit of an assumption there on my part!)
My other possibility is Halifax, because I've heard of them and because I think I have an account with them somewhere so I shouldn't have to muck about with KYC. More expensive at £12.50/trade plus £12.50 a year for fun, but free to close and cheaper (£2 a time) for regular deposits if I go down the drip-feed route with future money.

Anything else I need to think about, throw it at me! Thanks for reading. (I know I was asking similar questions a few months ago, but I swear I really am going to do it this time.)