What Share Dealing Account?

Interestingly the 2022 Broker awards does not list either of them. I always thought IG was the preferred option for most and they seem to agree.

If you are interested in individual shares rather than funds etc then look at the cost of a transaction. I have an HL account but I don’t invest in individual shares. The transaction charge at £11 ish makes it very expensive unless you are dealing large numbers ie 4 figures at each transaction.

Think they're all pretty much of a muchness really. I have accounts with ii and IG. Main difference is the platform/webpage. IG is better for browsing and trading off charts whereas ii is a bit useless in that regard but is great if you know what you want. You can use something like tradingview for charts in addition. You should be able to open demo accounts with both to try them out - I would do that.

I pay 20 quid a month for the ii account as it allows you to access cheaper rates, think IG gets cheaper if you trade more than a handful of times per month. If you're starting small then probably IG will be less costly (sub 1000).

I will say that the (stock) markets are shite at the moment so you will need to need to proceed with caution (lots of caution). In fact I would stick on the demo account for a while so that you can see how easy it is to lose money currently. Capital preservation is the main aim in a bear market.

Main difference is the fees and the amount you have invested. ii are fixed fee, so become effectively cheaper the more you invest, HL are percentage based so cheaper for smaller amounts.

Freetrade. It's free to trade. No catches. https://freetrade.io/free-share

Good write up here: https://monevator.com/how-do-zero-commission-brokers-make-money/

You can get a free share if you sign up via a referral link, PM me if you'd like mine.

We mostly use first direct cos that's who we bank with, my wife also uses HL. I'm very happy with FD.

2nd freetrade if you are just dicking about with small amounts.
Ive stuck 250 in it for play around and it taught me not to kid myself that I could do this with real money 😀
referral codes for free shares are available - DM me :p

I signed up for Halifax online sharedealing. At the time I read that they’re cheaper than HL especially for monthly trades. Haven’t checked recently!

I use ajbell.
It's generally pretty good, though it did get pretty useless when things were insanely volatile 2 years ago. I got pissed off missing a few trades ,( though that was probably outside ajbell's control)+

Having said which, I was seriously pissed off when they refused to listen when I pointed out the following two monumental security flaws:

1) on login they ask for 3 digits from your password. If you get it wrong they ask you for 3 different ones. Or if you cancel and try again they ask for 3 different ones. Absolutely unbelievable as evidenced by the fact that I managed 2 years of trading without actually knowing my full password. Whenever it asked for the unknown digits I just refreshed the page till it asked for ones I did know.

2) the security questions on the account were mandated as: i)What is your mother's maiden name ii) what was your first pet called iii) what was the name of your first school.

On a Children's ISA.... 🤔
FFS, every one of my [bastard] son's mates knows the answer to each of those questions.
Again, they couldn't have cared less.

Hmm interesting, thanks folks. My plan is to play around with  about £5k and I’d like an account that gives access to details about price movements (ideally real time??) as well is useful news/insights if such a thing exists… I don’t mind paying a reasonable amount for it but obviously it’s not worth paying a huge monthly fee given the amounts I’ll be starting off with..