iii - interactive investor

I am new at it all too and stumbled accross them, have found the monthy £1.50 charge really good.

Have donr the same and been putting in £60 per month into lower priced shares and the odd £10 trade on bigger amounts as and when I have the need to buy.

had to call them a few times whilst learning the site and the helpdesk were very friendly and helpful.

Im sure as with all things there are two side to the story and some people have had the oppiste experience but I am more than happy with them.

Definitely the best out there if you aren't trading with a high frequency.

£1.50 a trade (buying shares only), which can be done once a week. Bare in mind if you want to sell, then it will cost £10, but can be done any time. This is definitely a really good way to build up a decent long term portfolio. I have used them for a while and am very happy with the service.

I had a nightmare setting up the account. I wanted to purchase some shares instantly so I signed up with them but it wasn't that easy. After the sign-up process you are informed that a pin will be sent to your address which will need activating! Whatever happened to instant internet signups?

They sent me a letter which took 2 days to arrive but the share price had moved too much to benefit. Anyway, a month later I want to invest in shares again so I find the letter and pin and log in with the account details, this is also confusing because you get a iii.co.uk account name and password and a completely different share dealing account name and password. After finding the correct share dealing credentials I successfully log in thinking right, i'll add this pin somewhere, upload some dosh and buy these shares, WRONG! You need to phone them and activate your account via pin. So I call them and hand over the 1st and last character in the pin and then I am told I need to post more security details to them.

COMPLETE MADNESS! I gave up in the end.

That might be FSA verification rules. I had that type of process with the Halifax.

Its easy just log into www.iisharedealing.co.uk

no real need for the main page if your trading.

And obviously for money laundering reason checks need to be done.

i hold some bonds in an isa through iii. recently they stopped providing prices for some of them in their end of day data wrap up. I asked why and was basically told they were no longer buying the data.

As a result I decided to pick an opportune time am in process of transferring all isa holdings to another provider. As it happens after a few months the prices have started displaying again recently but my decision to move has been made.

I've often had to phone up to have  payments due transferred from a holding account to my own actual account too, though this has not been a problem with equities.

thanks for all the replies to date guys, most appreciated

I've been with them for just under 2 years and have been very happy with them.

£10 dealing charge is very competitive for share deals along with a good discount on the initial charge for buying funds.Also there are no ISA fees.

I've also found the helpdesk very good if I have any queries.

If you've any paper certificates they can be transferred to their nominee account free of charge.

All in all I don't see any reason to go anywhere else at present.

Btw I don't work for them.