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OK so, I am not into share trading or anything like that. I have 2 small share holdings, one from a demutualisation, one that I got from a previous employer Bank of Scotland as a "free shares" deal. I hold them both in a Halifax share dealing account, which I used to get free as a staff member. The total value is about £300, and it nets a mighty £6 or so in dividends a year. The shares are Aviva (woo I have 3 of these!) and Lloyds. TBF I got both essentially for nothing, they've both utterly tanked since I first owned them and I've no real urge to do any more buying in future
As it stands, HBOS want £36 a year in fees, so it's costing me around £30 a year just to do nothing at all. My current banks' share dealing service is no better.
I could just cash it out and be done with it. Pretty tempting tbh.
What I'd like to do is just stick 'em in the banking equivalent of a drawer and forget about them- who knows, they might be worth something, eventually. But that's not viable as it stands, the cost of the account will wipe out the value entirely in a few years. And I don't know if there's any other way to do that?
Basically, I'm struggling to find out anything useful for someone in my position, who has shares worth piss-all but has them pretty much stuck in a service designed for more. I feel a wee bit trapped as a result of having got it for free initially, and it therefore being a no-brainer at the time but now not really feeling able to escape- I literally had a Friends Provident share certificate, a bit of paper I could stick in my drawer and forget about it, til I gave it to the bank but now apparently I can't just say "close my account and send me some bits of paper"?
Any thoughts, before I just say "bollocks to it"?
Just sell them
And then buy a new bike
Yeah just sell them, pointless going to the faff of transferring them for a relatively amount and for those companies the share price is highly unlikely to massively increase (mature businesses in mature sectors etc.) so you're not going to regret is as they go up by 1000% over the next few years.
There are some places where its free to hold shares (HL for one IIRC) but it will cost you to transfer them to HL and again when you sell them. If you're not expecting growth then you may be better off just selling them now and reinvesting the proceeds as you see fit (whether that's some other form of savings, shiny stuff or C&H).
If you had the cash would you buy those shares? Probably not. Sell them and buy what you want.
That said it is worth having some savings and shares are good place to keep some. Look for a better deal and buy the shares you want. Also do it inside an ISA or a SIPP for better tax efficiency.
<p style="text-align: right;">avia shares are doing relatively well comparative and have a decent dividend (around 10%). had this convo with my wife yesterday as she has aviva shares. if you don't need the money I'd keep them ticking over, but somewhere you aren't being charged a hefty admin fee. I use HL. pretty sure there is a monthly fee but it's not much</p>
Take the money out and use it to start a tracker ISA. Then set up a small monthly standing order just after your pay day to add to it. Then forget about it, unless you get a pay rise, when you increase the standing order by a proportion of the pay rise.
What's HL?
HL (hargreaves lansdown, a broker) has no fee on its regular share trading account, but fees on the sip and isa's
for £300 i'd just sell them, the problem with share dealing you need a to buy more to make it worthwhile (rich get richer) . for example regular HL fee is circa £13, on a £300 sale its a big fee, on £3k its a small fee comparatively.
HL regular monthly saver now has no fee, it used to be £1.50 a stock until recently,
so you could invest £25 a month in these stocks to build up your holding..
a quick google tells me HBOS dont charge to transfer stocks and shares , and HL dont charge to receive..
so thats definately an option, if you dont want to sell
I offer a valuable and low cost service for prospective share buyers. Basically for a small monthly fee I send you a list of the companies that I think will do well, or that I have invested in, and you pick literally ANYTHING else. Guaranteed to make money.
Sell them; low value, small dividend(s), disproportionate a/c
costs.
Lloyds share price has gone sideways for years and that's
unlikely to change for many years.
Signing up to Lloyds DRIP (dividend re-investment plan) would
offset a/c costs but you would then be reliant on capital growth
only which is unlikely.
Sell.
Thanks folks! Will sell them, nice and easy, much appreciated.