Selftrade
Service and charges for this UK stockbroker have remained largely unaltered since its former parent company Boursorama sold the business to Equiniti in 2014. However, Equiniti’s pledge not to raise fees for at least a year expires in early 2015, so potential clients should be aware that changes could happen soon.
One confusing exception to this is currency conversion rates for international trades. In the past, trades with Selftrade in overseas stocks were placed via UK-based market makers, such as Winterflood Securities. With this kind of dealing arrangement, the market maker sets the exchange rate at which the foreign currency share price is converted to sterling and either retains all of the mark-up or shares some with the broker.
Under Selftrade’s old charging scheme, the mark-up on the currency was up to 1.25% and Selftrade received up to 65% of this back from the market maker in commission. That’s now been ditched and Selftrade’s charges no longer specify a fixed currency commission. Users have recently reported receiving varying mark-ups relative to wholesale rates, but generally these do not appear to be particularly competitive compared to firms such as Interactive Brokers, IG, Saxo Capital Markets, iDealing or AJ Bell Youinvest, where markets vary between almost nothing and 1%.
Overall, there’s little reason to consider Selftrade for buying international shares alone. It remains a reasonably well-rounded offering for UK share dealing, with a few potentially useful features such as commission-free purchases for funds, but is by no means the cheapest among UK discount brokers.
| Online trading | Belgium, Canada, France, Germany - Frankfurt, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA |
| Telephone trading | As above |
| Typical online | £6-12.5 |
| Online details | 1-100 deals per quarter £12.50, 101+ deals per quarter £6 |
| Typical telephone | £17.5-40 |
| Telephone details | Trades under £2,500 £17.5, trades £2,500-100,000 £40 |
| Account fees and inactivity fees | Quarterly inactivity fee of £10.5 (£8.75+VAT) |
| Custody charges for stocks | None |
| Dividend charges | None |
| Corporate action charges | None |
| Currency conversion charges | Not clear - readers report varying rates |
| Hold cash in foreign currencies | No |
| Currencies allowed | GBP |
| Tax-advantaged accounts | ISA (covered by regular account inactivity fee), SIPP (administration fee of £99+VAT per year) |
| Other products and services | Bonds, CFDs, spreadbetting |
| Minimum account size | None |
| Company location | UK |
| Further information | Visit the Selftrade website |
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