Hi guys,
I am new to investing and am currently looking for a good broker with low fees.
I have come across a company called Degiro and wondered if anyone has any experience with them? They seem to have low fees in comparison with others.
Alternatively if anyone has any other suggestions they would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Hi pfcjak,
If you are new to investing then you should look at Hargreaves Lansdown, I'd say they are the best value for money in terms of running a portfolio (no annual fees etc).
Interactive Brokers is probably the best platform however, especially with their API functionality.
" I'd say they are the best value for money in terms of running a portfolio (no annual fees etc)."
Er, that's because they charge it monthly :) (On SIPP's & ISA's at least)
HL are expensive but I like their platform and support, the best.
For sheer cheapness of executing trades (unlike HL) and zero fees for holding within an ISA I also have an account with iWeb - just a fiver per trade. Cheaper than HL and my AJ Bell acc.
- dislike the iWeb platform though. AJ Bell I find tolerable, but the best platform provider IMO, is HL.
And if you are not investing inside of an ISA - why on earth not? Madness to trade outside of ISA's
Yes you might be right. I don't have a SIPPS / ISA so wouldn't know about that but I do use them for holding long term investments.
I live in the Isle of Man so pay no capital gains tax when trading. I have no need for an ISA.
Good luck.
" I live in the Isle of Man so pay no capital gains tax when trading. I have no need for an ISA."
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Ha! :)
So pleased I wasn't publicly speaking and asking the audience:
Go on, anyone - give me just one reason why you should invest outside of an ISA, You can't can you!?!
Yes I do. It's great but aimed at professional traders so avoid it unless you know what you are doing would be my advice.
Go on, anyone - give me just one reason why you should invest outside of an ISA, You can't can you!?
How about a shares based SIPP with employer matched contributions? Automatic 100% gain up to a % of salary. Tax added to contributions (deferred rather than avoided as you pay up as income when drawing down). Although no doubt this is in the sights of the Treasury, it is effectively ring-fenced and if you are unlucky enough to need to seek state aid it doesn't count as savings.
"Go on, anyone - give me just one reason why you should invest outside of an ISA, You can't can you!?!"
If you're frequently trading € or $ shares - ISA rules prevent you holding non sterling balances and the round trip fx cost is prohibitive on many platforms e.g. 1.5% each leg on ii.
Are you using their web portal? I recently signed up to a trial to see what their platform is like and it seems very clunky. I have used web brokers since 2003 (Selftrade/TD/IG) and this is the worst I have used.
Interactive brokers is used by a few of the hedge funds (mainly for the API). Their desktop software is very good, I haven't used their website version however. I mainly use it for options though and I also bought some foreign stocks through it that weren't accessible via HL.
It's mainly for professional traders so kind of dangerous for a novice, you could accidentally buy a futures contract with infinite liabilities or something:-(
Have not tried Degiro for UK is the simple answer. All UK funds holdings are in Sipps or ISA so I find AJB best for that.
I don't recommend Degiro for UK stocks particularly AIM ones. They don't offer market maker quotes so you can only do limit or market orders.
Buying has mostly been OK but I have had a lot of trouble selling particularly SETSqx stocks. You can usually only get out at the bid price and orders often take several days to get filled (in some cases it took weeks and that was with a limit price below the bid price). These were all stocks that were reasonably well traded most days.
I also tried some market orders but the quantity is restricted to a really small number (around £500-800 worth) which means it would have taken 8-9 orders to sell my holding and they restrict you to three at a time per stock. I put three in and even they took a day to be filled.
At the moment to phone them you have to ring a number in Denmark. I think normally they have a UK number but 5 months in to the pandemic they should have been able to restore normal service. Also web chat is unavailable and they have ignored some emails.
I have found other minor issues:
- Can only transfer in funds by bank transfer which takes 1-2 days.
- Discrepancy between the cash balance and account statement (only 1 or 2p but still annoying).
- Discrepancy between fees shown in the confirmation email and account statement.
- Portfolio value sometimes goes negative after a trade has been executed. It shows correctly the next day.
- If your order executes in multiple trades you get multiple email confirmations if the trades are more than a minute apart.
The only good thing I can say is that they pay interest on cash balances.
I have switched to IG and also have an ISA with iWeb but the iWeb site is quite basic and I prefer IG.
To even attempt to answer this question, you need to think about how you will use the account...
Long term investing with a relatively large account - in that case percentage fees on assets are the killer over the long term, unless capped. Some platforms have a reasonable cap on % equity fees, but a much larger cap on funds.
Long term investing with a relatively small account - fixed and percentage fees are a killer.
Short term trading - Dealing fees are the killer.
Overseas trading - FX fees can be the killer.
For my wife's and kid's accounts where I just buy funds or trusts occasionally and hardly ever sell them I use iWeb - one off £25 (from memory) setup fee, then no fixed or percentage fees, reasonable £5 dealing fee.
For my main accounts I use AJB - percentage fees on equities are capped at £30pa which is OK since I'm well above the cap now and don't buy many funds.
For my trading account I use IG - cheaper dealing than AJB if you trade 3+ times/month, but fixed custody charge kicks in if you trade < 3 times/quarter. I had to move my wife's buy&hold account from IG to iWeb when they introduced the custody charge. Cheaper FX charge than AJB or iWeb, although it has been increased a couple of times over the years so my increase further.
I get on fine with IG, iWeb and AJB. I tried Degiro and hated it - just couldn't get on with the non-quote buying and selling of UK stocks.
SIPP is more tax efficient than an ISA provided you don't need access till you are 57 (in my case). This is even more so the case if you are in the high tax bracket. £1000 in a SIPP is uplifted to £1500. There are management fees to factor in but SIPPs are the biggest legal tax loopholes any private investor can use. Hargreaves Lansdown provide a great service and you can invest in funds also.
I've been with Halifax for about ten years, and AJBell for about five. I mainly use HFX and mainly buy under their regular investment plan scheme. This costs £2, rather than the regular £12.50 and is available about once a week. They also have monthly specials when you can buy or sell for 3.95, and I often use these days to switch investments. Finally they send hard copy annual reports for free and allow investors to attend AGMs for free.
I have used four different platforms, and DeGiro is now one of my preferred. The main advantages are the range of shares available, and the low dealing fees. I have, however, had issues - and they have cost me money. As example, I tried, repeatedly, over multiple days, to purchase shares in Best Of The Best (LON:BOTB) back in February, and the orders simply would not execute. I contacted support for help, but the reply was very slow: a week or so. In the end, I gave up. The price has since quadrupled. It would have been my most successful trade ever. The other big disadvantage, I've found, is the slow deposit time: usually 2 days (all the others I've used take a matter of minutes). Setting orders is also fiddly compared to other options.
The other platform I now tend to use is Trading 212. It's very simple, and very cheap (no fees at all). However, the range of shares is very narrow compared to others - larger companies only - and ETFs and funds are even more limited.
I've also used Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell, but my trades are generally around £500, so the fees are a major put-off.
Evening,
I've generally used AJB for ISA/SIPPs but occasionally dabble in IG (although spend a disproportionate amount of time on spread bets and end up making one trade too many, and cash balance slopes downwards as a result!).
Given market conditions, coupled with more focus on the US markets, I recently became fascinated by Options Trading in the US; an interesting product which is definitely less volatile than spread bets but more complicated to understand. I signed up to De Giro which is a no frills broker hence you need to fully understand the products it offers before getting involved in same. My instinct is that it appears to be a good broker for European Stocks (noting issues above mentioned for U.K. Stocks). It also provides access to some major U.S. stocks, in respect of Warrants, but limited in U.S. equities for Options. Decent range of European Stocks however re Options. After doing more research, I narrowed it down to either IBKR or a U.S. platform known as Tasty Works. Signed up to the latter given more cost effective in relation to fees/ minimum balance requirements.
Still learning about Options Trading but if this is something of interest then TastyWorks seems to be relatively user friendly once you get up to speed on at the technical aspects (up to and including the 'Greeks'.). I read various posts in Reddit to help determine the best route to (attempt to) trade in U.S. Equity Options.
Good luck in the markets !
Best
Spl183
For short term trading I have been using IG with an ISA. Advantage with IG is you can see a limited version of level 2 and place UK share orders on the quote ladder. This can be very useful when dealing with small caps with large spreads.
For long term SIPP holds I use HL as they have a wide range of ETFs as well as stocks. But, if you hold funds versus shares HL have some extra holding charges, beware. Also, when buying small caps HL put all orders through the market marker quote network, which means you pay the extremes of the spread and if the share price is moving quickly often you don't get filled. Not an issue of large caps but small caps can be a pain, IG is better in this regard.
For active US share trading I use IG spread bet platform, as the spreads are narrow enough on large caps and no fx fee to pay. Also capital gains tax free. But, they do charge an overnight funding cost if you hold a position across to the next day.
I also have an IB account which I can cheaply bulk fund with USD and then buy US stocks from these funds, thus avoiding the fx charges applied from UK platforms. I find IB excellent in terms of execution and access to the quote ladder. If you are trading US stocks, this is an option although IB are not in a tax-free wrapper.
In terms of fees, if you are trading over a certain size a few £ saved on the trade fee is not going to matter compared to the quality of the execution, unless you are day-trading and scalping thin margins, although even here you need the best real time execution regardless.
