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?

Thanks juan. That worked for me too. Now for the 3 rules . 1.Do not lose money. 2.Do not lose money. 3.Do not lose money.

I managed to access my personal account, but can't access the investment club (which I am in the process of closing anyhow) account which is blocked.

Tried twice yesterday to get through, but had to give up on both occasions. I also completed a contact us form (no response), and now I have sent an email via the account I can access.

Nightmare.

After being on hold for 20 minutes, I thought I should try option 1 - to place a trade instead of option 3, customer services, but I just hear the same awful music.... I wonder if this is going to be any quicker?

That worked, 10 minutes to talk to someone, who sounded soooooo sad, but she dealt with unblocking the account straight away. Fantastic.

I stopped trading US equities with selftrade as the W8Ben form they kept on sending me back. I'm waiting for it to calm down and will then transfer my ISA and my sons Trust elsewhere. I was thinking of going to TD Waterhouse or TD Investing as their known in the UK.

Well I'm locked out and customer services now say I've got to verify who I am before the account can be unlocked, this means new Id submission in the form of verified copies of passport, utility bill and bank details. Not at all happy now....

I accept what has been said about teething problems, but this is not
the sort of business in which there should be such problems at any time
or on an ongoing basis. Similarly, deadlines about so many things
relating to the merger and the launch of the new venture kept changing.
It just does not inspire confidence. My transfer out took about 10 weeks
and the residual cash was transferred out only yesterday.

And of course, the worse the story you all tell of your crappy adventures, the bigger the stampede and the more massive the queue, the more pissed off the staff become, the greater the delays, etc, etc.

I'm glad I don't trade with Selftrade. I wish to best of luck to all of you on here who are trying to extract yourself from them.

Paultrad: What were the events which led up to you getting 'locked out'?

That generally happens with most financial web sites when you try your username/password incorrectly, say three times on the trot.
If that was the case, then the member of staff who is telling you to resubmit all of your ID stuff again, is surely just being damn awkward.

Selftrade explicitly said on their website that those members who had not completed the personal details questionnaire sent out a while ago, would be locked out until they have presented them to the new Equiniti team. I know it's frustrating, but it was careful in pointing this out. This particular form was to verify your identity and to update your personal details.......not the form which asked ridiculously intrusive details about your wealth and investing habits.

I didn't fill in the form and thankfully, I'm not locked out. I try to be real careful in putting my details on the site to log on. It's easy to make a mistake.

If they lock me out at this time, it will be a disaster.

Some bizarre tales and experiences here.

I can't withdraw anything now. They wont allow it although they will allow me to fund the account.

Why not?

First they wanted me to prove it was my bank account that was on their screen which I've always had, so I've done this and they sent me a message saying that's ok. So I go to withdraw and it wont let me saying "source of funds" or something like.
Just kept on the phone line and can't get through and my messages not answered.

Have a look at the link in post 92 above.
I just had a look there, and there are more
similar stories there.
I have now closed all my accounts and everything
is running so smoothly that I wish I had done so years ago.
It is really only after moving that I have realised fully what I was missing.
One of the best investment decisions I have made so far this year.

Where did you move to?
I can't get anything out.

IWeb - their service is an eye-opener
after having been with ST for more than a decade.

Thanks midnight.

They've sorted it out at their end now. Wasn't a nice position to be in though.

I note that IWeb are increasing their initial account opening registration fee for
new customers from £25 to £200 from March 16th. I am quite pleased with
what they offer. They did get a lot of customers from Selftrade, including me.
Well worth the move for me. And worthwhile savings if one trades regularly.

Pay to put business their way???? You have got to be kidding!?