What online share dealing?
Discussion
Out of curiosity what online share dealing sites are people using?
I've had to switch several times now over the last 15 years due to companies introducing quarterly or yearly charges for accounts despite £10-£20 charges per trade.
I wouldn't say I'm a big trader, maybe 3-5 times a year and I only hold £15k ish in my dealing account but am really after a company that doesn't charge an account management fee.
Any suggestions or am I being tight?
I've had to switch several times now over the last 15 years due to companies introducing quarterly or yearly charges for accounts despite £10-£20 charges per trade.
I wouldn't say I'm a big trader, maybe 3-5 times a year and I only hold £15k ish in my dealing account but am really after a company that doesn't charge an account management fee.
Any suggestions or am I being tight?
I'm in the same position....
I had a TD account for two years and closed it a few months ago after interactive investor bought and implemented quarterly account fees.... well, call it mandatory trading credits. All was bliss with TD until they (interactive investor) turned up.
There are some platforms that are uber cheap, like iWeb.... but if I'm honest, they feel almost 'too cheap'.... outdated website makes me question how stable/advanced their platform is etc? - If anyone has an iWeb account please chime in.
I really like everything I see with HL, good support, solid platform - it ticks a lot the boxes for me... but the account fee's make it a costly option.
Still on the look out... will probably end up with HL.
I had a TD account for two years and closed it a few months ago after interactive investor bought and implemented quarterly account fees.... well, call it mandatory trading credits. All was bliss with TD until they (interactive investor) turned up.
There are some platforms that are uber cheap, like iWeb.... but if I'm honest, they feel almost 'too cheap'.... outdated website makes me question how stable/advanced their platform is etc? - If anyone has an iWeb account please chime in.
I really like everything I see with HL, good support, solid platform - it ticks a lot the boxes for me... but the account fee's make it a costly option.
Still on the look out... will probably end up with HL.
davepoth said:
cheapest option I know of for infrequent traders.I use what was my banks one, lloyds share dealing, although my bank is TSB now after their split. Not cheap though, varies 10 to 13 per trade but I don't do that many over a year anyway.
Easy to use and main thing is can call them up if any queries and get swift and sensible answers. I originally started doing it in 2008 when the markets went into a spiral. I had a bit of cash from a property sale sitting in a building society not doing much. Took a bit of a gamble (I'worked in finance markets anyway). 15 months later my p&l said +51%! That of course is not necessarily from my skills but from the market recovery. However, there were a few gambles here and there that paid off... whilst others didn't at all.
Easy to use and main thing is can call them up if any queries and get swift and sensible answers. I originally started doing it in 2008 when the markets went into a spiral. I had a bit of cash from a property sale sitting in a building society not doing much. Took a bit of a gamble (I'worked in finance markets anyway). 15 months later my p&l said +51%! That of course is not necessarily from my skills but from the market recovery. However, there were a few gambles here and there that paid off... whilst others didn't at all.
My account with Barclays Stockbrokers changed to Barclays Smart Investor. Initially they had a few teething problems leaving customers exiting in masses.
I opened accounts with Charles Stanley, A J Bell and IG Index.
I trade regularly on my fathers accounts at HL and iWeb too.
All these other brokers are fine. I’ve bought and sold no problem and the systems work fine.
However Barclays offers by far the best bid/offer spreads often by quite some margin.
On a £10k trade I often save £100-£200 by using Barclays which makes the annual fee well worth it. I also find that Barclays are able to trade in more illiquid shares unlike some of the other brokers.
If you’re a buy and hold Investor who doesn't trade regularly then I’d personally choose iWeb.
I’ve been looking after my fathers iWeb Portfolio for many years and it’s fine. No annual fees. Works well and is easy to use. The bid/offer spreads are better than many of the others too.
I opened accounts with Charles Stanley, A J Bell and IG Index.
I trade regularly on my fathers accounts at HL and iWeb too.
All these other brokers are fine. I’ve bought and sold no problem and the systems work fine.
However Barclays offers by far the best bid/offer spreads often by quite some margin.
On a £10k trade I often save £100-£200 by using Barclays which makes the annual fee well worth it. I also find that Barclays are able to trade in more illiquid shares unlike some of the other brokers.
If you’re a buy and hold Investor who doesn't trade regularly then I’d personally choose iWeb.
I’ve been looking after my fathers iWeb Portfolio for many years and it’s fine. No annual fees. Works well and is easy to use. The bid/offer spreads are better than many of the others too.
JaredVannett said:
I'm in the same position....
I had a TD account for two years and closed it a few months ago after interactive investor bought and implemented quarterly account fees.... well, call it mandatory trading credits. All was bliss with TD until they (interactive investor) turned up.
There are some platforms that are uber cheap, like iWeb.... but if I'm honest, they feel almost 'too cheap'.... outdated website makes me question how stable/advanced their platform is etc? - If anyone has an iWeb account please chime in.
I really like everything I see with HL, good support, solid platform - it ticks a lot the boxes for me... but the account fee's make it a costly option.
Still on the look out... will probably end up with HL.
The problem is that execution costs were driven to the floor by firms using physical share dealing as a lost leader to draw in clients in order to sell them the profitable products. Spank shops like Hoodless Brennan were at the forefront. Or to create market share from nothing to support a share price expecting continual growth (Schwab). I had a TD account for two years and closed it a few months ago after interactive investor bought and implemented quarterly account fees.... well, call it mandatory trading credits. All was bliss with TD until they (interactive investor) turned up.
There are some platforms that are uber cheap, like iWeb.... but if I'm honest, they feel almost 'too cheap'.... outdated website makes me question how stable/advanced their platform is etc? - If anyone has an iWeb account please chime in.
I really like everything I see with HL, good support, solid platform - it ticks a lot the boxes for me... but the account fee's make it a costly option.
Still on the look out... will probably end up with HL.
You then end up in a situation like TD where you have to lower your charges to maintain any business but the cost of client acquisition and client maintenance steadily increases through tightening regulations slowly squeeze the last remaining bit of margin out of the business so you have to sell the base to a firm that has an upsell model. Helping speed that up has been the endless bull market that has massively reduced trading volumes as people just buy and hold.
But now there is the triple whammy of the upsell model no longer generating the margins that it did. Competition has risen strongly in the retail, ex only structured product arena so prices have dropped but also there’s less money to go around as we are well past the peak Boomer influx of cash.
It’s an industry which has basically slit its own throat. If you’re driven purely by cost then you have two main options the massively stripped out and rarely to be updated iWeb sort of model that you mention or finding a firm desperate for market share so willing to discount and run at a loss to try and get it to keep shareholders happy. IG are probably the obvious one there.
DonkeyApple said:
The problem is that execution costs were driven to the floor by firms using physical share dealing as a lost leader to draw in clients in order to sell them the profitable products. Spank shops like Hoodless Brennan were at the forefront. Or to create market share from nothing to support a share price expecting continual growth (Schwab).
You then end up in a situation like TD where you have to lower your charges to maintain any business but the cost of client acquisition and client maintenance steadily increases through tightening regulations slowly squeeze the last remaining bit of margin out of the business so you have to sell the base to a firm that has an upsell model. Helping speed that up has been the endless bull market that has massively reduced trading volumes as people just buy and hold.
But now there is the triple whammy of the upsell model no longer generating the margins that it did. Competition has risen strongly in the retail, ex only structured product arena so prices have dropped but also there’s less money to go around as we are well past the peak Boomer influx of cash.
It’s an industry which has basically slit its own throat. If you’re driven purely by cost then you have two main options the massively stripped out and rarely to be updated iWeb sort of model that you mention or finding a firm desperate for market share so willing to discount and run at a loss to try and get it to keep shareholders happy. IG are probably the obvious one there.
Great insight as usual DonkeyApple - Thanks!You then end up in a situation like TD where you have to lower your charges to maintain any business but the cost of client acquisition and client maintenance steadily increases through tightening regulations slowly squeeze the last remaining bit of margin out of the business so you have to sell the base to a firm that has an upsell model. Helping speed that up has been the endless bull market that has massively reduced trading volumes as people just buy and hold.
But now there is the triple whammy of the upsell model no longer generating the margins that it did. Competition has risen strongly in the retail, ex only structured product arena so prices have dropped but also there’s less money to go around as we are well past the peak Boomer influx of cash.
It’s an industry which has basically slit its own throat. If you’re driven purely by cost then you have two main options the massively stripped out and rarely to be updated iWeb sort of model that you mention or finding a firm desperate for market share so willing to discount and run at a loss to try and get it to keep shareholders happy. IG are probably the obvious one there.
IG have come up on my radar, I will take a look.
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hstewie said:
hstewie said: I've been using Degiro for some non-ISA money.
Cheap as chips.
If you look at that look at a "Custody" account which has slightly different T&Cs but your money is ring fenced differently and more safely than the default account.
You are getting what you pay for though. If you’re trading heavily then the comm savings might be worth the risk but if you’re only buying occasionally and mostly portfolio building then you’d struggle to justify the risk. Cheap as chips.
If you look at that look at a "Custody" account which has slightly different T&Cs but your money is ring fenced differently and more safely than the default account.
The main reason they can be much cheaper (apart from the fact that they are trying to buy market share to reach a profitable critical mass) is that they have much lighter regulation and do not pay into costly schemes such as the FSCS. They are also much newer so technologically and procedurally infinitely slicker than many incumbents who have hideous legacies that make their costs higher. What isn’t terribly clear is that they say there is €20,000 cover via the AFM but that’s for the regulated dealing arm not the unregulated custodian. As they say your funds go immediately to the custodian entity then it’s hard to see how the €20,000 cover has any value in the event of the custodian account being emptied.
Their comm structure appears to be a £1 minimum ticket plus 10bp. That is very cheap for physical trading but due to U.K. Stamp you again have a trade off relating to frequency as something like spread betting is much cheaper if you put down 100% margin to avoid the funding cost.
JaredVannett said:
DonkeyApple said:
It’s an industry which has basically slit its own throat. If you’re driven purely by cost then you have two main options the massively stripped out and rarely to be updated iWeb sort of model that you mention or finding a firm desperate for market share so willing to discount and run at a loss to try and get it to keep shareholders happy. IG are probably the obvious one there.
Great insight as usual DonkeyApple - Thanks!IG have come up on my radar, I will take a look.
About £9 a trade buy and sell and no "management" fees if you do 3 trades a quarter i think or have over £15k in the account.
I did try the HL platform but way too slow as you kept having to re-enter a 2nd password etc to trade so I binned it off.
speedyguy said:
I've been using IG for just over a year with no problems mainly using the mobile app so i can "trade on the go" it's very quick and simple although now seems a bit tougher 'to make' as the spreads seem quite high.
About £9 a trade buy and sell and no "management" fees if you do 3 trades a quarter i think or have over £15k in the account.
I did try the HL platform but way too slow as you kept having to re-enter a 2nd password etc to trade so I binned it off.
Are IG charging comma via spreads on their physical trades?About £9 a trade buy and sell and no "management" fees if you do 3 trades a quarter i think or have over £15k in the account.
I did try the HL platform but way too slow as you kept having to re-enter a 2nd password etc to trade so I binned it off.
xeny said:
davepoth said:
cheapest option I know of for infrequent traders.Thanks everyone
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