The Lemon Fool

Hi, In terms of availability and fees, I was just researching the various systems for administering Stock & Share ISAs. One good option seems to be Freetrade. Do you have any recommendations, thoughts, or opinions?

There is a huge amount of choice out there.

I'd recommend starting by asking what you want from a investment ISA.

Do you actually want to buy Shares? There are many passive investors here who would argue against that. If you agree with them then Varnguard look good.
Assuming that you do want to buy shares then we can rule out the likes of Vanguard as a platform provider.
Ok now ask yourself how big a range of Shares, ETF's, IT's and OEIC's you want to be able to buy.
Freetrade offer a significantly limited choice, though they would argue that they offer the important UK and US ones.
I briefly started checking against things that I own and the 4'th test was unavailable, as was the 6th. Forget about big companies outside of the UK or US, you know like Nestle.
What about customer service? There are many here willing to pay quite a bit extra for good customer service.

Personally I recomend II or A J Bell. I'm sure that someone will be along soon to recomend I-Web or HL.
Someone may come along and provide arguments for Freetrade.
Why do we have different opinions? Well we want different things from our provider.

A friend has moved from A J Bell to II, becuase he says that he will find it cheaper. I wouldn't. The difference in our costs is that he likes OEIC's and I like IT's.

I'm afraid that you may need to give us a bit more information about how you wish to invest if you want meaningful replies.

I have accounts with Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor. I use them almost entirely to invest in ETFs.

Very happy with HL. I seem to struggle a bit to do what I want with II - it may be that I'm more familiar with HL, or it may be a genuine ease of use issue. I stick with II to avoid "all my eggs in one basket".

The cost structures of the two are very different, but well publicised. It may be highly beneficial to study these in detail, but you do need to understand what investments you want to hold, and your likely trading frequency - it could make a substantial difference to the fees you will pay.

Boots wrote:I have accounts with Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor. I use them almost entirely to invest in ETFs.

Very happy with HL. I seem to struggle a bit to do what I want with II - it may be that I'm more familiar with HL, or it may be a genuine ease of use issue. I stick with II to avoid "all my eggs in one basket".

The cost structures of the two are very different, but well publicised. It may be highly beneficial to study these in detail, but you do need to understand what investments you want to hold, and your likely trading frequency - it could make a substantial difference to the fees you will pay.

Agree with the above, HL has a better website IMHO. I have both for diversity and can hold OEICs with ii, also use HSBC Invest Direct which is ok but more limited. Used to use AJ Bell and they were fine, I’d prefer bigger, more established brokers in the hope they might be safer..

I agree with most if not all of the above. The best choice depends on what you want do, how often you do it, and with how much money. As far as cost is concerned, you can consult the Monevator table:

https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheape ... e-brokers/

If you are a youngster starting out with small sums of money, you do not have to concern yourself too much with funds security. Just check that the firm is on the FCA register and is covered by the FSCS.

If you are investing £millions, I would restrict yourself to the most trustworthy platforms. I would look for a platform that is owned by a much larger financial services group. Selftrade would have gone bust if it had been independent rather than owned by Societe Generale. There is also something to be said for spreading your risk by having more than one account.