SIPP providers

30th May '22 by gmtrader

13 comments 753 reads

I need to transfer my sipp from Iweb as I can not trade with Iweb outside of LSE.

Iweb has been good for me especially with the low cost charge of £5 per trade. They have a quarterly charge of £22.50 on accounts less than £50000 and £45 per quarter on accounts with greater than £50000.

I am leaning towards Interactive Investor as they seem to be cheaper than other providers with a trade charge of £7.99 and a monthly fee of £12.99. The monthly fee works out cheaper for larger accounts from about £35000.

The other option for me could be Hargreaves and Lansdown that charge £12.95 per trade and 0.45% per year on value of account. This works out cheaper on smaller accounts of £40000 or less but more expensive on accounts with higher than £40000.

So I would like to ask what providers other investors use and how do you like your provider, in particular Interactive Investor compared to Hargreaves and Lansdown.

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Roodini

30th May '22

if you trade any over seas shares then also consider Interactive Brokers as they dont charge huge FX fees. HL, ii etc charging 1.5% each way in currency exchange fees.

Also most UK brokers will not accept limit orders to buy/sell on USA shares which means you are at their mercy and they fleece you both on the spread and on the FX rates.

IB Web version is just as easy to use but they have a desktop client which is more powerful but will take some time to learn to use.

KevinS1

I use HL. Its probably slightly more expensive than other providers on dealing fees - sliding scale from something like £11.95 dropping to nearer £5 if you do a bigger volume each month.

I think the SIPP fee is capped at £200 pa - this would tie in with what I see as a monthly charge on my account. I think this is reasonable.

I like the interface and it is very easy to deal, link portfolios (wife's ISA & SIPP all traded under 1-account) and down time on the system is very rare (if ever).

They are very expensive if you use Unit-Trusts, but for IT's and shares I find them reasonable and they have a good breadth of shares from overseas also available. Moving into drawdown is also free and this will be an obvious advantage for me in the not too distant future.

Their platform is pretty good and the only time I've had issues was in March 2020, but I suspect that all sites had issues then - plus if I have ever needed to I have always had telephone calls answered in seconds and trades done verbally - it costs more (I think about £25) but if you have been needing to place a deal well over the standard market size its quicker and easier than paying 5 or 6 lots of commission online and potentially watching the price drop each time - I appreciate the bid-offer might be lower on larger traches outside the normal market size but it has worked for me.

If I was starting from scratch I might consider someone like II, but I've been with HL for a long time and it is too much trouble trying to move. I appreciate it sounds like (recent market commentary on their results & Capex plans) they need to invest more in their platform, (and you would hope II's is more modern) but I haven't had any reason to change yet, but never say never.

gmtrader

Cheers for your reply Kevin. I think you are wrong though about the account charge being capped at £200. I can’t see anything about that cap and it does say 0.45% charge upto to £250k and then a 0.1% charge from £250k to a million.

welwichia

https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/...

has this:

"Shares

Including UK and overseas shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, VCTs, gilts and bonds.

0.45%

capped at £200 per year "

cheers

Rusty2

HL charge 1% forex fee and have done for some time now: https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/sh...

That is for funds. Except the 0.1% is for £1m-2m.

I have have a small SIPP with HL but I consider them expensive. If you have an ISA with them you should consider where you hold funds. Their dealing charges are high especially for foreign stocks.

doug2500

Charles Stanley Direct can be very good value for money IF you meet certain criteria AND it suits you. And I would class them as an above average broker. I couldn't comment on foreign holdings though.

Over £30K held with them in total to avoid annual SIPP fee.

Trade once a month in any account for £11.50 to avoid monthly fee.

Don't hold funds to avoid monthly fee.

This scenario would see you pay a total of £0 for a SIPP, just your trading charges.

It can be cheaper to reinvest a handful of dividends than pay the monthly fee, and you're doing pound cost averaging, especially in a SIPP where you may be contributing monthly anyway.

https://assets-live.charles-st...

https://www.interactivebrokers...

Interactive Brokers don't support SIPPs directly.

PLS1nve5t

4th Jun '22

Agree - funds are very expensive with Hargreaves (barge pole territory), but there are many equivalent alternative ETF's that do not attract the additional charges. My SIPP would cost a fortune if I held funds with them, but concentrating on ETF's and IT's mean I only pay the £200 per year.

d024912

For my SIPP, I used Freetrade. Monthly Cost is £9.99 (for a standard account) with Freetrade plus its £16.99. (https://freetrade.io/pension/s...)But that's it. Buying and selling shares are free and FX charges are .45%. However Freetrade compared to H&L definitely has a smaller range of shares and funds (UK and international) compared to HL but it suits my limited needs (for my SIPP - I'm a conservative investor, large cap or funds).

It's really designed for a mobile phone even though they have just introduced a web interface. Compared to HL it doesn't have has the same level of functionality.

Roady

6th Jun '22

I've been looking at a few brokers for a SIPP, IG are currently reviewing their provider so it's on hold. atsipp.co.uk will administer an Interactive Brokers (IBKR) SIPP - I got a quote ... "SOLO SIPP costs £170 to set up and £309pa to administer (subject to vat)". I spoke to Ross there and they require a minimum of £35K to establish the SIPP. IBKR portfolio reporting isn't great either, but I've been using Sharesight which I find very good, that integrates with IBKR.

Jleavett

8th Jun '22

interactive investor I'd say. I moved from AJ BELL and havent looked back. If you trade a lot its worth paying the £19.99 monthly fee and then its only £3.99 a trade.

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Gmtrader

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