Are there any honest share dealing stock brokers out there?

[klw]

Well , are there ?

Hello everybody , first post in many years.

Spent the last 2 days reviewing stock brokers / share dealers. Wow ! The reviews show that they are all crooks and/or are very difficult to contact and resolve problems.

I want to invest money in a stocks and shares ISA and buy some high yielding dividend shares for the income. Not much time left for this year so beginning to lose hope. I would prefer UK based stockbroker as they pay dividends without deducting tax ( correct ? ) as I believe foreign stockbrokers pay dividends after tax deductions ( correct ?) .

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Sharky]

Welcome back @klw great to have you back after so many years!

I can recommend and have ISAs with Vanguard (https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk) but then you're limited to Vanguard funds, which is fine for me. Whilst I don't have an ISA with Interactive Investors (https://www.ii.co.uk), I do have a SIPP and a general investment account, and can recommend them too.

As far as I'm aware only UK brokers are authorised to offer ISAs, so you'll always get your UK stock dividends tax free, although foreign stocks aren't protected in the same way.

 

[Sharky]

Just to add, if you want to compare ISA brokers on costs, Monevator have a really good broker comparison here:

Broker comparison: cheap investment platforms UK

Our broker comparison page reveals the cheapest investment platforms in the UK and tells you how to pick the best one for you.

monevator.com

 

[1nvest]

I'm with Sharky... I also have a vanguard account and II account. obviously vanguard do not allow you to buy shares, only their own products. ETFs and Funds
Interactive Investor are pretty good, they have their bad points, but so do they all
others you could try and i have/had accounts with
Hargreaves Lansdown: very expensive but really good service
Willis:Owen. Personally these are one of my favourites
Iweb: I found cheap..didn't really like them, poor service
Trading212. I like these alot although hard to get an account with. I can only imagine demand, i have no problems with service

 

[klw]

A reply from the boss. Hi Sharky, many thanks for the replies and to you 1nvest.

I tend to look at reviews from the worst and upwards. There are far to many hair curling bad reviews from most of the popular ones. Some new information there for me to investigate so thanks once again.

I'm still open to other recommendations if anybody has any.

Cheers.

 

[BigDeal]

I used Selftrade for years, but they were really awful, but I was stuck because they charged too much for stock transfer outs. Anyway about a year ago they decided to change strategy and closed all retail client accounts down. So it prompted me to do some research. I ended up with AJ Bell, and so far they seem OK. I've phoned them for a couple of things and have got through fairly quickly. There's lots of things to consider obviously but they work for me. However I use them for UT and OEIC holdings rather than individual stocks.
This year I've used IG stocks and shares ISA and found them OK. As a frequent trader so pay £3 per trade UK, and £0 for US transactions which I think is OK. I think as long as you trade at least 3 times per quarter there is no other fees.

There again I'm pretty low maintenance so don't tend to need much help with stuff, and just want a reliable site to access my investments.

 

[klw]

I used Selftrade for years, but they were really awful, but I was stuck because they charged too much for stock transfer outs. Anyway about a year ago they decided to change strategy and closed all retail client accounts down. So it prompted me to do some research. I ended up with AJ Bell, and so far they seem OK. I've phoned them for a couple of things and have got through fairly quickly. There's lots of things to consider obviously but they work for me. However I use them for UT and OEIC holdings rather than individual stocks.
This year I've used IG stocks and shares ISA and found them OK. As a frequent trader so pay £3 per trade UK, and £0 for US transactions which I think is OK. I think as long as you trade at least 3 times per quarter there is no other fees.

There again I'm pretty low maintenance so don't tend to need much help with stuff, and just want a reliable site to access my investments.

Thanks for that @BigDeal . I did check them out and they were 1 on my short list but looking at some of the reviews especially on Trust Pilot it really puts me off. You can ignore 1 or 2 really negative reviews as maybe attempts to sabotage by a competitor or maybe just bad luck but there are too many really bad reviews for me to dip my toe at the moment.

Many thanks anyway. I am getting there slowly.

Cheers.

 

[BigDeal]

Fair enough. I hate Trustpilot with a passion but have just looked it up and can see why you are sceptical. (However if you look at TrustPilot under AJ Bell YouInvest it is broadly positive) - which is why Trustpilot is an utter waste of time.
Anyway good luck with your continued searching...

 

[bulltradept]

I used Selftrade for years, but they were really awful, but I was stuck because they charged too much for stock transfer outs. Anyway about a year ago they decided to change strategy and closed all retail client accounts down. So it prompted me to do some research. I ended up with AJ Bell, and so far they seem OK. I've phoned them for a couple of things and have got through fairly quickly. There's lots of things to consider obviously but they work for me. However I use them for UT and OEIC holdings rather than individual stocks.
This year I've used IG stocks and shares ISA and found them OK. As a frequent trader so pay £3 per trade UK, and £0 for US transactions which I think is OK. I think as long as you trade at least 3 times per quarter there is no other fees.

There again I'm pretty low maintenance so don't tend to need much help with stuff, and just want a reliable site to access my investments.

Afternoon Bigdeal,

I'd be interested in your experience with IG regards your stocks and shares trading?

I've been using ii for over eight years now, but since they reinvented their new website, it is really quite difficult to use.

Any thoughts very much appreciated.

Thanks, Peter.

 

[Sharky]

Whilst I do like ii, I don't like their FX charges whether you're converting to non-GBP currency or directly buying an investment overseas with the conversion on the fly, it's punitive. For this reason I've been looking elsewhere for my SIPP as I'm invested in a majority of non-UK stocks. There isn't an obvious alternative as I prefer not to pay a % of my account size in yearly commission. I have a general investment account with Interactive Brokers which is great, and they offer ISAs now too, although no margin. SIPPs are in conjunction with a third party, which is not ideal, and the costs are consequently higher, but you can trade options and futures if you so choose. For spreadbetting I generally prefer IG over CMC, mostly because they offer futures contracts on stocks, so you avoid the overnight charges if you're holding for longer periods, as I tend to do; plus they offer out of hours trading. I do prefer CMC's mobile platform, and to CMC's credit the spreads are generally tighter on futures contracts and the rollover costs are less. Just my two cents.

 

[BigDeal]

Afternoon Bigdeal, I'd be interested in your experience with IG regards your stocks and shares trading?

I've been using ii for over eight years now, but since they reinvented their new website, it is really quite difficult to use.

Any thoughts very much appreciated.

Thanks, Peter.

Peter.

I'm assuming you mean physical share purchasing as opposed to CFDs etc..

I have a S&S ISA and a non ISA trading account. The charges are OK for frequent traders. If you trade less than 3 times a month it's not overly competitive. UK comm is £3; US stock is £0 comm, but 0.5% added to the exchange rate, which seems pretty competitive. I don't trade other countries.
Adequate selection of shares, quite a few out of hours offerings on US
DMA is available - I've stopped using this as didn't feel I was getting enough benefit, but it's there if you want it

Downsides : no dividend reinvestment option - a bugbear for me but not a dealbreaker
: no way to search shares other than alphabetical order or most popular. Bit annoying based on the way I filter my selections but hey ho, I've coped so far

Platform has been stable for me and easy to use.

HTH