Beware - I purchased some Regent Inn shares today which have been trading between 21 and 22p. As often happens I could not get a "deal price" online so out of frustration hit the "negotiate" key - expecting to pay slightly over the market value. I was charged 24 p per share - A massive 10% over the odds. I am taking this up as a complaint, but I thought I would ask if anyone else has had similar experiences with Halifax. In the future I think I will be changing my trading provider Can anyone recommend a trader that does not rip you off?

Your broker Halifax haven't ripped you off - though the market maker they got the quote from probably has. That having been said, you should always look at the sort of size of trades happening on any share before trading. Your trade at over 75,000 shares was far in excess of the volumes normally traded. It was executed on the Plus market which may have had something to do with the terrible price.

I trade through halifax and I'm pretty sure that they dont do plus market, as I've been after Phoenecian Corporation for some time.

Quite often the trades are routed through to dealers and then because of the time lapse between, placing your order and it getting exercised, you can find a considerable mark up. Now if I don't get the right price, I let it go.

Update - Halifax rang today having looked into my complaint - they too were not happy with the trade price I was given and renegatiated with the plus market a better price (23 p). I am now being overcharged 5% rather than 10%. Halifax blame the high price on the plus market, but surely they have a duty to check the price given is a fair market rate before they proceed with the trade.

I don't advise anyone to use the negotiate key - you may get a nastly suprise!

AST,

Good result there IMO, I think you have to give Halifax credit for meeting you halfway.

Rather than "negotiate", why not ring the dealer and do it over the phone?

That way you can agree a maximum price and he tries to achieve it.

Otherwise you may wish to try another broker.

I always have two online brokers so if one quotes a bad price I can try the other.

Phoning takes too much time...put on queue most of the time.

hlyeo98,

That depends which broker you use!

I don't have any problems normally, and a few seconds wait is surely preferable to 100 dealing loss?