Share platforms

[cnprior]

Hello,

I have always targetted over paying the mortgage, now with less than £20K to pay, I want to start doing something other than overpaying on this. I have a workplace pension, but I also want to start investing in shares - but for interest, but also with a mind to making a bit of money.

I have heard of eTorro, HSBC's investment platform and Barclays - the latter two carrying monthly charges.

I've read that some share trading platforms will not allow shares to be purchased for all companies, and they effectively limit what shares can / cannot be bought.

So I am looking for a platform where I can trade any shares for any company worldwide, but I want to pay as little as possible / monthly charges.....this may not be something I do every month, depending on spare cash.

Looking for beginners advice please.

Thanks,

Chris

[Stupeo]

I use FreeTrade for the majority of my trading now - it covers the main exchanges and is low cost. I actually have the premium package at £9.99 a month, but keep £4k cash in the account that earns me interest to offset that.

[Jon39]

You mentioned three, so without naming, I would say certainly don't use the last one.

The business began as a low-cost execution only service called ShareLink. They had a good reputation, excellent service, handled PEPs (now ISAs) well and charges were very modest and importantly capped. It was then taken over by the Charles Schwab Corporation and everything continued as before.
Subsequently it was then acquired by Barclays, who again continued unaltered. However, they eventually decided to 'improve' the service, so introduced a new computer system (you guessed it), moved the operation to a different office, where the employees did not know a share from a gilt, and removed the price cap, thereby changing it into a tax. A great 'muddle' ensued and some other platform providers even had a job to cope with so many incoming transfers.

Edited by Jon39 on Thursday 31st March 16:48

[xeny]

cnprior said:

Hello,

So I am looking for a platform where I can trade any shares for any company worldwide, but I want to pay as little as possible / monthly charges.....this may not be something I do every month, depending on spare cash.

There's a comparison table here - https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-b... .

The comments at the bottom may also be worth a glance for other ideas.

[gotoPzero]

Have you considered an ISA? AKA a stocks and shares ISA?

The advantage is your gains are tax free.

I would also consider buying funds over single stocks if you are looking for long term investment. Again within an ISA.

The current ISA limit is £20,000 a year. (per person)

There are disadvantages though, such as funds and ISAs usually come with fees.

But, IME, if you pick a low cost fund from a low cost provider the fees are not the end of the world. I use Vanguard and invest mostly in VLS100 (A ftse orientated fund) and VWRL (a global fund) and VUSA (S&P500 fund).

[cnprior]

thanks for your replies.

[wombleh]

Stupeo said:

I use FreeTrade for the majority of my trading now - it covers the main exchanges and is low cost. I actually have the premium package at £9.99 a month, but keep £4k cash in the account that earns me interest to offset that.

Same here, app only but works very nicely. I’ve only got basic account with an ISA which is about £3/month, can’t do limit orders and not all the shares/funds are available with that but still enough choice for me.