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With a bit of money not doing anything in a savings account, i'm looking at buy some shares...
Is hargreaves lansdown a ok place to use to buy shares? anywhere else any better?
HL is who I use.
Simple enough platform.
Look to funds rather than shares, imo.
cool, cheers...
why funds? when i looked at the funds it seemed half of the money made went on the costs of the funds. i wasn't sure if a simple ftse 100 tracker was almost as effective? i'm tempted to choose a few shares to invest in a long term approach.
Also using HL, I'd agree funds make more sense, especially if you are adding more regularly. Commission can be relatively high on shares if you're only investing modest amounts. There's a good range of funds with low fees.
Funds spread your risk so you should see steady growth over the years. Individual shares go up and down (sometimes a lot), funds generally see a smooth rise with the odd little dip. Depends if you are doing it for saving, in which case go for funds, or for fun, where dealing individual shares is more interesting.
If you do go for funds some of the bigger ones (eg vanguard and Fundsmith) will let you buy them direct for a lower fee. https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/ and https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/
Don't forget you can put them in a tax efficient wrapper. Either and ISA or a SIPP. Pros and cons to both. Vanguardinvestor do ISA and SIPP, Fundsmith only do ISA direct so if you want it in a SIPP then you need to go through a third party like Hargreaves Lansdown
Shareview is fine for UK shares, but I found HL had access to a better range of funds.
I use several platforms (don't want all my egss in one basket).
HL had the best App and User interface but the highest fees.
Interactive Investor has the lowest fees but their App is utter shite and hasn't worked properly for several weeks now on my iPhone!
Firstly get a share isa so you don't get taxed.
Secondly, Can I vote for ii.co.uk? Great share and fund access.
I agree with others that have said buy funds.
Also check charges as HL typically take a percentage charge for transactions whereas ii charge a flat rate which includes some free trades. At some point the flat rate will be cheaper.
PS-new ii app OK on Android
HL has extremely slim fees on ftse tracking funds - something like 0.11% overall. I'd be sticking my money there (wrapped in an isa)
HL has extremely slim fees on ftse tracking funds – something like 0.11% overall. I’d be sticking my money there (wrapped in an isa)
But don't they charge 0.45% of your overall fund for their management?
EDIT: Yep, see their fee guide for HSBC FTSE tracker: https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/h/hsbc-ftse-100-index-class-c-accumulation/costs
They always score worst on fees whenever I've looked at any comparison tables.
Comparison chart here:
https://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/200695/how-to-find-the-cheapest-isa-provider-for-you.aspx
why funds?
Funds are also less stressful IMHO. I've got about 5% of my portfolio in shares and 95% in funds but I spend more time and energy monitoring my shares than funds. On days when the shares go up happy days and when they go down I get annoyed. But with the funds its meh on both good days and bad days.
I just use eToro for short-term trading for it's convenience (although technically you aren't buying the actual shares if that's important to you for voting rights...). It's commission free but they do charge $5 to withdraw funds
(although technically you aren’t buying the actual shares if that’s important to you for voting rights…
Even if you do, lots of platforms vote on your behalf as it's just easier (and cheaper) than forwarding on 1000s of packs to investors owning small numbers of shares.
It’s commission free
I assume they're offering you a bigger spread than the 'market' and making money that way, so you are paying for their service.
They always score worst on fees whenever I’ve looked at any comparison tables.
I must admit its not something I've looked that closely at. I've got some direct with the funds and some with HL. I quite like that they are a large bricks and mortar company just up the road from me. I'm not sure that makes them any less likely to go pop but for my pension it somehow feels better than an app on the phone. I probably should do some maths and some more research but I'm not that far from taking it out rather than putting it in now
May I recommend a podcast I listen too? - Meaningful Money. No connection but Pete does a pretty good job of breaking down personal finance and has quite a few seasons' worth of episodes based around different life stages and what we should be doing / focusing on in each.
As ever, don't just take one man's opinion or what you read on the internet as your sole basis, but I found the podcast quite good in shaping what I should be considering / doing and understanding the various risks. Pretty sure I first found out about him on here.
I use trading212 and etoro.
I have always been terrible for putting money away, gamifying investment by selecting my own shares is so far working for me.
I probably should do some maths and some more research but I’m not that far from taking it out rather than putting it in now
Taking it out is a whole different set of things to get your head round (which I haven't yet). If you use drawdown, all the platforms charge different fees for that, so a whole load of research needed to check you're getting value for money......
I'm on Freetrade. It seems good. I like the app, it's very easy to buy and sell and they seem to make all the right noises about not ripping investors off.
There's always a referral link thing - they give you (and the referrer) a free share (I think £6-£10) after you put some money in. My free share ('International Money') is currently performing better than any of my others! @ me or PM me for a link.