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Best place to buy VCTs presently.

Sophisticated and complex high-risk tax-sensitive investments in small companies: handle with care
Karellan
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Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446720

Postby Karellan » September 30th, 2021, 7:30 pm

I wondered what the general opinion was as to which broker was best now for new VCT shares ?

Boots
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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446731

Postby Boots » September 30th, 2021, 8:06 pm

I have used Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Investor and Wealthclub.

HL have withdrawn from the market "because of Covid" (if you still believe that). They were cheap (free if I correctly recall) and efficient, but they keep all the trail commission.

Interactive Investor charge £30 (I think) and are quite efficient. They return some (or possible all) of the trail commission - sorry I probably should have a better grip on some of these details!

I have started using Wealthclub in the past few months, and have executed a few purchases. I have been really impressed with the quality of the information on their website (far, far, better than either of the others). They seem to negotiate good deals and are very efficient. They return some of the trail commission.

I hope that helps

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446765

Postby Kidman » September 30th, 2021, 10:08 pm

I moved to Wealth Club as part of their takeover of BestInvest and have been very pleased with their service and the level of commission rebate, both up-front and trail.

HL won't even do online VCT applications and they terminated some dozen or more services in spring 2020. I doubt any will ever return as they have all been removed from their Ts and Cs. Other services affected that may concern VCT shareholders include transferring in certificated VCT shares and Bed and ISA. HL have become totally digital and d-i-y. The customer does the work, they take the fee.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446804

Postby UncleEbenezer » October 1st, 2021, 12:09 am

Kidman wrote:I moved to Wealth Club as part of their takeover of BestInvest and have been very pleased with their service and the level of commission rebate, both up-front and trail.

HL won't even do online VCT applications and they terminated some dozen or more services in spring 2020. I doubt any will ever return as they have all been removed from their Ts and Cs. Other services affected that may concern VCT shareholders include transferring in certificated VCT shares and Bed and ISA. HL have become totally digital and d-i-y. The customer does the work, they take the fee.

I transferred all my certificated holdings to my H-L account back in spring of 2019. That was for the house purchase: I sold about 30% to raise funds, and spared myself having to notify change-of-address on the remainder.

Since then I've made two new purchases (using Wealthclub), and it's feeling messy having the two certificated holdings separated from the rest. Especially Amati, which I now have split between my H-L holdings and new purchases. How can I best reunite them?

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446826

Postby oxmatt » October 1st, 2021, 6:21 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:Since then I've made two new purchases (using Wealthclub), and it's feeling messy having the two certificated holdings separated from the rest. Especially Amati, which I now have split between my H-L holdings and new purchases. How can I best reunite them?


Transfer HL account out to somewhere that is still accepting certified share certificates? I used x-o.co.uk in a similar situation.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446828

Postby barchid » October 1st, 2021, 6:54 am

Uncle
You could do worse than look at Jarvis, I became fed up with storing certificates despite liking the re-investment schemes available & decided to put them into Crest.
I use Jarvis sharedeal active which is free to transfer in, either certs or from another crest a/c, £9.95 to buy/sell but £18 to withdraw cash. However this a/c gives you the ability to request that any sales you wish to do of a vct can be put on the appropriate brokers list for when they do a buy back, & I have found them extremely helpful in this regard.
Their cheaper option is the X-O account with a £5.95 transaction charge, still free to transfer in certs or from another Crest a/c but no access to request by voice to go onto a buy back list & free to withdraw cash.
No fees to open either account which is also a plus point.
I hope this might help you ?

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#446836

Postby mjames » October 1st, 2021, 7:39 am

I am one of the old Clubfinance clients, which was taken over by Wealth Club three years ago. The service was and still is excellent, and as others have mentioned the information you get is unrivalled. They specialise in VCTs rather than it being an afterthought as for most brokers.

I also use X-O (for ITs not for VCTs) and it is very basic. Fees are low and this is about the only thing I can say to commend it. The digital experience is frustrating and the customer support equally so.

HL for telephone dealing on the secondary market as needed, but as others said not for new offers.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#447354

Postby SpinDoctor » October 2nd, 2021, 9:30 pm

I agree re: X-O. My experience of transferring in certificated VCTs, dematerialising and then selling at a limit price was very good.

I'm embarrassed for HL that their services have become so constrained.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#447437

Postby Karellan » October 3rd, 2021, 11:42 am

I used Bestinvest years ago who probably once had the best VCT stats but switched to Clubfinance. Indeed the Wealthclub takeover has resulted in a good VCT focussed firm. HL surprisingly seems less of a player now. I was wondering about trying II to see how well they could do but I doubt whether they would be a easy as Wealthclub to deal with. Still one has to remain alert !

Searching around I just dont get the impression that firms are falling over themselves to get me to buy VCTs from them , possibly its Covid ?

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#448086

Postby zxc100 » October 5th, 2021, 4:01 pm

I have tried II in the last few weeks. The experience has not been rewarding though I do recognise that a single transaction may not be enough to judge overall performance. 8 days after posting the application by hand in the local post office (II required a paper application and a cheque) I rang to investigate progress. I was advised my application had reached the corporate actions department the previous day and they could give me no indication as to how long it would take to process. The cheque would only be dispatched after they had completed checks including apparently awaiting a response from City Partnership that they as manager would accept the application! As I wanted to ensure I got the Pembroke early bird discount I asked II to cancel the application, bearing in mind they had still not processed the application they still charged me the £30 fee. :(

I submitted the application through Wealth Club and had confirmation the application had been sent the same day and confirmation of receipt of funds the following day from City Partnership.

I see recurrent issues with II every time they take over another provider, their service drops right off. They are very hard to talk to and not even prepared to pass on a suggestion.

zxc

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#448175

Postby Kidman » October 5th, 2021, 9:29 pm

I have just noticed while catching up with this thread that I stated the wrong company in my earlier post (30th September), apologies to all.

I was with ClubFinance who were taken over by WealthClub. BestInvest became part of the Tilney group and I have never used them.

I moved my certificated deals from HL to X-O and have been happy with their service. It is disappointing that HL has stopped providing a full service.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#448194

Postby mjames » October 5th, 2021, 11:01 pm

zxc100 wrote: 8 days after posting […] they could give me no indication as to how long it would take to process. The cheque would only be dispatched after they had completed checks […] I asked II to cancel the application, […] they still charged me the £30 fee. :(


This sounds dreadful. I thought the days of cheques and delays were long gone — we have become quite used to doing everything online. Given the speed that offers are being taken up this year you are wise to want it expedited. As for charging you in any case — quite shocking.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#448212

Postby Karellan » October 6th, 2021, 7:56 am

II bought up two of my ISA brokers and I had to re-adjust things to make it work for me. Generally II are OK as long as the system just works. Once you need to speak to them the the system makes it harder and slow like speaking to broadband or utility suppliers. I would imagine that the support people are employees that just have more and more to do so I have some sympathy for them. WC like Clubfinance seems able to answer / progress with minimal difficulty and their system works OK.

I dont remember how Bestinvest did years ago , I suspect OK. I do remember a B3/4 raise then and thinking that it would go quite soon and I ought to get my skates on and post the application. It went in about a week - happy days , it was so leisurely then.

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Re: Best place to buy VCTs presently.

#448289

Postby james188 » October 6th, 2021, 1:31 pm

Just to endorse the views of several other posters, I invariably use Wealth Club for new offers and I think that they provide a first class service, plus some trail commission, albeit not to the level that Club Finance used to provide. If I wanted to dematerialise my VCT shares, I would use Jarvis X-O. I have been impressed with their service. HL have slipped badly over the last few years,


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