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Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

Financial discussion for any financial queries for Expats
Lootman
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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#32564

Postby Lootman » February 18th, 2017, 3:46 am

TahiPanas wrote:Despite knowledge and acceptance of these provisions, we were turned down by HSBC InvestDirect and Vanguard (for a £100k min account). The latter were, surprisingly close to being rude when refusing to explain the reasons why.

Faced with that kind of abuse, I would not have the slightest compuction about lying to them, giving them a perfunctory UK address for mail purposes, and otherwise giving them a figurative couple of fingers.

Where you live is none of their damn business. They just need a postal address,

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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#32597

Postby TahiPanas » February 18th, 2017, 10:27 am

Lootman wrote:
TahiPanas wrote:Despite knowledge and acceptance of these provisions, we were turned down by HSBC InvestDirect and Vanguard (for a £100k min account). The latter were, surprisingly close to being rude when refusing to explain the reasons why.

Faced with that kind of abuse, I would not have the slightest compuction about lying to them, giving them a perfunctory UK address for mail purposes, and otherwise giving them a figurative couple of fingers.

Where you live is none of their damn business. They just need a postal address,


Hi Loot! Couldn't agree more! It's a tad hard, however, to go back and lie after having been already turned down in writing.

I will make an honest man of myself by waiting until April when I will be physically and legally resident. Thinking back, however, I should simply have given my UK address. Like most people on this board, I'm not a money launderer or up to anything devious as far as UK dealers are concerned.

Lootman
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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#32629

Postby Lootman » February 18th, 2017, 1:49 pm

TahiPanas wrote:Thinking back, however, I should simply have given my UK address. Like most people on this board, I'm not a money launderer or up to anything devious as far as UK dealers are concerned.

A reasonable rule of thumb is that any person or entity who is asking where you live, as opposed to asking for a mailing address, is up to no good. Those whom you do business with are entitled to an address for postal purposes and that is it. It's not like they are going to pay you a visit.

I can think of a couple of exceptions. If you have an insurance policy, it might prejudice a claim if you pretended to be living somewhere that you were not. Certainly for building and contents insurance, and motor policies are priced partly by postcode. If you want to vote then you need an address in the location where you wish to vote. But that's about it, as far as I can think.

It's also a hassle to keep changing your address, and it can ding your credit score. I once lived in 5 different places in a 2 year period, and it was really useful to not have to keep changing address with all my accounts, cards etc.

Most cities have an offices services business, where they will receive and forward post, accept deliveries and provide a voicemail address. Useful for those whose work means that they are often moving about, and/or who rent out their home when away.

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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#79555

Postby bjmarren » September 6th, 2017, 6:20 pm

Hi All and "tieresais in particular as he started this thread last December.

I'm coming late to this thread but it is exactly what I'm looking at at the moment.
I've been non-resident for years but kept my Charles Stanley (CS) account without really using it in the last few years. They know I live overseas and have never had a problem with it. However, I started a HYP last December and now have a 15 share portfolio where I've invested approx 40K and want to build it up further by regularly investing more but with relatively small sums, approx GBP 650 a month. I also want to invest another 20K in IT funds, preferably sooner than later. Investing in small amounts with CS is costly and the platform charges for my future total portfolio make CS not the best option, according to Monevator. So I'm looking around at alternatives which may not be many given my tax status. Given that I can't benefit from any tax free wrappers and am looking at investing for income I'm looking for the lowest trading options and platform fees.

Any advice would be welcome from your experinces.

Brendan

tieresias
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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#80681

Postby tieresias » September 12th, 2017, 4:59 pm

bjmarren wrote:Hi All and "tieresais in particular as he started this thread last December.

I'm coming late to this thread but it is exactly what I'm looking at at the moment.
I've been non-resident for years but kept my Charles Stanley (CS) account without really using it in the last few years. They know I live overseas and have never had a problem with it. However, I started a HYP last December and now have a 15 share portfolio where I've invested approx 40K and want to build it up further by regularly investing more but with relatively small sums, approx GBP 650 a month. I also want to invest another 20K in IT funds, preferably sooner than later. Investing in small amounts with CS is costly and the platform charges for my future total portfolio make CS not the best option, according to Monevator. So I'm looking around at alternatives which may not be many given my tax status. Given that I can't benefit from any tax free wrappers and am looking at investing for income I'm looking for the lowest trading options and platform fees.

Any advice would be welcome from your experinces.

Brendan


Thank you Brendan,

There is not much I can add to my OP and my reply to matzuba on 20th January, except to point out that if you are living in the EU you might have additional options.

None of the three accounts I opened are ideal for running a low cost HYP. DeGiro is by far the cheapest, but its dividend reporting is rubbish; Interactive Brokers charges a fee of USD10 per month, less trading costs (£6 per trade), until your balance exceeds USD 100k and its dividend reporting is not much better; SVS XO has decent dividend reporting, i.e. something you can copy and paste into a spreadsheet without too much faffing around, and it has no platform fees, but at £7.95 per trade, that is a lot if you're only investing £650 a month. But beggars can't be choosers :-)

Maybe better to invest £2k every three months?

All the best whatever you decide.

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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#83940

Postby bjmarren » September 27th, 2017, 2:27 pm

Hi tieresias,

Thank you for the additional information which is again very helpful. I still haven't decided what to do but I'll probably wait until I've got about 2K before topping up my existing HYP using Charles Stanley. As you say, beggars can't be choosers in my position. As regards the additional funds that I want to invest, I still haven't decided upon whether to go with IT's or 2 or 3 passive funds, maybe Vanguard. I'm aiming at diversification i.e. the US market plus maybe Europe specifically and maybe emerging markets. Although I'm interested in income, I'm willing to compromise on yield if the costs are lower so Vanguard looks attractive from that point of view but I'll probably go for a mix of IT and passive funds and see how that goes. As regards which platform I'll use, as SVS XO has no platform fees and its trading charges are still alot cheaper than what I pay now, I'll probably look at them again.

Once again thanks for replying with your thoughts.

Brendan :)

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Re: Online Stockbrokers available to UK ex-pats

#83941

Postby bjmarren » September 27th, 2017, 2:29 pm

Hi tieresias,

Thank you for the additional information which is again very helpful. I still haven't decided what to do but I'll probably wait until I've got about 2K before topping up my existing HYP using Charles Stanley. As you say, beggars can't be choosers in my position. As regards the additional funds that I want to invest, I still haven't decided upon whether to go with IT's or 2 or 3 passive funds, maybe Vanguard. I'm aiming at diversification i.e. the US market plus maybe Europe specifically and maybe emerging markets. Although I'm interested in income, I'm willing to compromise on yield if the costs are lower so Vanguard looks attractive from that point of view but I'll probably go for a mix of IT and passive funds and see how that goes. As regards which platform I'll use, as SVS XO has no platform fees and its trading charges are still alot cheaper than what I pay now, I'll probably look at them again.

Once again thanks for replying with your thoughts.

Brendan :)


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