Broker comparison: cheap investment platforms UK

Lloyds have an ISA switch atm not just Hl

Andrew Derrington
In my view there’s nothing wrong with using a zero fee platform as long as you are aware of the limitations that some have and the type of activity it encourages (so for example some might not offer a SIPP. This may not be relevant to you. Sometimes there are maximum trade sizes, so if you want to switch between funds you may have to do it in tranches etc).
But arguably the biggest issue is they are set up to encourage trading and to get you onto their ‘paying’ schemes/forex trading etc. As long as you’re aware of this and aren’t tempted to change your behaviour then fine. (I’m not an IFA, but just someone who has read around the subject).
I do know many people who have both a trading account and a more mainstream account. Nothing wrong with that I think.

You’re misunderstanding, its not legal to engage in shared lending in an ISA (maybe also SIPP? Not sure). Only a GIA. Trading212 also engage in share lending, have done for years. Most of the free (and some of the paid) do.

Andrew Derrington
There’s a useful site that can show you how much each platform charges for any amount taking into account how long you’re invested for, what you invest in and the frequency of your trading – ‘comparefundplatforms’.
I use it as a cross check to Monevator.

Any recommendations for my first SIPP? I do have pensions but they’re all company ones, this is a necessity from changing company.

Intended investment strategy is probably 2-3 trades per year to buy Vanguard index funds or something similar. Will refer to my own mix that is largely in ISAs and reflects Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% stocks

Throwing in 20k in the next few weeks (will be full allocation in this tax year for me due to other company contributions.)

Initial thoughts are to go with a percentage fee broker for now, then switch to flat fee as my holding grows? There was something that was free for 6months or has this offer gone now?

Thanks

Why Hargreaves Lansdown in particular? They are more expensive than the competition: for ETFs, HL’s SIPP fee is 0.45%, capped at £200. A J Bell is 0.25%, capped at £120. Fidelity is 0.35%, capped at £90. iWeb charge a fixed rate of £90 (£50k), but have the advantage of applying this rate to both unit trusts and ETFs. Vanguard is 0.15%, capped at £375 (as with iWeb, the cap is for both unit trusts and ETFs).

imho the best SIPP platform for a newcomer with £20k to invest who wants to buy Vanguard funds would be Vanguard itself. There’s no trading fees and the annual 0.15% fee (£30 on £20k) is unbeatable.

@C (2815)

>Why Hargreaves Lansdown in particular?
Although a few years ago, I went through a similar sort of exercise when transferring from a company scheme to a SIPP.

@Nick S has not said how soon he intends to draw benefits. Maybe soon, maybe not. However, for me it was going to be fairly soon and HL allowed me to split to SIPP to give 3 ‘small pots’ of £10k each, which I could withdraw without triggering the MPAA. I have also found their customer service to be very good.

You would generally want to avoid SIPPs where there are charges for drawdown if that is soon.

Had a bad experience with AJ Bell, so would avoid them too.

Generally, ‘free’ fund dealing is not so great in my experience. I have used it and it was with Vanguard, but a limit orders seemed to work better for me. I would usually place a limit order a bit below the asking price and usually save more than the dealing fee. If the market is rising, this doesn’t work, but then again, waiting for a bulk deal saving is not something I would want to do in those circumstances.

Nothing wrong with Vanguard, but the higher cap of £375 ruled it out for me. For £20K, it is fine, but what other contributions are going to be made in future tax years? We have not been told.

Also you are restricted to Vanguard funds/ETFs with Vanguard. I own too many Vanguard ETFs in my ISA, so avoided them in my SIPP. I wouldn’t want to be limited to just them in any event, there are plenty of other good ETFs out there. Although, maybe being restricted to Vanguard products could be good, to stop any active antics, unless he has an edge?

There probably is no right/optimal answer, there never is and what is right/optimal at one point in time changes over time.

My main advice is to avoid funds/OEICs and use ETFs, to benefit from cap on charges. Also use accumulation ETFs at that to save faffing around with dividends, even where a DRIP is offered.

@ Nick S, that’s a few more things to think about!
I also think there was a link to an offer on Monevator’s weekend reading blog post for II, if you go that way.
Good luck on whatever you decide.

Just stumbled on this comparison table. It is one of the few that lists Interactive Brokers (IB) not to be confused with II. I have been with them for sometime as they are one of the lowest cost platforms and I can buy all the ETF, IT, Shares I like and in multi-currency.
I was pleased to see the table as I wasnt aware that IB did ISA and SIPP’s and this has prompted me to go take a look it might save me moving some money.

Excellent comparision! Does all providers require to fill and send paper form when opening Shares ISA?

Thanks a lot for Excelent Comparison! I used comparetheplatform.com in the past, but I found that their data are not updated and they dont show how they calculate the result so you can get wrong results and mistake is hard to find. I found much more helful monevator “Good for” column when comparing the platforms. Would you advice any automatic comparison calculator similar to comparetheplatform.com ?

@Procrastinator, I opened an ISA with InvestEngine last year. Their sign up process was easy and everything works as expected. The UI is fine. I’d recommend it, but if you’re hesitant you can easily see for yourself by opening a general account. For investing (as opposed to trading), any simple UI that gets the job done is ok – personally, I find that once I have an automatic regular investment set up, there’s no reason to log in more than once or twice a year.

@Jamie It’s £1.50 per trade. A trade is a buy or sell of a single fund. For 8 funds, you’d pay £12.

I want to start investing in US, UK and EU stocks on a monthly basis. Amount that i want to invest in ~£100.
While reviewing the platform/broker, I have narrowed down in Trading212 and Degiro. I’m still not able to select the final one and feeling confused. Reaching out to this wondaful community to help make a decision.

Look forward for your inputs!

Do you have any experience with ISA/SIPP transfers in species using paperless online form(without sending form by post)?

I found that at Hargreaves & Lansdown is not possible to make paperless transfer in spiecies, where Vanguard doest such a transfer for their own funds without sending form by post.

Davs, you seem to be a bit ‘all over the place’ here (not meaning to insult you). LISA – if you want to invest in a full range of funds/stocks then HL and AJB are recognised leaders. Costs aren’t the cheapest. If you want a much restricted range then the likes of Dodl (at 0.15% holding fee and no purchase cost) is cheaper. I don’t think Trading 212 offers a LISA. (Stand to be corrected). There are only a handful of platforms that offer a LISA. Other LISA providers typically have a highish platform fee. Remember you’ll be investing for a long time so I view joining offers as gimmicks.
IE only offer ETF’s. No shares or funds. The so called ‘zero fee’ platforms make their money in a number of ways – some you can avoid, and others not. FX is just one of the ways they get money/cover cost/make a profit. Honestly speaking I think it’s best to clearly define your goal. Then look at what to invest in. A flat rate fee makes sense over a certain amount, but it also depends on how you are going to invest in the future. Hope this helps.

Davs, their choice of platform would suit their preferred type of dealing – monthly, daily, stocks, funds etc.
I started with AJB in funds and trusts making maybe 20-30 purchases a year. As the pot grew the platform fee became more important. I still have some money in AJB, but use Iweb because it’s cheaper for me even after the £100 joining fee (at the time). But I only make bulk purchases in IWeb as it’s £5 a trade, verses £1.50 with AJB. (Build up in AJB, then transfer to IWeb). IWebs website is crap though imho. Considering using T212 to build up rather than AJB, because for some things it’s cheaper.

Also jus thought I’d mention for anybody who may not know. Barclays have a transfer offer on at the moment till end May. Includes ISA’s or investments (not SIPPs).

On Barclays Smart Investor website it gives this:

Enjoy £100 – £1,000 cashback when you transfer to Smart Investor
The value of your cashback will depend on the value of assets you transfer, below you can see how much cashback you’ll qualify for. Total transfer value will be calculated at date of completion of the transfer of your eligible assets.

Value of Assets Transferred Payment
£10,000 – £24,999 £100
£25,000 – £49,999 £200
£50,000 – £74,999 £350
£75,000 – £99,999 £500
£100,000 + £1,000

Transfer ISAs or investments held elsewhere to us by 31 May 2023 and you could qualify for cashback. Simply request to transfer cash, funds or shares worth £10,000 or more by 31 May 2023 and we’ll give you between £100 and £1,000 cashback. See terms and conditions.

Pensions are excluded. Bear in mind that if you’ve withdrawn cash from your ISA you’ll lose your flexible ISA allowance if you close your account before paying that cash back in. Also some ISA have restrictions and penalties if you close them before their maturity date. Ensure you are fully aware of the risk-free returns you’d forego by transferring your cash out of a Cash ISA, which may also have more stable returns than an Investment ISA.

Andrew, looks like T212 is definitely cheaper for UK shares. Is there a flat fee outside of the percentage-based fee for any of your platforms?

@Davs
AJB is a percentage fee, not flat. Dodl – the same.
IWeb is no fee other than a joining fee.
T212 – no fee.
II charge a flat monthly fee and give you a free transaction per month within that I think.

@D
I checked this Barclays offer and surprisingly it doesn’t require a minimum period that you need to keep the investments there. So can you literally transfer 100k of assets from a GIA into Barclays, claim the 1k bonus, and then transfer them back (as their platform fees are rather high so it’s not worth leaving them there)?

@ mp – Yes I read that as well – that there doesn’t seem to be any minimum period you have to hold them with Barclays – usually with most it’s a year.

So you could do that but obviously they won’t really like you for doing it (i.e. transfer in one day then transfer out the next) but that is what the T’s & C’s say so don’t think they could do anything if you do. All I would say is they may have you down as a not “desirable” to their business and if you do ever want a Smart Investor account in the future (or maybe any Barclays account or product) then they could refuse you one as they might still hold your details on record (they don’t have to give you a reason for refusing you an account). So personally speaking if I was going to do that I would probably hold for maybe 6 months minimum and then quit. That way they might not think you were just out to make a fast buck on them. You’re still well up anyway if you’re going for 1K cashback less 6 months fees (0.2% funds & £3 dealing/0.1% other investments & £6 dealing.)

A sort of similar thing happened to me with a bank – a savings account – not a cashback deal but I had an account with them, their customer services let me down badly a few times – so I played up hell with them over the phone and closed the account down. Probably around 2 years or so later, they had a great account savings rate when hardly any others did and I stupidly applied again, in spite of all the issues I’d had, and was promptly refused an account. They never told me why but I was not really that surprised to be honest.

So IMO it’s best to judge whether you will ever need an account with them. Fee structures may change and become cheaper and your investments should hopefully grow over time which may then change things as you may wish to spread them over more accounts. It also depends how you invest really. If you just look to the cheapest brokers to invest in ETF’s/IT’s/shares then you may not need that many brokers as those investments are not ever protected by the FSCS scheme anyway (although you may still spread the risk across two or three.) If you invest in funds (OEICS/unit trusts) then these are protected by FSCS and you may wish to spread them over quite a few brokers/platforms as well as fund managers to keep within, or near, the FSCS 85K limit as the limit applies to both brokers and fund managers you are invested in.

This is my position as I use funds for the protection (cheapest trackers.) Once you have filled up the cheapest fund brokers like Iweb, Vanguard, Interactive Investor then you either have to choose to go above the FSCS limit by a lot in these accounts (and not have the protection on the amount above) or then open accounts with other brokers whose fees are higher – like Smart Investor, HSBC GIC, Close Bros, AJ Bell as these are probably on the next level of fees up. I know though as you accumulate more it does become harder to spread them and keep only 85K with any one broker and also any one fund manager without the fees getting too expensive.

So it’s simply a trade off between fees and safety of your investments. I choose to spread my risks around and use funds for the FSCS protection. Yes it’s going to cost a bit more and these costs if they were compounding in your pot every year, it can make a difference but at what risk? Smart Investor would cost me £170 per year for holding £85K funds and they would be all protected if Smart Investor or my fund manager went bust. It’s not nothing but it’s not totally outrageous either but I think paying too much above that maybe is. I used to have old style DC pensions & ISA’s a few years back, until I ditched them, where I paid much more in fees – it was legal robbery (before Stakeholder pensions came in – even Stakeholders charged about 1% fee.) So these fees in comparison don’t feel so bad to me anyway.

I know it’s fairly rare but even big companies do fail for whatever reason or there may have been fraud or mismanagement by staff and so broker “nominee” accounts don’t cut it for me. It is not totally independent of the broker. Look at the situation now with 3 US banks getting into trouble and then the ramifications with Credit Suisse because of this – although in this instance it seems they have been saved to prevent wider implications. Also the global financial crisis and numerous other broker/pension fund/fund manager failures and scandals down the years – too many to mention were investors have lost out. So I prefer to have FSCS backing – pay a bit more but less worry that something could crop up down the line and wipe out all my funds with a particular broker or fund manager if they were to fail. Just depends what your priorities are. I can see the attraction and advantages of using cheap ETF’s and cheap broker but I wouldn’t sleep that well if I had most of my money tied up in them.

Sorry about the long reply – hard to stop once I get started!

@D
Thanks for the long reply – no need to apologise, it’s appreciated!
You are right, I don’t want to damage the relationship with Barclays. I actually have a bank account there, not my main account, but I do use it and want to keep it. I may do the same, transfer in, then keep for a few months, then transfer out, I’ll have to think.
Interesting point about the protection. I actually prefer ETFs than funds and I mostly hold US domiciled ETFs at Interactive Brokers (in GIA and SIPP) and Irish domiciled ETFs in ISAs. My understanding is that Interactive Brokers has protection for up to $500k for custodied assets, which provides some comfort, although I mostly operate under the (possibly naïve) assumption that all these protections won’t be needed and even in the event of a broker failure someone else will pick up the pieces including the clients and their assets.

@D

> I know it’s fairly rare but even big companies do fail for whatever reason or there may have been fraud or mismanagement by staff and so broker “nominee” accounts don’t cut it for me.

Funds are also held in a pooled broker nominee account. The fund manager doesn’t have an account with your name on it, or have any of your personal details. The account is held in the name of the nominee. If the broker collapses, the legal process of recovering funds from the nominee account will be the same as for shares/ETFs. As vanguardinvestor.co.uk say, “Any funds you own with us are registered in a nominee account and held in accordance with FCA rules.”

@C – “Funds are also held in a pooled broker nominee account. The fund manager doesn’t have an account with your name on it, or have any of your personal details. The account is held in the name of the nominee. If the broker collapses, the legal process of recovering funds from the nominee account will be the same as for shares/ETFs. As vanguardinvestor.co.uk say, “Any funds you own with us are registered in a nominee account and held in accordance with FCA rules.”

Yes I know all about this – all assets are held in these accounts but that does not mean you will get all your money/assets back. They are not fully independent of the broker – the broker does the admin and holds the paperwork so its down to whether you trust them with all your money. I prefer FSCS protection on funds upto 85K and not to just rely on the integrity/trustworthiness of a broker.

Like TA said in this post – Investor compensation schemes – are you covered?:

“There are regulations in place that require fund managers and brokers to segregate your assets from their own. If the mother company explodes, then your money should be safely ring-fenced in a separate pot and you’ll get it back once the smoke has cleared. The company’s creditors have no legal right to your piece of the pie. That’s what is meant to happen, but any system can fail.”

He also wrote – “As Cofunds puts it: As with any FCA regulated investment firm in the UK, while it is highly unlikely that Cofunds were to become insolvent, or cease trading and have insufficient assets to meet claims, we can’t provide a 100% guarantee that your money is fully protected.

He then goes on to say “So the FSCS compensation scheme provides a last resort backstop, in case the next Bernie Madoff happens to be running your brokerage while the cast of Dad’s Army is in charge of administration and oversight. Remember there are no absolute guarantees out there, despite all the internet jousting that goes on about Crest and certificates of ownership locked in fireproof boxes.”

So the FSCS is the only protection of last resort and only pays out when others such as brokers/fund managers can’t meet their liabilities in returning investors funds so if the pooled nominee system (CASS) was truly 100% foolproof there would be no need for the FSCS. It actually saves many consumers every year from many failed UK firms including many UK regulated investment firms which, by law, have to operate with CASS regulations (pooled nominee accounts etc.) and how did that stop them all from failing? Some still failed and FSCS had to step in to protect eligible customers – which are those invested in UK funds. ETF’s/IT’s are considered the same as investing in indiviudal company shares and so are not eligible for FSCS protection (except in limited cases for bad investment advice such as given by a financial advisor but is at FSCS discretion (does not include DIY investment).

The following is taken direct from FSCS’s Annual Report for 2020/21 which says:

“FSCS provides a trusted compensation service for consumers, which also helps raise public confidence in the UK’s financial services industry.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) helped more than 52,000 customers across the UK to get their lives, families and businesses back on track during 2020/21. This included 99,528 claims decisions being made, of which more than 52,000 resulted in either paying people compensation or helping them transfer to a new investment or insurance policy.

FSCS paid compensation to customers who had experienced losses from 1,131 failed firms, including 92 firms that failed during 2020/21.

FSCS’s compensation costs for the year were £584m, an increase of £57m from 2019/20 (£527m).
In 2020/21, FSCS was financed by levies from 45,227 regulated financial services firms.”

The vast majority (98 per cent) of customers who came directly to FSCS did so using its online claims service and those who came directly received 100 per cent of the compensation they were owed.

Caroline Rainbird, FSCS’s Chief Executive, said: “In 2020/21 92 firms failed and FSCS paid £584m in compensation. While I am proud of our response to the demands this presented, I am saddened that this represents more difficulties for consumers and a rising levy. I have said before that the levy is far too high, and we must take swift action with the industry and regulators to tackle the causes of the increase. We have been looking at how we can use our data and knowledge to help provide solutions and are working closely with the FCA on this. We meet with the industry regularly to discuss how we can better understand why firms fail and help to reduce future levy bills.
All in all, 2020/21 has been a very challenging year. We still have a way to go to take the action needed to tackle the rising levy, as well as reducing consumer harm.”

I know who I would rather rely on to protect my money, however seldom it may be needed.

@C – No when I said “I know it’s fairly rare but even big companies do fail for whatever reason or there may have been fraud or mismanagement by staff and so broker “nominee” accounts don’t cut it for me” – I didn’t mean I would never hold anything in broker nominee accounts at all as I am aware funds are held in segregated “pooled” nominee accounts just as are other assets – I couldn’t think why they wouldn’t be? The CASS regulations would cover them all. That’s why I couldn’t really understand your point and thought you were saying that ETF’s/shares had exactly the same level of protection as funds.

I actually meant that I, personally wouldn’t just rely on nominee accounts alone for protection, I would choose funds (unit trusts/OEICS) that would have greater FSCS protection as long as held to 85K maximum with any broker (or any one fund manager). It’s just I know that CASS protection isn’t 100% failsafe whereas FSCS is, or at least as good as you can get – if you follow the rules. As long as investors are aware of the FSCS rules in that they only cover funds not any ETF’s at all (whether UK domiciled or non-UK dom) and doesn’t cover most other investment products such as IT’s (or obviously shares either) then that’s their choice. Also other protection schemes for non-UK domiciled ETF’s often don’t apply or at best are very limited. For instance Vanguard, and there are others, have told me on more than one occasion that their Irish dom ETF’s have 20K euros protection. I later found they don’t and this Vanguard FSCS protection guide confirms it:

https://www.ie.vanguard/content/dam/intl/europe/documents/ucits/investor-protection-uk-domiciled.pdf

Broker websites often mislead, when you invest in things other than funds – such as saying “Your investments are 100% protected in nominee accounts” when they don’t offer such protection – better than nothing that’s all.

Just how realistic is it for someone with a material DC/SIPP pot to spread it around so that the FSCS limits are not exceeded? Approaching £1m would need 12 different platforms making the admin a significant job. I’m definitely pro having 2 or 3 baskets but interested in how many people have gone ultraparanoid?

I’ve assumed Vanguard to be pretty cheap but without digging into fees too much.
Portfolio is now SIPP~£100k and ISA~£50k. Currently in VG FTSE Global AllCap
I find the sheer number of platforms above bewildering… clues on a) whether a transfer would be wise b) which platforms for lowest fees on a fund that tracks global markets?

@BBBobbins – not very. I tried it for a while, using HL, Interactive Investors and Fidelity all at the same time, but it got really head-achy. Trying to work out where to put holdings so that I could top up easily/switch to another fund in the same sector, keep divi earners in ISAs etc got to be really hard work and it was a constant battle to keep an eye on everything, particularly when things got volatile. Unless you’re uninterested in managing things day-to-day or week-to-week, I’d forget it.

Be aware how Fidelity is stealing money from customers : When transferring out Fidelity ISA or SIPP, customers may be deprived of interest incurred on cash holdings. Although Fidelity’s webpage states that they pay interest on cash from 1.7.2023, when you transfer out money from Fidelity, they will send you a final statement that your statement is £0 and close your account.

In my case I requested Fidelity to transfer also incured interest with the transfer out (before the transfer happened). They ignored my request and after the transfer, Fidelity claimed that I was asking for something IMPOSSIBLE as they had already made the transfer without incured interest rate.

It took me a few weeks to escalate the problem with Fidelity. In the end, I had to call Fidelity claim handler directly and threaten them with a complaint to Financial Ombudsman. Finally, they agreed to IMPOSSIBLE to transfer also incurred interest rate to new provider.

It’s worth noting that they completely ignore their terms and conditions which state that they will transfer “ANY OTHER CASH” to new provider (Fidelity client terms section 6.3 How closing your account works (a) … “If you are Transferring an ISA or Fidelity SIPP to another provider, we will pay the relevant proceeds and any other cash to that provider.”)

@D RE InvestEngine
> I did and checked it out for myself , well after a time, you have to just about drag it out of IE – they even told me to “go and do my own due diligence” in an email when that’s exactly what I was trying to do and they didn’t want to tell me!

That’s exactly what they said to me! Either we’ve bumped into the same tricksy support individual or their official script has been crafted.

What did you get out of them in the end? Their last message to me says that investments up to £85,000 are covered by the FSCS. Are they lying? I assume regulators don’t like lying.

The FSCS site says ‘maybe’ when asked about ETFs, not a blanket ‘no’. (Although they call them EFTs…)

@Neil – Yes InvestEngine told me they were covered by FSCS at first – as it tells you on their website but when I asked more they were evasive and said “go and do your own due diligence” but eventually told me this FSCS protection was for cash only and not cash held with them but simply cash transfers upto 85K between you and IE.

Technically they are not lying as they have it just cash transfers, so can get away with it as their FSCS protection covers the CASH TRANFERS ONLY but it is not really going to protect you for very much. It is very misleading and deceitful as most people reading that would think they are fully covered for their investments/securities (ETF’s) in the case that IE as a broker failed but you are not covered for broker failure (and as is usually the case, not covered for failure of the ETF fund manager either). So not really much worthwhile protection at all.
It shouldn’t be allowed, they should have to state what the cover is on the website but they don’t. In practice this would provide very little protection and none for your actual investments (well except for the Nominee account system which they say they use, but is mainly self administered and relies on the broker so not 100% protection).

Many more traditional brokers say AJ Bell/Hargreaves Lansdown & others would be covered for if they failed as your broker but seems some, which seems to be some of these newer less established may not have. So it’s like they might be cheap in no dealing/custody fees but no protection either.

If you want to read more on it – see Monevator’s “Investor Compensation Schemes – Are you covered?” from around post #53 onwards at this link:

https://monevator.com/investor-compensation-scheme/comment-page-1/#comment-1626135

@Don – the difference is, with FSCS, if you invest in ETF’s with HL and they go bust, as your broker, you would get your money back (upto 85K limit) whereas if with InvestEngine and they go bust you wouldn’t. (Okay so it does say on IE website that they have FSCS protection but this only applies to money transfers with them and does not apply to your ETF investments.) I believe most of the established brokers such as HL, AJ Bell, Iweb will be covered for broker failure but the less well established that have popped up more lately, like IE, some of whom don’t do any funds, may not have this FSCS protection.

However if your ETF manager goes bust, say iShares (owned by Blackrock) for example, it doesn’t matter who you hold them with you would get nothing, whereas if you hold funds (OEICS/unit trusts) you would (although obviously IE only do ETF’s). Also you do not have any protection if you have Vanguard ETF’s held with Vanguard platform as they are the fund manager – this Vanguard guide tells you this:

https://www.ie.vanguard/content/dam/intl/europe/documents/ucits/investor-protection-uk-domiciled.pdf

Myself and others on here, have found asking the FSCS anything is pretty much hopeless as they don’t seem to know and tell you to ask the broker yourself but some of the broker staff sometimes give incorrect information so can be difficult. The firms offering FSCS protection must be both regulated and “authorised” for the activity they are carrying out although this doesn’t mean they will have it as most legit firms in UK have to have it just to operate as per the FCA, like IE do.

You are correct about them using pooled nominee accounts – under the FCA CASS regulations all firms in UK carrying on investment business have to operate them under these rules but they are, largely, self administered and rely on the broker operating properly/above board all the time in recording and properly transferring/segregating your assets. This may be done 99.9% of the time but when firms get into difficulty and need money then they may just decide not to and use your funds by not segregating them properly and using as their own or there may be poor management/errors made in recording who owns what. Their terms and conditions say that investors may not get their money back from nominee accounts in circumstances where there may be a shortfall (see posts in article link below as this tells you more about them). Any administrators/accountancy firm appointed if they do get into trouble may also be able to use investors’ funds for their fees if they can’t get them from anywhere else and has happened before. The FSCS may refund you where the broker is covered but where they are not then maybe not.

For more info on all of this see Monevator’s “Investor Compensation Schemes – Are you covered?” – some of the more recent postings discuss it – at this link:

https://monevator.com/investor-compensation-scheme/comment-page-1/#comment-1626135

It is unlikely that a mainstream large broker will go bust (usually the smaller ones) and less likely that you would lose all your money and, as you say, they might be transferred to another broker. Also probably even less likely a large fund manager would go bust. But there’s no guarantees, so best to just be aware of what could happen in worst case scenario. Nobody wants to see a large portion of their investments go up in smoke so best to diversify across platforms/fund managers. There can be a trade off between low or no fees and safety of your assets such as with IE so be aware before you invest i.e. don’t stash all your funds with them.

> the difference is, with FSCS, if you invest in ETF’s with HL and they go bust, as your broker, you would get your money back

What is the evidence for this? The HL site just says you “may be protected” or are “likely” to be protected, and the HL terms and conditions custody section specifically says they pool investments, and you could lose money as a result:

> In the event of the failure or default by a third party, which results in the actual investments held (as identified on the relevant company register) being less than the amount intended to be held (as recorded on our systems) then as the investments are pooled, you may be required to share proportionally in any shortfall.

I don’t see any statement that the FSCS explicitly covers the situation where a pooled HL nominee account does not have enough assets to cover the claims against it, except that it “may” or is “likely”.

Halifax have an offer on for anyone who still hasn’t used this tax year’s ISA and for early birds for the next tax year:
“Open a Stocks and Shares ISA before 31st May and pay no customer admin fee until April 2025. Capital at risk. T&C’s apply. “

So do people keep a max of 85K per account, and as such manage a handful to a dozen of accounts in as many platforms?

@TA TI Thank you for contacting IE. It’s good to put facts on the table.

I have been looking for further facts comparing HL and IE regarding ISA/SIPP transfer times. I was unable to find any complaints about IE causing delays. However, I found many instances where HL delayed and obstructed client transfers.

The scale of HL’s problems can be seen in the more than 40 decisions upheld against them by the financial ombudsman. HL has been penalized for causing delays and financial loss to customers.

Has anyone experienced delays with IE during the transfer process?

Link to Financial Ombudsman Decisions against HL (upheld with delays only):

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions/search?Keyword=hargreaves+delays&IsUpheld%5B1%5D=1&Sort=relevance

Gaudi has just been placed into administration following the sale of their pensions business to Platform One. Gaudi administered the SIPPs for x-o.co.uk and I assume the SIPPs of Jarvis Investment Management.
https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2023/04/26/gaudi-goes-into-administration-amid-platform-one-sipp-deal/
“In a statement today, the FCA said consumers who hold a Sipp administered by Gaudi can continue to contribute, withdraw, and make investment decisions as before, and Platform One would communicate the next steps to consumers holding a Gaudi-administered Sipp.”

I was going to top-up today but will pause for thought.

This table is super useful – I appreciate the effort that has been put in to it!
Just wondering whether Fidelity gets a fair crack of the whip, for those who invest in equities Inv Trusts and ETFs but not in Funds. If you can live with this restriction then Fidelity is in effect a flat fee broker, it will only charge you a max platform fee of £90 pa for a SIPP, £90 for an ISA, and £nil for a Trading account. Possibly only £90 for an account that has an ISA and a SIPP, if in the same name. (Fidelity is a bit opaque on that point). £7.50 per trade. Quite a good choice of ETFs.
Might be a useful option for some DIY investors who aren’t looking to buy/hold funds. I’ve found Fidelity good for customer service, and average to fair for clarity re fees – not the best but far from the worst.

@Andrew

How strange, my experience is the exact opposite. Transferring Vanguard S&S ISA to iWeb in specie took a few days, no paper forms or mailed documents. I couldn’t believe how smooth the process was!

Lloyds and Halifax seem to have reduced their fee for “regular scheduled investments” to zero. Not sure when that happened.

IWeb just emailed me to say they are rolling out a “new look”

That made me very sad

I will miss their 90s Web 1.0 tribute act more than I care to admit

I have held my ISA with HSBC but they have a limited range of funds/ETF available. So this year I have opened one with Interactive Brokers (not II). I can purchase stocks, ETFs, IT across a number of exchanges. I believe that they are one of the lowest cost platforms both in terms of trading charges but also platform charges.

I dont see many comments on here about IB.

Re the Interactive Investor offer, £3000 cashback doesn’t represent a 3% boost on a £1m SIPP, attractive though that’d be…

Anyone know which brokers/platforms offer share trading in second tier markets such as TSX, ASX etc? I know ii do but are there any others? Many thanks.

I’ve transferred my ISA from II (Interactive Investor) to IBKR/IBUK (Interactive Brokers). Very low FX fees relative to II and generous interest rate on cash held in account. FX fees with II are extortionate. So far, Interactive Brokers has been perfect for my ISA. Some months I have to pay a £3 inactivity fee — still, lower than what I was being charged per month with Interactive Brokers.

Another broker increasing charges – Interactive Investor is now upping the monthly charge from £9.99 to £11.99. Dealing charges are going down, to £3.99 – so looks like they, as iDealing, are after more frequent traders rather than long-term buy and hold 🙁
At least II is allowing a fee-free exit, unlike iDealing which will cost me a lot (well, it won’t but I’m having to sell a LOT of shares and rebuy elsewhere which is expensive, plus transfer the remaining high value shares –

Thanks for the updates. I’ve been on the lookout for some time for a possibility of transferring my Lifetime ISA from a cash LISA to a stocks and shares LISA, being over the age of 40.
It’s been virtually impossible the last few years, in which time there haven’t been any mainstream providers able to facilitate this for my age group. Unfortunately Hargreaves Lansdown aren’t offering the LISA to LISA transfer-in at all.
However, based on the providers currently flagged in the broker table, there’s now two which according to their websites are offering the LISA to LISA transfer-in for those 40 or over – Dodl and AJ Bell.
So there’s limited choice now, and I’m kind of wondering if/when HL may consider offering this also.

I’m WIP moving Mrs Bs account from Vanguard to Int Inv, after which I will move too. I don’t believe that you get the same or similar benefits as they do in the US. A recent run in with them where I was unable to access our accounts for 8 days due to their error, bordered on farce. If you attempt to escalate, they refuse to provide basic company information. They, VG, would not confirm if their Euro MD resides at Walbrook EC4N, and I still await a reply to my July 17 letter, after obtaining “companies house” address confirmation, making it necessary to copy and paste the letter into their “secure message” system so that it couldn’t be ignored.

Maybe a generational thing, but I absolutely insist on being treated as a customer, especially when I’m paying. As far as I’m concerned, they’re milking their “Which” recommendation, the recent swing to passives, and hype. I have to say though, that their system is good and informative, but so it should be.

In contrast, AJB and II, are approachable, their Exec. offices swiftly respond when necessary. The Abrdn takeover of II now includes them in one of the largest UK finance houses. They have better facilities, including the Morningstar “Ex-ray”, and it’s cheaper too. Whenever the next 2007/8 arrives, I want a lot better than my recent experience with VG.

They obviously suit their 500k customers, but until they improve, I’m out.

@ As,…….Just to make sure, I opened an account with II a year ago and deposited part of 2022/23 Isa allowance and left it there while I decided and waited to see how the Abrdn takeover went. No platform is going to be perfect but I go with what suits me best. It feels safer with Abrdn but you never know.

Bestinvest, founded by John Spiers, and one of the dearest platforms, has had so many owners in recent years, I’m sure they are owner “Milked” and if they don’t perform cut loose.

Overall, I don’t think that platforms give value for money, and hide behind the “small print”whilst relying on consumer inertia to award themselves excellent salaries and pensions. They should be subjected to a much higher and rigorous checking procedure, given minimum inspection notice and then scored accordingly. We do it with schools so why are they treated differently.

Will it happen? not in my lifetime, but then I believe only one banking official was jailed following the 2007/8 finance crisis, not counting the three Natwest employees extradited to the US and jailed.

Does anyone use/have any experience of the fixed fee execution only broker Sharedeal Active (Jarvis) – it says they do funds as well as shares/ETF’s etc. have FSCS plus extra indemnity insurance for losses from fraud etc. but website quite basic and cannot see anywhere you can view what funds they offer – whether very limited or good range. They seem to just have a dealing charge (and exit charge) but wondered how good or otherwise they are to invest with as never really heard much about them?

@Passive Pete
Many thanks for replying about Jarvis/Sharedeal Active. I’m the same just buy/forget and don’t log in much so don’t want anything flash that you have to pay bucks for, like when I had a HL account and only held one fund on it. I thought what am I paying 0.45% for, when not really using their undoubtedly very good online account? Just want something cheap/simple/reliable really and if you’ve had for 8 years they must be okay. As you say I’ll find out what funds they do.

Yes their X-O account would be a smidge cheaper but I only hold funds at present and I believe they don’t do those. I suppose as I would only hold one or maybe two funds, it isn’t going to make much difference in the scheme of things at £9.50 per trade. I do like ETF’s (easy/cheap to invest & lot of choice) and quite tempted but a bit torn with them as not too confident with their lack of safety (FSCS) – like a safety net for at least a portion of it. Keeps the stress levels down a little. That fat finger error sounds dangerous – I’ll have to be careful of that one – could be damaging to your wealth!
All the best Pete,
Jon

@Tom

I rang Jarvis but they said they don’t have a fund list. You need to email them the fund(s) ISIN code that you want to invest and they will let you know whether they do it. They sound as though only limited range of funds and customer services said they don’t believe they do many INC funds – mainly ACC so seems a bit limited to me.

Following advice from earlier posts, I’m looking to start a second SIPP with a listed, profitable company. Can anyone advise on which companies would fulfil these criteria?

For anyone who isn’t aware, and hasn’t already got an Iweb account, they have this offer on till end of year:

“Open a new account with IWeb between 1 September 2023 and 31 December 2023 and you’ll pay no account opening charge, that’s a saving of £100.”

This means that for an ISA or trading account all you pay is £5 dealing charge (not SIPP other charges apply).

May I suggest that it would be useful to add to the table if the ISA is flexible? Perhaps (optimistic hat on) more providers will start to offer flexible ISAs if sources like this highlight it as a product feature?

From what I can tell Vanguard is currently the only fixed fee platform to offer a flexible ISA. In case anyone’s interested we’re looking at this as it would help to be able to be a cash buyer in the housing market by making temporary use of our ISAs plus savings. Not without risk of course as we’d have to complete our house sale with the tax year, but I’m sure there are other cases where having temporary access can be useful.

Also – could perhaps word Vanguard fee description more clearly? It looks like the annual fee for balance >£250K is 0% (with £375 cap on next line), but it’s really 0% for the tier of the balance >£250k in effect.

For what it’s worth, First Direct Bank seems to have exactly the same offerings at the same costs as HSBC (not surprising, really, as they are the same group. I do find First Direct’s customer is far superior, though.

Also, I received an email yesterday from Fineco Bank stating that it is winding down its UK operations and does not accept new clients

A word of warning for anybody, who intends to use Vanguard and may transfer out, in the future – both my wife and I have encountered long delays and received conflicting information as to the reasons for this, when transferring Vanguard SIPPs to other providers. Neither has been resolved yet and, in fact, my wife has ended up cancelling her in specie request and requesting a cash transfer, since Vanguard seems unable to cope with in specie transfers. Both requests have been escalated to formal complaints and my wife’s is currently with the ombudsman, with mine likely to follow a similar path, in due course. My wife’s request was initially made in early March 2023 and her account contained only two mainstream ETFs (VWRL and VEVE).

Both of us have transferred other SIPPs between other platforms, in specie and with no issues, so the issue is clearly with Vanguard. An internet search suggests that we are not the only ones to be having problems.

I am a huge admirer of Vanguard products and of its founder but these experiences do concern me and I am just glad that I have become aware of the issues with the Vanguard platform, prior to needing to drawdown our pensions.

Perhaps, we have just been unlucky but I wanted to make others aware, so that they can make their own informed decisions as to whether to use Vanguard. Sometimes, something is cheap for a reason…

@Templeton, @Onedrew – snap, I’m totally in agreement with you. I can’t understand what all the fuss over Vanguard is about. I’ve found exactly the same with them since I’ve had an account. Their customer service is generally pretty rubbish and unreliable with inaccurate information whilst transfers (in or out) are diabolical at best. They have plenty of waffle and excuses to make for their lack of any service. I find them the worst out of the many platforms I have or have ever been with – which is in double figures. They may be fairly cheap for a % fee platform but they are terrible.

I don’t know how they are so highly rated by many and how they get their Which? recommended status every year? Have Which ever tried any transfers with them – I think not? Might ring Which to ask them how they measure their performance exactly. I have done quite a few transfers in the last couple of years (about 5 IIRC) both in and out with ISA’s, a SIPP and GIA account cash transfer and not one has been within the Government timescale for transfers – all mismanaged.

An in-specie SIPP in just one Vanguard fund took months to complete. The platform transferring from were brilliant and completed their end very quickly but then VG started with a multitude of excuses. Also a smallish GIA account transfer out, knowing the problems with Vanguard, I even sold the investments out myself to cash in my account so all Vanguard had to do was transfer the pile of cash across but they still created so many delays/issues that it took forever. The platform I was transferring to did everything they could and were constantly in touch with VG – they re-submitted the application through 4 times as VG kept coming up with issues such as wrong account number/details but these were correct as I submitted the application online to the transferring platform (and a record of it was displayed on my online account) and this is the one sent through by them to VG (i.e. the application details I had submitted which were all correct – I treble check everything I send) so we couldn’t understand what VG were actually talking about. Delaying tactics? It took months to complete. (Just in case you’re wondering as to why would I do a GIA transfer when I could have easily withdrawn the cash myself – this was because there was a good transfer offer on at the time but it had to be completed as a transfer from another provider.)

An ISA transfer in also went totally wrong and never completed. I had months of hassle and ringing them and escalating complaints to senior management and getting nowhere. When the money did finally get there the transfer details shown on my account were wrong and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and a measly £50 compensation (nothing for all the time/trouble/worry/phone calls/emails because of them) they told me after 6 months that they cannot do anything about it and the details on my account still remain incorrect some 2 years later.

Ever heard of “blowing your own trumpet” and “over promising/under delivering” – Vanguard are that company and should be their epitaph. Their US offering may be different but with the UK arm they should shape up or ship out. I certainly won’t be doing any more transfers with this lot! Considering whether to get out altogether – I don’t even know whether their funds are that top notch – mine have been distinctly average and not much above what I have put in. It’s been a bad period lately I know but others I have have done better. With how useless they are, I’m not so sure about all this TBTF stuff often quoted alongside them – as with their level of incompetence I think literally anything could really happen. Never known such a badly run outfit.

I too have been to the Ombudsman on a few occasions (with banks as well as investment/pension companies) but good luck with that as they are about as useless – takes ages for them to do anything after submitting a shedload of documents and then nothing happens and 99% of the time they side with the organisation anyway. They told me they can’t do anything about poor customer service (and so depriving you of access to your money/delays do not really count) and to contact FCA and so I did and they said they couldn’t do anything and speak to Ombudsman! (You couldn’t make it up, simply farcical!)

Recently I was also looking at opening an account with Sharedeal Active to invest in funds (part of Jarvis – same group as X-O) and rang them a few times after looking at website. Asked if they had a list of funds (global/dev world trackers) I could invest. They weren’t very helpful and said not but I could maybe try emailing or I could be put through to speak to brokers so I said I would do that.

When I asked what funds they did they said I would have to tell them what funds I wanted to invest so I gave them a few mainstream big tracker funds (like HSBC FTSE ALL WORLD C) but they then said I would have to open an account first and submit an order as they couldn’t tell me otherwise – I did ask different people on a couple of occasions just to check but they said the same. This seems ludicrous if they can’t tell you what funds you can invest BEFORE you invest because whilst it is free to open an account it is not free to close and if you don’t use it they close it automatically after around a year, I believe, and charge £60 I think it was. They withhold this amount in your account and don’t let you withdraw it so that they then just take it. So hence I never bothered opening an account as felt unprofessional and smelt a rat! They also charge cash withdrawal charges, and various others, from your account for every cash withdrwal you make – however small, so not as cheap as it first appears. Not sure if X-O have the same bad service as not dealt with them as they don’t do funds but are part of same group so put me off them completely. Another company that sounds cheap until you have an issue or want accurate information then the problems start and don’t quite seem so cheap then!

@J@Nigel A: My experience of x-o has been fab. I emailed them initially with a list of funds and ETFs and received prompt answers. I then telephoned with some questions about their offer and had a useful conversation about the business. I then opened the ISA account and executed the inward transfers from InvestEngine and iWeb, which were completed promptly.

I will continue to use Vanguard, but purely for income withdrawal. I have emptied my InvestEngine account for now, pending a firm settlement of the fractional holdings issue.

@Nigel A: In case this helps, I have held the Vanguard Global All-Cap fund with Charles Stanley and iWeb, although I am not currently in that fund. I just checked and both income and accumulation versions are available through iWeb, a business that has served me very well for nearly a decade.

Apologies for double replies, but I have had difficulties submitting. On my iPhone, hitting Submit does nothing, on my PC either nothing or Gateway Timeout. I guess I am hoping for some sort of ‘Thanks for your response’ confirmation.

@Nigel A, @Templeton – Yes I agree if you are not doing transfers to/from Vanguard – just using cash then you won’t have nearly as many problems as that is where most of the issues for me seem to lie. If I hadn’t done transfers I would probably think they were reasonable also.

When I have invested cash and withdrawn cash, albeit withdrawn smallish amounts, it has gone without issues – but then surely it’s just an automated system for adding/withdrawing cash and then all they have to do is just process the orders? Surely not too hard for a supposed professional investment company?

I know some complain about the time they take to actually complete orders, pay out dividends, withdrawals etc. compared to some other platforms, but for me this is not a big issue and not something I would complain about, unless excessively delayed, as taking slightly longer is not as bad as being faster but then with more issues/mistakes as a result. I have also found their telephone customer services staff to not always be very good although it does depend on who you get. There is an Irish guy there who I have spoken to a couple of times, who does appear to be very good but unfortunately you can’t get put through to him every time! Some don’t seem to know basic information or give wrong/misleading/inaccurate information.

Customer services staff dealing with transfers have mainly been hopeless. VG can’t seem to handle transfers or don’t have the staff to do them properly/efficiently. When you complain about all the delays they regularly quote longer timescales than the Government timescales (on Gov.UK) that are supposed to be the maximum for transfers but they fob you off saying things like “that’s in an ideal scenario but it can often take longer.” They also often, I found, wrongly blame it on the other platform saying they have delayed it, not sent the correct information they requested and the like but I then usually call the other platform – some have emailed me evidence that they have executed correctly with dates/times of when it was done so found it was always Vanguard to blame. The staff lie often to cover their own failures which I later found to be untrue. I’m not too bothered if it takes a few extra weeks or even a month or so for a transfer to complete, TBH, if they get it right – even if done in cash and with time out of the market, but VG regularly can take months longer as I found even recently with 2 of the transfers mentioned earlier and sometimes still don’t get it right.

This is why I don’t entirely trust them or would call them professional at what they do after all the problems/inconvenience I have suffered and so think that any company that can operate as such, be as incompetent and treat customers like this could feasibly fail – they’re clearly not on top of things. I will trim down my holdings with Vanguard but will keep some with them for now as otherwise it’s quite difficult to spread your funds out for safety but won’t go too much above the FSCS with them. I definitely won’t be doing any more transfers into them – just too much hassle/stress although unfortunately might still yet have to transfer ISA’s/SIPP out in future if they don’t improve. I have read about many issues with VG when it comes to SIPP drawdown but personally that’s something I haven’t yet tried to do.

@Onedrew – You seem to have had a better experience of X-O than I did with their sister company Sharedeal Active. I know X-O fees are cheaper but I wanted to invest in funds and I was told X-O don’t do funds only stocks, ETFs etc. but you said you were emailed a list of funds that X-O can do? Is this the case or are funds through Sharedeal as TA’s broker comparison table above shows that X-O don’t do funds and others on here have stated that as well. Hence they are shown on the trading platforms table above with funds column blank.

For that reason I only dealt with Sharedeal so personally I have not dealt with X-O – but does put me off them now being part of same Jarvis group – but I acknowledge they may not be the same in terms of service. Also conflicting information was given to me by Sharedeal about whether there is separate FSCS protection of 85K for both Sharedeal and X-O. At first they told me there was and then I found out there isn’t – FSCS protection is shared between them so only one lot of 85K for whole Jarvis group.

@Onedrew – thanks for confirming that X-O don’t do funds (i.e. unit trusts/OEICS) I thought I was missing something but couldn’t see how TA’s comparison table could be wrong! So it was only Sharedeal that couldn’t tell me what funds they could do without opening account and ordering them first and X-O may be completely different I don’t know but have seen comments on here before that X-O are okay and cheap for many.

However when I have just looked at reviews on Trustpilot here: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/x-o.co.uk
they only have a score of 2.9 which is not fantastic and reviews seem fairly mixed at best on there if you want to read them – but if you have found them good for what you want to do and cheap then nobody can argue. Depends what you want to do and service can be individual some of the time, depending who deals with you. Like I also have accounts with many others who I’ve read many complaints about like IWeb, Interactive Investor, Barclays but I’ve never had any problems with them (except Barclays fees could be a bit cheaper!) so I tend to stick with them.

I’ve started to look at moving my low 6 figure pension from a wealth manager to DIY.
I’ve identified II as the platform that suits my needs.
I just missed out on a transfer offer which would have given me several hundreds of pounds. I now see the only joining offer is when you get referred by an existing member – worth about 6 months of charges (~£72).
For those experienced with II etc do they regular offers like the best one above such that it might be worth delaying my transfer?

I’ve already subscribed to a S&S ISA this tax year, so can’t open a new one, but does anyone know, if I open a GIA/trading account with iWeb to take advantage of the £0 opening charge offer, if I’ll need to pay the £100 to open a new S&S ISA from 6 April next year? Or is it once you have one account open you can open other accounts for free?

Thank you! Finally, someone explained clearly the difference in fees between Halifax SD and Vanguard Investor! I contacted both of them and neither could give a meaningful explanation. Thank you for your service.

Hargreaves Lansdown are currently offering up to £1000 cashback for transfers of ISA or Sharedealing accounts. Offer available until the end of February 2024.

May be worthwhile as long as you only have shares or ETFs to transfer to them and don’t deal very frequently.

AJ Bell sent me an email where they will change the feed from 1st April 2024.

Shares, ETFs, investment trusts and gilts and bonds: Currently – £9.95 / From 1 April, 2024 – £5.00
Frequent shares dealing charge (if you had 10 or more share deals in the previous month): Currently – £4.95 / From 1 April, 2024 – £3.50
Telephone dealing: Currently -£29.95 / From 1 April, 2024 – £25.00

@Not Yet An Ex Parrot
The UK does have a tax treaty with the US though, so is what you mention a problem?

I have a US tax based question, and some context provided:
1. I use Interactive Brokers UK for GIA and ISA. UK dom+res. So I can buy funds, etf, shares on several global exchanges from the US to Asia.

2. I have researched global indices and have a preference for the FTSE Global All Cap (not the Choice version which I will come back to). There are no LSE listed ETF’s that track this, the only index fund is Vanguard and it is not available to retail investors through IB, only Vanguard where it is held for family members. I like the all in one, Large/mid/small cap plus developed and emerging markets as core holding albeit the return is 30/40 basis points behind something like VRWL/D. I can add additional small cap global fund to top up my preference for 20% small cap exposure (WDSC/WSML/GSCT). I have followed Emerging markets for 20+years having been based in Asia….and it will always happen next year. I have held Latam and Japan IT funds before.

3. I have recently held VWRL ($ dist) and sold out with a view to buying V3AA ($ Acc) on LSE. This follows the FTSE Global All Cap Choice index which is a subset of the main index taking out the sin industries, defence, etc…..and this trails the main index albeit by a 10’s of bp.

4. I have found VT listed on ARCA this tracks the FTSE Global All Cap and more interestingly it appears to have a DY according to IB of 3.1% which I am not sure is correct. Through IB this appears available if there is a KID available.

However as this is appears to be a distributing ETF what is the tax treat for US based funds held in a UK account with registered UK address, paying UK tax. I have seen comments about a W8 which I have seen IB previously complete and submit for a previous fund I sold and deduct WHT.
– Treatment and reporting of dividends in the UK and US is one set of questions, the other is about liquidating with capital gains and the treatment of this. The effort to get to the bottom of this seems greater than desire to buy…..and just default to V3AA (failing that VWRA).

Just seems a shame that Vanguard don’t have the non-ESG ETF version of V3AA.

@MP
Thanks for explanation. VT does all that’s required as a core holding and as you say it is considerably cheaper than V3AA and VWRA even by Vanguard terms.

^ InvestEngine SIPP

ShareDeal Active no longer offer SIPPs

Investengine SIPP now up and running!

I have switched out of Fidelity and into Invest Engine. Don’t see why I should give Fidelity International a 0.35% fee for naff-all when Invest Engine charge 0.00% fee for Naff-all. Just doesn’t make sense anymore for index fund investing. Even Vanguard charge too much at 0.15%. Why bother? I really do think that when people clock-on to ISA charges then Invest Engine will be in a good position. So long as they keep the DIY ISA free.

@David N
Yes, Trading 212 is an excellent platform and I plan on using it for an ISA in the future.

I think I asked this on another post somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it…

Fees on IBKR are great. But when trading on the LSE AIM market, it can take several hours for a trade to execute (even if my limit is quite loose). Whereas on HL (for example) I can get a quote almost instantly for the same stock.
Does anyone know why this is ?

OK @onyxmew – I don’t really understand why DMA (IBKR) takes several hours to execute in some cases compared to almost instantaneously for RSP (HL). Guess I’ll have to do some more digging….