Selftrade accounts

[BERGS2]

Hi -

Mrs & I have some money set aside and want to invest in the most tax efficient way.

I'm thinking about setting up a selftrade account with a shares ISA for each of us and a child trust fund for the new arrival.

is there any way that the shares i trade can be 'mirrored' by the two ISA's as my wife will not want to be actively trading and i dont really fancy doing every trade twice....

Any other services than Selftrade worth considering?

Cheers all

[BERGS2]

wheres that tumbleweed smiley...

oh here it is -

perhaps i should rephrase:

can anyone recommend a good online share trading account?

currently looking at:

iii
selftrade
HSBC investDirect

will be reasonably active - probably a few trades a month - and will be a mix of individual shares & funds

any experiences?

Cheers!

[seaninog]

I'm with Sharetrade and I find them more than competent. You can invest in a broad range of funds, individual shares, bonds etc. and their rates are low.

Not sure there's much of a difference between the various players you mentioned so for me it came down to cost and when I last looked (some time ago now, mind) Selftrade were the cheapest that did all I wanted.

[Nano2nd]

i use selftrade, its so easy to buy/sell i wouldn't worry about having to duplicate the trades the only downside of having 2 accounts is you'll have to pay the £12.50 for a buy/sell on both accounts....

also if i recommend you, you (and i) will get £50, then if you recommend your wife, you and her will get £50 each, that would pay for your first years account costs, if you interested email me your full name and i'll send the recommendation

[MEVILAZY]

If you wish to re-invest dividends watch out as some ISA Share Dealing Accounts do not allow this (only pay out cash).

[munky]

Another for Selftrade here

[walm]

Nano2nd said:

the only downside of having 2 accounts is you'll have to pay the £12.50 for a buy/sell on both accounts....

I can understand wanting to mirror accounts but doing the trades twice really can hurt when it comes to fees.

For example assume you do 3 trades a month - that's £450 a year in trading costs (at £12.50 each). Which on a £7k ISA is no small potatoes: 6.4%. Given that long term stocks should return 7-ish, you might be throwing away ALL your returns.

Of course you are going to beat the market by a wide margin but why make it harder!

Even on a £10k ISA you will have to be beating the poop out of the market to generate decent returns.

You can simply save ALL that £450 by not duplicating the trades in each account.

I strongly recommend putting each investment idea in only one ISA account.
It will mean that there will be a value difference between the two ISAs but unless you intend to divorce SWMBO soon, I really wouldn't worry.

[fergus]

fastrade.co.uk


£10/trade