squaregain

Advantages: Cheap products, easy to invest in, good dividend yield, unlike shares in a company will never go bust
Disadvantages: Index concentrated in 10 companies meaning more risk, not for ethical investors, sensitive to oil prices

...throughout the day like a share in a real company. For this reason ETF's are a much more flexible way to invest in the FTSE 100 than unit trusts/OEICS. If you want to buy shares in an ETF you need to have a stockbroker, preferably an online broker like Squaregain (formerly known as Comdirect). I use Squaregain and I can highly recommend them. ETF's are more of a traders tool, I don't think they are suitable for someone who wants to save between £50 to £200 a month as the dealing costs would have more of an impact on your investment. The minimum I personally invest in ETF's with every trade is £500, but I think you can go as low as £250 without dealing costs having too much of an impact. ETF's are relatively new to the UK; the first ETF the iFTSE 100 was launched in the year 2000. The company responsible for ETF's in the UK is Barclays Global... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: easy to use site, prompt service, very helpfull call centre
Disadvantages: changed name to squaregain

.... The homepage has five main sub menus. From where you enter your account. The next lists services available, here you can download a fact sheet showing services and charges. The third is "market focus" this is a very usefull resource centre where you can set up watchlists , draw graphs, and get company and fund information. The fourth is news , both rns and afx services And the last is an education centre very useful for new users. Squaregain has, like many others, a flat charge for all deals on all uk stocks and international stocks in 18 markets. At £12.50 it is not the cheapest or most expensive, but is one of the more visable companies when it comes to hidden charges, most of which apply to PEP/ISA accounts. In fact there are no charges for dividend collection, no annual or inactivity fees. One feature I particularly like is no dealing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great service
Disadvantages: No longer trading

...Like most of your other reviewers I was always happy with the services provided by Comdirect but they no longer exist! I don't know exact dates but it must be at least 2 years ago when they became Squaregain and then were subsequently subsumed into Selftrade. Since moving to Selftrade services have continued much along the same lines although I have noticed a drop in standards when it comes to doing anything that is slightly out of the ordinary. For example I recently had to transfer some stock into my Dealing account from France and the transaction took 8 weeks to complete. Although many of the problems eminated from the transferring broker, it proved very difficult to get anyone in Selftrade to own the problem. I will cover these points in a separate review for Selftrade. Meanwhile it is misleading keeping this Comdirect entry in your... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful