I note with interest the news report in the FT that Abrdn is acquiring Interactive Investor
As a recent convert to the platform for my general trading, ISA and SIPP I'm interested to know what others feel about this move and whether I should be considering sticking or twisting
For now at least they're promising not to change anything so I'd probably stick, for now anyway. I left them years ago but family members still use them.
For as long as they don't impose changes I see it as a mildly positive step up to come away from PE.
Can see no reason for thinking of moving at present. They say nothing will change in terms of the platform. They may have better financial backing, and potentially access to some improvements. Of course that can change, but if it does that is the time to start thinking about it.
I think this is good news for DIY investors, AJ Bell are also raising the stakes with a low cost dealing app with a silly meme friendly name. More competition means lower fees and charges.
I feel it's a pity the IPO proposal was shelved/outbid, not least because AJB investors received some form of payout at their IPO I recall.
Obviously access to unlimited capital will allow they to snaffle up yet more smaller, less efficient operators if they want to grow scale. Might also allow them to fund genuine innovations.
I'm just a little uneasy that they will be motivated to push more of their parent's fund offerings, which I guess is abrdn's main reason for the acquisition. We've already see some criticism of, for example, HL's 'best buy' list (Woodford anyone?) and it will be interesting to see if they remain impartial - bear in mind far more folk invest in funds than punt on shares. That said, being owned by a mega institution hasn't harmed Barclays Stockbrokers, which remains a fair middle-of-the-road offering.....apart from the annoying login/timeout features.
On balance I'd wait and see. As I mentioned before, no broker should be regarded as 'for life'. Will be interesting also to see how CSD pans out under their US ownership.
Agreed Wilbraham, I feel uneasy at the subsuming of II by abrdn. I really don't think it does II any favours and if , like me. you have a dim view of the parent company, then unlikely to be beneficial or impartial. It's a great pity because II have a regular following amongst the PI sector, and I feel it will diminish their usefulness and probably cost them clients.
Breaking News: Interactive Investor to be rebranded as Intractiv Invstor.
I am an Intractiv Invstor customer too, I will just wait and s. If Abrdn use II as a vhicle to push thir funds I wouldn't b bothrd because as long as thy don't start rstricting accss to othr fund providrs.
It may b a positiv as thy ar likly to hav mor mony to invst in improving the srvic.
Slight digression but as a customer of II, I have had little reason to complain about the quality of its service. So, as a client, I can't see much upside from the takeover. But what does intrigue me is the value that could be attached to Cmc Markets (LON:CMCX) non-leveraged business. It's now up for sale but no firm figure has been given in terms of the sale price. And, yes I am a CMC shareholder.
Interested in developments here, I'm considering moving some of my accounts to ii or AJB. I do have a fund with Abrdn which has been ok, although they have changed their systems a few times recently.
I think it will bring more security being within a larger company.
I don't know what ii system is like. There have been a few complaints about ii recently, I have a similar issue with Ig Group (LON:IGG) over a delisting, customer service is completely useless.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with ii from my experience. Price is good and service is decent. But I wouldn't complain if the deal meant they could spend a few ££ on sprucing up the UI, which still looks like it was built in 1998...
Overall I think II is great, whilst the user interface is a bit clunky, it is easy to use, and avoids prioritising graphics at the expense of usability. It is very good value though, particularly if you trade frequently and have large sums invested.
The biggest issue is they keep shutting down their site for 'scheduled downtime', and do so for 30hrs at a time, albit only at the weekend. As an IT professional of 20 years this makes me wonder if they are manually changing the website or backend, rather than automatically promoting a predefined package of changes from a development system. If this was every six months for a significant upgrade, that would be fair enough, but it happened last weekend and this weekend, as well as frequently in the past.
Totally agree. I really like ii for its ease of use - but every weekend recently (when I tend to analyse my portfolio) there's "planned" maintenance.
I am also fed up with ii weekend maintenance. Drives me mad! Planning to move to Freetrade. It is certainly a lot cheaper. Anyone have any experience of using Freetrade?
ii have been active in acquiring other providers so I have assumed the weekend changes are mostly to do with migrating those acquired users across to ii?
Thank you mwjackson. I believe that only applies to what they term as 'basic orders'. I guess for the likes of funds. I quote from Freetrade below:
An Instant order is a buy or sell that we execute the moment you place it.
Instant orders and basic orders are explained by freetrade as follows:
"Instant Orders will be bought and sold at the market price at the time you place the order. They are only available when the market is open.
Basic Orders will be bought and sold at the 10 AM (UK) and 3 PM (US) prices, respectively. These are only available to place when the market is closed."
