There has been a lot of coverage in the weekend press
and on the BBC Radio 4 Moneybox programme about Selftrade's
intrusive questionnaire sent to clients. Any clues or views?

Or Hargreaves Lansdown upto £1000.

Thanks for your help, appreciated

Further comment:

Here

"Selftrade wishes to announce that, following a strategic review, we have entered into exclusive discussions with the aim of transferring our customers and the Selftrade brand to Equiniti. This process is expected to conclude in Q4 2014, subject to regulatory approval.
We reviewed several offers from interested parties, having uppermost in our mind the need to closely match Selftrades values, customer pricing and service proposition and allow for a seamless transition. We already work closely with Equiniti in a number of areas, including their ongoing provision of custody services to Selftrade and are confident this will be achieved.
We are committed to making any transition as smooth as possible and, in the meantime, it is business as usual with no impact on how you access or use our services."

It gives everyone wishing to leave plenty of
time to leave, Why wait until Q4 to do so!

I think Equiniti charges are the same as Selftrade's. I do occasionally use them for a friend's account. I imagine that it is going to be a bit complicated to migrate the accounts over to Equiniti and will require a fair amount of regulatory paperwork.
Shares Mag use to occasionally run a comparison table of 'Execution only' dealers. I wonder if they still do?

Here is a comparison table :- Compare Execution Only Share Dealing

On edit - I see SAGA are in there!

Which is strange that Equiniti/ShareView isn't on the list.
Equiniti
"Buy and sell shares for just £12.50 with our standard Investment Account dealing

Perfect for anyone trading more regularly, the investment account allows you to trade shares without certificates for a flat fee of just £12.50 per trade. You can also invest in bonds, trusts and gilts."

In answer to Midknight's post above, I see all providers are charging for 'Transfers Out'. So moving your stock to another provider before the Equiniti move would incur a fee per holding (£25 per stock holding in the case of TD & A J Bell.)

Harry - I'm not trying to blow their trumpet, but HL are offering :-

Up to £1,000 cash back as a thank you when you transfer ISAs, funds, shares or pensions to Vantage by 8 May

Albeit a bit tight now!

Not very keen on this bit skinny:
"There is an annual charge to hold funds in Vantage. It is tiered within bands: 0.45% per annum on the first £250,000 of funds".

I try to go with providers which just charge a flat fee per trade. That way there are no surprises at the end of the year!

Harry, as I said - I'm not blowing their trumpet - just offering alternatives.

Btw - they do charge a flat rate fee per share trade?

Yes, £11.95 per trade but cheaper if you are a frequent trader.

Deals previous month Dealing charge
0 - 9 deals £11.95
10 - 19 deals £8.95
20 or more deals £5.95

There maybe cheaper around, but I've used them for 30 years and obviously they are now a FTSE100 company - so hopefully not transient!

Bit like Dalgety, Trafalgar House, Marconi, Hawker Siddeley, Coats Viyella, Ferranti, British & Commonwealth and Polly Peck then!!! ;o))

:-)

Of course, using Equiniti makes life a little easier for the Executors of an Estate as they are one of the two main Registrars, so should be minimal documentation to transfer stock to the beneficiaries. (Assuming we haven't spent it all by then!!)

This is about the best article I have read on the subject, Fairly detailed, too:
Here

Actually, both BestInvest and A.J.Bell also reimburse up to
£500 towards transferring holdings.

I had an account with HL as well until last month and after ten years
left them, Remaining new charges will come inro effect on 2 June.
Look at the new hidden charges and it is not funny.
I received more junk mail from HL than any other financial institution
in the UK, yet they have imposed a new £20 per year charge for
paper statements i.e. £10 plus VAT per paper statement twice a year,
which one used to get gratis. Also have a
peep at their account closing fee and imo outrageous new probate
charges. And if one sells all one's holdings and
wishes to leave, there is also a new account closing
charge. Ha! Their telephone service, once touted
as being answered after five rings is also a thing
of the past, Music has been introduced. Each to his own.
I used to like HL in the old days.

For buying unit trusts only, Chelsea Financial
Services is imo a far better outfit and transparent, too.
But they are not stockbrokers:

ChelseaFS

what about tddirectinvesting ?
any comment, please

was this a case where what is cheap is actually expensive?
surely, the cost of dealing charges is one of the least important aspects