Paper share certificates

[Hamperman]

Hi, I’ve got some paper share certificates which I want to move into an online account and then possibly sell. I was hoping to use Hargreaves Lansdown but they’ve stopped doing this due to COVID. Any other recommendations of who to use?
Cheers

[xeny]

I'm pretty sure x-o (online brand of Jarvis) will do it - https://www.x-o.co.uk/useful-forms.html is the relevant form.

I don't use them, but a close relative is very happy with them.

[HootersGsy]

I use IG. The term you want to look for is dematerialisation, I'm surprised HL are stopping this as it's a pretty standard process.

[Hamperman]

Thanks for both suggestions. Had a look on IG and am I correct in thinking there is. £100 charge per certificate?

[HootersGsy]

Hamperman said:

Thanks for both suggestions. Had a look on IG and am I correct in thinking there is. £100 charge per certificate?

That's probably right. I'm working on two dematerialisations at work at the moment, a £100 isn't unreasonable as there's a ridiculous amount of back and forth to actually complete the process. Someone else might charge less, but I can tell you we're paying more for the ones I'm doing at the moment!

[Hamperman]

HootersGsy said:

That's probably right. I'm working on two dematerialisations at work at the moment, a £100 isn't unreasonable as there's a ridiculous amount of back and forth to actually complete the process. Someone else might charge less, but I can tell you we're paying more for the ones I'm doing at the moment!

Thanks, I had no idea it cost that much. Some of my certificates are only worth about £500 which were from company share save schemes and the like. Would have been better selling instantly had I known.

[xeny]

It doesn't necessarily cost that much at the consumer level - iWeb just did it for free for me, but have a £100 account opening charge, so possibly not a good fit for you. I don't know what HL's fee was when they offered the service.

[condor]

I have some paper share certificates and had thought of changing them to an on-line account, but there was a regular service charge to hold them in an online account.
With the paper shares, you get the dividends paid into your bank account, get communications and voting rights in the post from the companies and can still sell them if you want to.
I thought it was more beneficial to have them as paper certificates, especially as I'm not that fussed about selling them.
Is there a market for transferring paper certificates to others that might prefer them held that way?

[V12GT]

I recommend these people: part of the Lloyds banking group. https://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/our-accounts/t...

Was (10? years ago) completely free to transfer a paper certificate to them for crediting to your online account.

Might take a few weeks to get the account set up and the certificates transferred, though.

[DaveH23]

xeny said:

I'm pretty sure x-o (online brand of Jarvis) will do it - https://www.x-o.co.uk/useful-forms.html is the relevant form.

I don't use them, but a close relative is very happy with them.

I've used these for years. Very straight forward and a low flat fee per trade.

[Hamperman]

Hi, ok short update.

I looked into the charges using the companies share dealing service but they wanted 1.4% charge to sell which worked out pretty steep.

Gone for opening an x o account but tried calling them re a query and stuck in a queue for over 40 mins so not overly impressed, perhaps that why the fees are so cheap!

[Mr Pointy]

Hamperman said:

Hi, ok short update.

I looked into the charges using the companies share dealing service but they wanted 1.4% charge to sell which worked out pretty steep.

Gone for opening an x o account but tried calling them re a query and stuck in a queue for over 40 mins so not overly impressed, perhaps that why the fees are so cheap!

Just be careful when sending off the certificates as the cost of replacing them if they get lost can be very high - enough to to make it not worth it in some cases. I had to split mine into batches small enough such that each was covered by the £2,500 insurance limit on RM Special Delivery.

[Hamperman]

Mr Pointy said:

Just be careful when sending off the certificates as the cost of replacing them if they get lost can be very high - enough to to make it not worth it in some cases. I had to split mine into batches small enough such that each was covered by the £2,500 insurance limit on RM Special Delivery.

Thank you for the tip, I hadn’t thought about that at all and was just going to put them all in 1 envelope. Is that the underlying value of the shares that you have to get covered?

[Mr Pointy]

Hamperman said:

Mr Pointy said:

Just be careful when sending off the certificates as the cost of replacing them if they get lost can be very high - enough to to make it not worth it in some cases. I had to split mine into batches small enough such that each was covered by the £2,500 insurance limit on RM Special Delivery.

Thank you for the tip, I hadn’t thought about that at all and was just going to put them all in 1 envelope. Is that the underlying value of the shares that you have to get covered?

No, it's the cost of a replacement share certificate being issued. Now you'd think this was minimal but the Registrars require a Letter of Indemnity & a Countersignature as you might be fibbing about having lost the shares & the owner could turn up with the original certificates after you've sold the replacements. This is the relevant page for Equinity but I recall some Registrars charges being higher than this:

https://www.shareview.co.uk/4/Info/Portfolio/defau...

It was enough of a potential nightmare for me to send them by the most secure route I could so I used RM Special Delivery.

[DaveH23]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I mentioned charges in my post above about X-0. Sending them the certificate is free and as you state the shares show in your account in a few days.

The charge I referred to is when you want to transact/sell your shares. There is a flat fee of £6.99 when you sell, no percentages just a single charge per trade.

If you sell £100 of shares you are charged £6.99
if you sell £100,000 of shares you are charged £6.99

Obviously you are responsible for CGT.

[williaa68]

Interactive investor will convert paper to dematerialised for free.