The Lemon Fool

Having maxed out my ISA's this year, I have them on the Vanguard platform I thought I could diversify a bit and look at the competition with a GIA.The big priority for me in my investing is low fees because I believe that the cumulative effect of these can have a major impact in the long term.

Dodl is the basic investment app for AJBell. It is obviously set up for beginners but seems to work quite well and has low costs. It has a quite restricted range of investment which is not necessarily a bad thing. A range of AJBell funds which I believe are similar to Lifestrategy funds. A range of ETF's and Funds. They have done this weird thing where they give a little name to the ETF's and Funds. For example the HSBC All World Index Accumulation is named "On Top of the World". Another example iShares US Equity Index is named " Across the Pond". You can also get the lifestrategy 40,60 and 80. There is also a very restricted range of shares from UK and US...standard relatively safe dividend payers like HSBC, Legal & General, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Tesco, Unilever etc etc...It's quite restricted only about 60 on the list, but again not necessarily a bad thing...

It's only available through the app not on the web. I had looked at a lot of the new investment fintech's but decided on Dodl because its got AJBell behind it. Investment take a day or two to go through and they take one price for the day....Thats not a problem to me unless I suppose I quickly wanted to exit the market.

I actually quite like it. Its a bit quirky..I am sure the design and choice will improve over time. Does anyone else have any experience.

0.15% holding fee. For ALL investments. Uncapped.

https://www.dodl.co.uk/charges#:~:text= ... %20account.

That makes it more expensive than AJBell proper for shares. Although they charge 0.25% for funds.

Many others are free. I think I would look elsewhere! Try iWeb/HSDL/Lloyds. Even II are a fixed monthly fee.

Gryff

I think these are what the media are calling called robo-advisors. I opened an account with Wealthify a few years ago, there was a cash incentive for keeping the account for 12 months so I did. For small amounts they are quite cheap. I looked at another stripped down option Trading 212, apparently commission free investing.

I am thinking about a new SIPP provider in the new tax year and as it's a small amount a low %age fee will suit me best. Vanguard was a contender, Dodl is the same price I think.

I find it an excellent interface - quick, easy, convenient- and a very cost effective way of buying and holding a number of US shares (Berkshire and Microsoft in my case) which are not in a tax wrapper.

It's also a cost effective option for small amounts of investment when just starting out. It's a good home for my son's LISA.

However, for larger amounts and non US shares there are cheaper options out there. I would suggest Halifax as the best all rounder - free regular investments or there's always iWeb which is the same thing but with a different fee structure which might be preferred depending on your investing frequency and style. You could always build up a stake through dodl and then transfer it elsewhere later if that suits.

Thanks for sharing boys