Hi. I like to read actual opinions on Ciao rather than straight narratives of what the product does....
Hi. I like to read actual opinions on Ciao rather than straight narratives of what the product does. This will be reflected in my ratings.
Member since:04.02.2001
Reviews:40
Members who trust:8
Barclays were I believe the first High Street Bank to roll out a broking service that was open to everyone. I joined in late 1998 just when they were rolling out their Internet dealing service and so have little experience of dealing over the phone. Over teh last 3 years the prices haven’t changed at all. As far a straightforward dealing goes its £19.99 or 2% per deal (whichever is the greater) over the phone and 11.99 or 1% over the Internet. Don’t forget to add stamp duty in there too. There’s also a maximum commission of £39.99 should you be anyone lucky enough to be able to wax that amount of money.
The Internet dealing take a while to set up. Along with filling in all the standard forms you will have to install a digital certificate. Exactly what this is I don’t know but you can’t use your account without it. I like to think of it as a key that is on a disc. Bear in mind that you will only be able to trade on computers on which the digital certificate is installed. So, if you want to trade from other computers apart from your one at home, you will have to install it on them and then maybe uninstall it for piece of mind. Certificates are valid for 2 years at which point you are instructed to download a new one so make sure you
keep your email address up to date with them.
Despite being more troublesome than a simple username and password system Barclays seem to think this is the most secure way to run a trading account. I’d agree with them too as I could have a far go at hacking someone’s password but wouldn’t have a clue where to start with a digital certificate.
As a Mac user I found the actual website only works in Netscape 4.08. Although some of the terms used may be unfamiliar to those new to stocks certain functions such as the ability of being able to enter a cash or number of shares amount as to how much you want to trade is welcomed. You are also given the option to include or add on commission to this amount. From then you are given a price and given 15 seconds to accept it. Trade done. I found most of the time it worked. On about three occasions (when switching, see below) nothing happened but this was very quickly sorted out with a call to customer services.
Along with that the site offers you fundamental information on UK listed shares Barclays offer two types of accounts a plain sharedeal account where you are sent the certificates to keep yourself and a sharedeal plus where your shares are held online in a nominee account. For the former you pay nothing apart from dealing fees and stamp duty but can only sell your shares once you have received the certificate and that can be anything between three days and three weeks to arrive. You will personally receive correspondence, invitations to AGMs and annual reports from the company you have invested in. Finally, as you hold the certificate, you are free to sell the shares with any broker not just Barclays. Funds are credited/debited from a nominated bank account and dividends are dealt with by the company itself, normally they send you a cheque.
The nominee account means that you can sell the shares immediately after you bought them as they are held online. It also calculates your portfolio value for you but you do pay a quarterly free of £25 if you do not trade. One neat thing is the switching function where you immediately buy new shares with the proceeds from sold ones. The sale is commission free provided you re-invest 75% of the total proceeds from it. Again all the different options of how much you want to re-invest and whether you want commission included are available online.
In both cases you are sent paper contract notes for your and the taxman’s reference.
Essentially sharedeal is for those who want to buy shares for the longer term whereas sharedeal plus is more suited for those who like to trade on a day to day basis. Whilst I enjoyed the switching function I didn’t find myself trading often enough and so closed my account and opened one with selftrade (who don’t charge the quarterly fee) transferring all my current stocks over. Right at the last minute when it was too late to make amends Barclays decided to charge me 37.50 for transferring the three stocks I held. It is unfortunately part of their terms and conditions but the fact remains that I was not warned of this charge until I had to pay it.
Apart from that Barclays aren’t aching to charge you for errors you make. I’ve missed direct debt payments and they’ve simply collected the week after (the bank did charge me though). I’ve also traded without a certificate. As I had bought the shares through them I simply sent the contract note to them with a note saying that they were expecting my certificate.
Price improver is a service offered that I myself am rather sceptical about. Barclays claim to be able to occasionally offer better prices than the London Stock Exchange so when you deal you will sometimes get a message saying. "The stock was dealt at x pence below the price quoted on the London Stock Exchange, Barclays price improver saved/gained you £x.xxp on this deal. The amount that it claims to have saved you can vary widely, on deals of around £1200 I have saved anything between 30p and £5.
I’m not going to say anything about dealing strategies as the philosophy on them changes all the time (most probably because there is no strategy that is clearly better). A simple point to make though is that brokers want you to deal as that is how they make their money. This is why Barclays now have a club which sends you details of what stocks they think you should buy along with a newsletter that gives details of ‘attractive’ stocks. When you think about it paying a broker to execute a trade is much like paying a shop keeper for telling you the price of something and then running it though the till. Anything above £2 I reckon is an absolute rip off which is why I will give all brokers a poor value for money rating!
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I use comdirect as my Stockbrokers, they provide an excellent online service, no inactivity charges and good summaries and research into specific stocks.
mbmb11 12.10.2001 13:06
an excellent and informative op - cheers!
Mel x
Elainebaba 12.10.2001 12:52
This is interesting. I was fortunate, that I had a good broker, the price was very reasonable. (that's because the firm did it on our behalf)
Thanks for the warnings.
Avril
Oct 12th, 2001
(Oct 16th, 2001)
very helpful by (100%):
