The Lemon Fool

I posted on the Brokers and Share Dealing board that PIBs were not able to be bought in Barclays SmartInvestor unlike in Barclays Stockbrokers that preceded it. I now find that retail bonds cannot be bought in SmartInvestor either. I hold several of these which have carried over from Barclays Stockbrokers but can now only sell them. Barclays made a great play about improved access to online bond trading with the change to SmartInvestor and they do list a comprehensive selection of corporate bonds for trading. What they didn't announce was the quiet dropping of PIBs and Retail Bonds. For those wishing to trade in these types of fixed interest investments this is not a welcome change.

TD/ii facilitate trading of quite a wide range, especially if one has a large portfolio. Sometimes their market maker options seem thin, but they have never yet refused me access to anything I wanted to buy.

V8

Thanks 88V8. I have no trouble trading in them with HL in my SIPP either. I have written to Barclays asking them why they do not trade in them and await a reply.

I have heard from Barclays and it is their view that these investments must be traded only when a KID is available. KIDs have not been forthcoming from the companies. I am not clear why other brokers can allow trade in these without KIDs and it sounds as though Barclays are being rather over careful. Having said that the fault lies ultimately with the whole mess that KIDs have produced.. Perhaps after Brexit we can ditch the dreadful legislation.

everhopeful wrote: I am not clear why other brokers can allow trade in these without KIDs and it sounds as though Barclays are being rather over careful.

You can buy shares in a single Company without a KID, I don't see a retail bond as a "packaged" investment like an OEIC, a unit trust, an investment trust or an ETF.

Mel and I looked at alternatives to our current iWeb ISA platform, which although choice of retail bonds is somewhat lacking, they are very cheap (we think).

£25 got us the Stocks and Shares ISA which renews itself free of charge each new ISA/tax year, and a fiver per trade online or over the phone.

Yesterday we quickly reviewed HL, AJBell, Selftrade, and II. They are all a lot more £ for a small private investor, some have phone trade charges of between £10-30, and generally higher fixed costs.

For us the best bet we think, is to stick with iWeb and continue further bond style investments by buying into Bond funds (ETF or OEIC etc.). There just seems no incentive at our level to spend a lot more on better choice when a bond fund (hopefully, we've not researched those available on iWeb yet!!) should give us a measure of diversity.

M&M