Try HSBC - it's about £15 to trade into an isa and that's it; no other fees.

I have a stocks & shares mini-ISA through Alliance Trust Savings. Their transaction charges are modest, particularly if you trade their Investment Trust, and there is no annual charge. It suits me, browse their website and see what you think.

What is best is to go to a discounted broker like moneyworld-ifa. These will invest funds throughthe funds network run by Fidelity.

The fees are 0.5% to 1% or £5 to £10 per £1000

You can then select from 1000s of funds. Invest by lump sum or regular payments. A lot cheaper than the other 2 replies I can see and they obviously aren't financially aware.

Banks are the most expensive route. An easy starter is a tracker like Fidelity UK Index

Hope that helps. Any more info and I will respond.

Obviously some firms like Fidelity, Gartmore etc are more established but it is upto you.

Please explain to the "financially unaware" how £5 to £10 per £1000 is "a lot cheaper" than £2.50 to £7.50 per transaction, see http://www.alliancetrust.co.uk/isa_charges.htm, with no setup or annual charges

Because financially unaware, he is clearly not talking about investing lump sums.

The user clearly gave options as in tracker isa no charges or managed funds £10 per £1000. He was not talking about shares he was talking about managed funds.

If he trades managed funds, it is the fund manager who charges intial charges of upto 5% and through discount brokers this is about 1% or £10 per £1000 so this would cost £at least £12.50 £17.50 per trade and on say £250 per month or £3000 a year you could under your plan say pay 12 x 50p + 12 x say £7.50 £96 altogether or pay 1% of £3000 which is £30 under the other user. Hmm, I know which one I'd go for, some people are dumb and you clearly are one of them!

Because financially unaware, he is clearly not talking about investing lump sums.

The user clearly gave options as in tracker isa no charges or managed funds £10 per £1000. He was not talking about shares he was talking about managed funds.

If he trades managed funds, it is the fund manager who charges intial charges of upto 5% and through discount brokers this is about 1% or £10 per £1000 so this would cost £at least £12.50 £17.50 per trade and on say £250 per month or £3000 a year you could under your plan say pay 12 x 50p + 12 x say £7.50 £96 altogether or pay 1% of £3000 which is £30 under the other user. Hmm, I know which one I'd go for, some people are dumb and you clearly are one of them!

MY GOD £7.50 PLUS 0.2% DEALING. SO FOR £3000 OR 360 A WEEK = 60 X £7.50 PLUS 0.2% COMMISSION THAT IS £510 FOR £3000!!!

I WOULD SAY A TRACKER ISA AT £0 OR DISCOUNTED ISA AT 1% OR £30 IS CHEAPER!

IF A LUMP SUM OF £3-4000 IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING, A SELF SELECT ISA FROM SAY A BANK AT 315 IS THE ONLY TIME IT REPRESENTS VALUE AS LONG AS THERE IS NO COMMISSION.

CLEARLY YOU DID NOT READ AND NOW CAN YOU TELL ME HOW £510 IS CHEAPER THAN £0 OR £30????

CLEARLY THERE ARE A LOT MORE FINANCIALLY UNAWARE PEOPLE THAN I THOUGHT, DON'T FORGET, I WORK IN THE FIELD!

SEE BELOW FOR WHAT GEOFFIR THOUGH WAS "£7.50" NOT REALISING IT IS FOR A WEEKLY TRADE

We think it's fair that you only pay a fee on your ISA when you make a transaction, so we don't make an annual plan charge and there are no account set-up fees. Our charge for a weekly purchase is just £7.50 plus 0.2% dealing commission. Customers who'd like to purchase same day (please note that purchases of OEICs and Unit Trusts are made the following day) pay just £15.00 plus 0.2% dealing commission. The 0.2% dealing commission charge is not made on OEIC, unit trust and Alliance Trust PLC transactions.

MY GOD £7.50 PLUS 0.2% DEALING. SO FOR £3000 OR £60 A WEEK = 60 X £7.50 PLUS 0.2% COMMISSION THAT IS £510 FOR £3000!!!

I WOULD SAY A TRACKER ISA AT £0 OR DISCOUNTED ISA AT 1% OR £30 IS CHEAPER!

IF A LUMP SUM OF £3-4000 IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING, A SELF SELECT ISA FROM SAY A BANK AT 315 IS THE ONLY TIME IT REPRESENTS VALUE AS LONG AS THERE IS NO COMMISSION.

CLEARLY YOU DID NOT READ AND NOW CAN YOU TELL ME HOW £510 IS CHEAPER THAN £0 OR £30????

CLEARLY THERE ARE A LOT MORE FINANCIALLY UNAWARE PEOPLE THAN I THOUGHT, DON'T FORGET, I WORK IN THE FIELD!

SEE BELOW FOR WHAT GEOFFIR THOUGH WAS "£7.50" NOT REALISING IT IS FOR A WEEKLY TRADE

We think it's fair that you only pay a fee on your ISA when you make a transaction, so we don't make an annual plan charge and there are no account set-up fees. Our charge for a weekly purchase is just £7.50 plus 0.2% dealing commission. Customers who'd like to purchase same day (please note that purchases of OEICs and Unit Trusts are made the following day) pay just £15.00 plus 0.2% dealing commission. The 0.2% dealing commission charge is not made on OEIC, unit trust and Alliance Trust PLC transactions.

I find Fidelity to be excellent and their discounted rates are good. If you look on their Funds Supermarket you will find some ready made managed ISAs that are will give you a good balance between risk and reward. After trying my own selections through individual shares I find that over the longer term, my managed accounts fare much better than "do it yourself".

I use iDealing who provide an on-line execute only service at £9.50 per trade (any size) and £5 per quarter admin (irrespective of portfolio value), allowing trade within an ISA wrapper with stocks held through their nominee account.

Hope this helps

mb

Hi
I had mini ISAs but cashed them in due to the very high charges. I had invested in the same companies in an ISA and direct. The non ISA did better. The charges on the ISA outweighed any tax benefit!! I also found them very restrictive. If you wanted to reinvest dividends in a different share the amounts involved were too small and due to the annual limit you could not add any more cash.
Have a look at the Halifax Share Builder Account (This can be ISA or Non ISA) I have found it very easy to use fairly cheap and very easy to deal on the internet.

Hi,

Thank you all for your insights. They provide some good starting points from which I'll do some more investigating.

Interestingly, a co-worker here in Yorkshire gave me eerily similar advice to that of solentwarrior. He said a friend of his gave up on ISAs entirely because the fees offset the tax benefits and also recommended Halifax as a broker.

I will have to run the numbers on predicted return on a full £4000 vs. costs vs. tax savings at my tax bracket. I'm guessing the outcome will also depend on how widely I choose to spread the £4000. For me, a single index tracking fund or balanced fund or fund-of-funds would suffice so my trading costs at least should be low. I'm sure the outcome could be different for everyone depending on how much they invest, their tax bracket, and how they want to invest, and who they invest through.

Regards,
-Ty

Try and look at Hargreaves Lansdown or www.H-L.co.uk
Thay have been ideal for me

hi gauchoty, what did you go for in the end?

i saw you message on yahoo finance and thought it was ver informative. i was wondering if you would know anything about obtaining finance in usa based on ones uk based credit history and assets.

thanks.