Despite trading most days we still go through the telephone broker - at great cost. Can anyone shed any light on the multitude of online brokers with low commission charges - seeing some of the offers we could save a few thousand (tens)a year. I se lots of adds and promises but always worry as to the safety and efficiency.

Any help greatly appreciated

Minx

I trade (& invest) both for myself & an investment club.

I have the same set up for both. All long term shares are held in an account with http://www.comdirect.co.uk/ which costs 12.50 a deal. The accounts has lots of facilities and I find it easy to use.

The short/medium term shares are held in a account with http://www.hoodlessbrennan.com/index1.htm and they charge a fixed 7.00 a deal (I must admit they also gave me 1 months free dealing, which I used to maximum effect, doing deals I would not normally have bothered with!) The facilities on this account are increasing all the time, and is easy to use.

And then I have a CFD account with D4F, which I pay no dealing charges, but has it's draw backs. I use it really to try different things, and to learn, without wiping myself out(at least that's what I tell myself!)

i use halifax website but find it rubbish. Now thinking of going elsewhere as cannot but shares online sometimes even for paltry 2000. And they hike up the share price. Some of the smaller shares you can be charged up to 15% more than current share price.

Both Comdirect and HoodlessBrennan will try and give me a better price than quoted (and both have occassionally surprised me with a price I cannot refuse)! Both do stop losses, rising buys and limit orders, which is very useful and I have managed to "catch" prices that the shares have only traded at for fractions of seconds.

I had to ask Comdirect to register me for corporate actions which they confirmed they have, although I still have not seen anything yet. But HoodlessBrennan have my account number registered so I automatically get stuff posted to me, without asking for it, which is useful.

I've never had to ring comdirect to purchase shares, but I have HoodlessBrennan occassionally, but they have always been very helpful. The only complaint I have is that if I transfer cash from the Comdirect account to my bank account, it arrives on the 5th working day. (D4F always takes 3 working days!)

I don't remember having to put a minimum amount of money on either the comdirect or HB account. I had to give D4F 2,000 to open the account. It didn't stay very long, as once it was open, they didn't seem to mind that I transfered most of it back, and just left what I wanted to play with and was prepared to lose! In fact at one point I transfered all of it out and didn't use the account for a couple of months. Then just put a small amount on it to start playing again.........

Little woman - thanks very much for the help / info, also fundamentalist and for the warning scotinvestor. I shall explore the sites and see if I can cut back my costs, As well as saving costs I won't be concentrating too much trying to get closing deals as at present which is a bit restrictive.

thanks again
Minx

Very interesting responses, I have also posed a similiar question on the
traders thread today - didn't see this post until the deed was done!
Minx - you may want to check the online facilities the broker you
currently use via the phone has, as this may make the ID stuff easier
as they will already 'know' you & it could speed things up -
I am in the process of checking this out
myself as well as shopping around for an online broker.

I also have a D4F a/c and use TDW for share trades. Trouble with D4F is they limit you to FTSE 350 stocks. Are there any CfD brokers who cover smaller companies?

tried my broker but they don't guarantee prces and it relies on a broker picking up the order ??

thanks

You could try my firms e/o team, PA Dealing, at www.fyshe-group.co.uk/padealing

I genuinely wouldn't recomend them if I didn't think them any good and I make nothing from their business.

I apologise in advance if I appear to be a rampant self publicist.

i use imiweb, it charges flat rate 10 pound, but some active share, they normally cannot trade at once, like i try to buy AFG today before it rise they won`t let you trade, but after it rise they let you trade it. So i need to pay more if i want to buy it. And also in the busy time (8:00 and 4:30) they seemed serve busy and won`t let you trade at once at that time. I am not sure is any ppl using imi have this problem????

Minx

Try www.etrade.co.uk - 9.95 per side, direct access if you're into it, online limit & stop orders, if done orders, charts etc etc. Friendly, efficient service. I've used them since about August & have no complaints. They do equities, cfd's futs, currencies and most other major markets. Just watch out for the financing charges!