Opening a S&S ISA and picking funds

[Kingdom35]

bhstewie said:

http://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/
http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

Some providers don't charge an ongoing fee but do charge per trade i.e. whenever you buy a fund.

It's a numbers game in that at some point one approach will cost more or less than the other i.e. no ongoing fee and £5/trade might sound good but if you're buying 5 funds every month @ £5/trade/fund all of a sudden it gets more expensive than simply paying 0.25%.

Thank you, that comparefundplatform website was very helpful. Cavendish it is, il sacrifice the Mobile app.
I can get that through other means.

First year il not make many changes if any really. I hope.

[anonymous-user]

Am I right in thinking that if you open an ISA directly with Vanguard and then use that for a LifeStrategy fund then the only fees are .15%, capped at £375 per year?

No other charges for any trading transactions?

Seems far more cost effective than choosing another platform unless I’m missing something.

[Kingdom35]

garyhun said:

Am I right in thinking that if you open an ISA directly with Vanguard and then use that for a LifeStrategy fund then the only fees are .15%, capped at £375 per year?

No other charges for any trading transactions?

Seems far more cost effective than choosing another platform unless I’m missing something.

Trouble is then youre only open to Vanguard funds, whereas Cavendish for the extra 0.1% I can get the Fundsmith fund I also want and a whole load of Fidelity funds in addition.

But I believe youre right in what you say.

[anonymous-user]

Kingdom35 said:

garyhun said:

Am I right in thinking that if you open an ISA directly with Vanguard and then use that for a LifeStrategy fund then the only fees are .15%, capped at £375 per year?

No other charges for any trading transactions?

Seems far more cost effective than choosing another platform unless I’m missing something.

Trouble is then youre only open to Vanguard funds, whereas Cavendish for the extra 0.1% I can get the Fundsmith fund I also want and a whole load of Fidelity funds in addition.

But I believe youre right in what you say.

Sorry I was not clear, I was just looking at it from just buying the Vanguard fund. I’m in a similar boat to you except I’m 55 this year and want some additional investments to run alongside my paid up pension for the next 10 years.

[xeny]

garyhun said:

Am I right in thinking that if you open an ISA directly with Vanguard and then use that for a LifeStrategy fund then the only fees are .15%, capped at £375 per year?

No other charges for any trading transactions?

Seems far more cost effective than choosing another platform unless I’m missing something.

+ the LS fee of IIRC .22%. Depends a lot on your trading pattern. I don't trade much, and pay considerably less than I would with Vanguard.

[anonymous-user]

xeny said:

garyhun said:

Am I right in thinking that if you open an ISA directly with Vanguard and then use that for a LifeStrategy fund then the only fees are .15%, capped at £375 per year?

No other charges for any trading transactions?

Seems far more cost effective than choosing another platform unless I’m missing something.

+ the LS fee of IIRC .22%. Depends a lot on your trading pattern. I don't trade much, and pay considerably less than I would with Vanguard.

Who with xeny? As I said, I need to sort out a S&S ISA for the next 10 years. Was thinking going with the Vanguard fund so interested to understand the low cost way to do this.

[xeny]

garyhun said:

Who with xeny? As I said, I need to sort out a S&S ISA for the next 10 years. Was thinking going with the Vanguard fund so interested to understand the low cost way to do this.

Have a play around with http://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/ - the critical thing is to keep the number of trades down, at which point fixed fee brokers start looking very attractive - iWeb, Halifax, Alliance Trust and Interactive Investor should all be worth a look

[anonymous-user]

xeny said:

garyhun said:

Who with xeny? As I said, I need to sort out a S&S ISA for the next 10 years. Was thinking going with the Vanguard fund so interested to understand the low cost way to do this.

Have a play around with http://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/ - the critical thing is to keep the number of trades down, at which point fixed fee brokers start looking very attractive - iWeb, Halifax, Alliance Trust and Interactive Investor should all be worth a look

I’m not much of an active trader, hence the interest in the Vanguard funds. Halifax looking very cheap. Thanks for the link - will take a very good look through this.

[Craikeybaby]

Kingdom35 said:

garyhun said:

Am I right in thinking that if you open an ISA directly with Vanguard and then use that for a LifeStrategy fund then the only fees are .15%, capped at £375 per year?

No other charges for any trading transactions?

Seems far more cost effective than choosing another platform unless I’m missing something.

Trouble is then youre only open to Vanguard funds, whereas Cavendish for the extra 0.1% I can get the Fundsmith fund I also want and a whole load of Fidelity funds in addition.

But I believe youre right in what you say.

I'm moving from Cavendish to Vanguard to keep the fees lower, but I'm happy with the Vanguard funds.

FYI you can use the Fidelity app with Cavendish, that is what I have been doing for the last few years.

[HarryW]

I use iWeb, no complaints, cheap as chips compared to some. Their research tool uses Morning Star data and is pretty good.

[Kingdom35]

xeny said:

Have a play around with http://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/ - the critical thing is to keep the number of trades down, at which point fixed fee brokers start looking very attractive - iWeb, Halifax, Alliance Trust and Interactive Investor should all be worth a look

Not sure how you can get them much cheaper than actually direct with Vanguard? Is it a case of you select whats in each Vanguard Fund individually? via iweb, Halfiax etc?

[anonymous-user]

Kingdom35 said:

xeny said:

Have a play around with http://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/ - the critical thing is to keep the number of trades down, at which point fixed fee brokers start looking very attractive - iWeb, Halifax, Alliance Trust and Interactive Investor should all be worth a look

Not sure how you can get them much cheaper than actually direct with Vanguard? Is it a case of you select whats in each Vanguard Fund individually? via iweb, Halfiax etc?

In the example I just plugged in, with Halifax it would be .06%. Direct with Vanguard the wrapper is .15% with max of £375. Peanuts of difference in the scheme of things and that may reduce further if you actively trade.

[Gogoplata]

I found this thread & the other S&S ISA threads very informative thank you.

For I while I've wanted to invest money to get a better return on my savings, but I really didn't know what I was looking at, or how to go around it. These ETFs are just what I was after.

I'm going to take the plunge and move some money from my Premium Bonds & open a Vanguard Life Strategy 80 fund.

[xeny]

garyhun said:

In the example I just plugged in, with Halifax it would be .06%. Direct with Vanguard the wrapper is .15% with max of £375. Peanuts of difference in the scheme of things and that may reduce further if you actively trade.

Personally I'll take a couple of hundred £ saving especially if as a bonus it stops me being restricted to only owning Vanguard funds, - it's still £2K/decade.

[anonymous-user]

xeny said:

garyhun said:

In the example I just plugged in, with Halifax it would be .06%. Direct with Vanguard the wrapper is .15% with max of £375. Peanuts of difference in the scheme of things and that may reduce further if you actively trade.

Personally I'll take a couple of hundred £ saving especially if as a bonus it stops me being restricted to only owning Vanguard funds, - it's still £2K/decade.

Agreed that it’s a small price to pay for flexibility.

[Kingdom35]

garyhun said:

In the example I just plugged in, with Halifax it would be .06%. Direct with Vanguard the wrapper is .15% with max of £375. Peanuts of difference in the scheme of things and that may reduce further if you actively trade.

Hi, can you confirm how youre doing this? Is it a case of adding in all the funds you see in the Vanguard Lifestrategy separately, meaning the % is lower?

[bitchstewie]

Kingdom35 said:

Hi, can you confirm how youre doing this? Is it a case of adding in all the funds you see in the Vanguard Lifestrategy separately, meaning the % is lower?

I think it's because Halifax simply charge per trade.

Comes back to what I said earlier which is if you intend to make 1-2 trades a year there are options where it would cost you £5/trade with a fixed charge for having an ISA account but no ongoing fee.

So let's say you were making 2 trades per month every month (drip-feeding into Fundsmith and LifeStrategy for example) that's £120/year in trades so it may be cheaper to use a provider who charge a fixed percentage but don't charge per trade.

Swings and roundabouts

[anonymous-user]

bhstewie said:

Kingdom35 said:

Hi, can you confirm how youre doing this? Is it a case of adding in all the funds you see in the Vanguard Lifestrategy separately, meaning the % is lower?

I think it's because Halifax simply charge per trade.

Comes back to what I said earlier which is if you intend to make 1-2 trades a year there are options where it would cost you £5/trade with a fixed charge for having an ISA account but no ongoing fee.

So let's say you were making 2 trades per month every month (drip-feeding into Fundsmith and LifeStrategy for example) that's £120/year in trades so it may be cheaper to use a provider who charge a fixed percentage but don't charge per trade.

Swings and roundabouts

Swings and roundabouts it certainly is.

[xeny]

bhstewie said:

So let's say you were making 2 trades per month every month (drip-feeding into Fundsmith and LifeStrategy for example) that's £120/year in trades so it may be cheaper to use a provider who charge a fixed percentage but don't charge per trade.

In that situation, I tended to alternate between funds each month. After a few years investing, the difference one month's worth of payments makes to asset allocation at that point is IMHO not worth the extra transaction cost.

[Kingdom35]

Ok so if I want to pay in an amount each month of £250 are you saying I need to pay 0.25% each time or £5 as its a "trade" or when you say trade this is if I added a fund into my account portfolio?