Stock And Share ISA's

[Bumfluff]

I have a cash ISA at the moment but I want to use up the additional £4k I can have in stock and shares ISA as well for this year.

Ive not had a stock and share ISA before I understand how they work but just wondered should I be able to login on to the ISA providers site and see my ISA's current position there and then ? Any recommendations.

[Ardesco]

Not looked at it for a few years now, but I made a tidy sum on fidelity's special situation fund a few years back.

I wouldn't advise you to put your money in it right now (as it was one of the riskier funds) however fidelity seem to have a decent range of funds and are definetly worth a look.

[GreenerGrass]

I have a cash ISA at the moment but I want to use up the additional £4k I can have in stock and shares ISA as well for this year.

Ive not had a stock and share ISA before I understand how they work but just wondered should I be able to login on to the ISA providers site and see my ISA's current position there and then ? Any recommendations.

I use Interactive Investor, its a fund supermarket now run/owned by Halifax.
http://www.iii.co.uk

Ask them to open you a Stocks and Shares Mini ISA account.

You can track all your funds, from current and previous years, on the same page with prices updated daily.
Huge choice of funds, with big discounts on the "official" fund purchase charges.
Most IFAs will advise you start with something like a FTSE Tracker fund.
While OK in a bull market things are going to be volatile this coming year, so you're probably better off with something mega cautious/defensive (have a search for JPM Cautious Total Return).
As your total pot grows over time you'll be able to spread or "de-worsify" into maybe 5 or 6 funds. Last years big winners don't always repeat their performance, so be wary of bunging it all into China.
Going forward in a volatile market its best to drip feed monthly payments in to take advantage of "pound-cost-averaging", although you're a bit limited for the 07/08 tax year.

Also check out http://www.moneyweek.com/ before diving into any riskier funds, they're a bearish lot, but come out with some decent advice (i.e. gold, oil and alternative energy funds) on what to go for, and avoid.

[dude69]

I have a cash ISA at the moment but I want to use up the additional £4k I can have in stock and shares ISA as well for this year.

Ive not had a stock and share ISA before I understand how they work but just wondered should I be able to login on to the ISA providers site and see my ISA's current position there and then ? Any recommendations.

www.h-l.co.uk

The End

[minstrel]

I have a cash ISA at the moment but I want to use up the additional £4k I can have in stock and shares ISA as well for this year.

Ive not had a stock and share ISA before I understand how they work but just wondered should I be able to login on to the ISA providers site and see my ISA's current position there and then ? Any recommendations.

Cheapest I've found is using Fidelity but going via Cavendish Online as the IFA.

You get refunds on renewal commission if you go via Cavendish rather than direct to Fidelity.

You can monitor everything online.

[dude69]

Cheapest I've found is using Fidelity but going via Cavendish Online as the IFA.

You get refunds on renewal commission if you go via Cavendish rather than direct to Fidelity.

You can monitor everything online.

The costs are very similar or less with Hargreaves Lansdown unless you have six figures and up in there, and it is much nicer to work with (I also have my SIPP, which is funded by my employer (my company) with them).

www.h-l.co.uk

[2uk]

I have a cash ISA at the moment but I want to use up the additional £4k I can have in stock and shares ISA as well for this year.

Ive not had a stock and share ISA before I understand how they work but just wondered should I be able to login on to the ISA providers site and see my ISA's current position there and then ? Any recommendations.

Do you get charged by your ISA provider when you move money in or out the ISA ?

[thunderlizard]

Trustnet's website shows the current prices of lots of funds:
http://www.trustnet.co.uk/it/funds/perf.aspx

[minstrel]

The costs are very similar or less with Hargreaves Lansdown unless you have six figures and up in there, and it is much nicer to work with (I also have my SIPP, which is funded by my employer (my company) with them).

www.h-l.co.uk

I agree they're pretty similar and Hargreaves Lansdown are very good.

Depends on which funds you invest in and how long you keep them for, but you don't need six figure investments for Fidelity to be marginly cheaper (when I did the figures - maybe it has changed recently).

I actually use Hargreaves Lansdown for my SIPP and Fidelity for ISAs so all my eggs aren't in the same basket.

[moorfield]

I actually use Hargreaves Lansdown for my SIPP and Fidelity for ISAs so all my eggs aren't in the same basket.

Ditto. And the Fidelity site also has some handy analysis tools and I can use it to link Mrs Moorfields account to mine to see our combined ISA pot.