Latest Moan From You and Me 2023

Had a stocks and shares ISA set up by nationwide about 7 yrs ago.
Its nearly worth the amount I originally put in it now.

They hammer you with charges and quote covid as the reason its done nothing.

I dont see anything that really works for the bloke in the street these days, I got them to set that up 7 years ago as the investment package I had with them had come to an end and it had done well for me.
Nothing is ever going to keep up with inflation these days as far as I can see.

I still get a few quid most months from premium bonds.

 

I was advised by nationwide that their one wouldn't suit me.

I'm with Vanguard. There are others similar.

EDIT: I pay I think 0.3% service charge for the account. That's on the total value of my holdings. Then each fund comes with an annual fee that depends on the fund. They range from 0.07% to 0.22%. The managed funds are more expensive but I don't touch them. To protect people from making foolish investing decisions, they only sell index funds that track industry benchmarks, so you can't buy into individual companies.

 

I'm probably stupid but I allow Nationwide to look after it for me, supposedly they will keep an eye on things and call me once a year to make sure I'm still happy.
So they take charges.

Then there is the charges for the fund managers, I dont go into what percentages they are charging, but on my last phone call from Nationwide I pointed out that its only them and the managers that appear to be making any money out of this.

Needless to say, the phone call was very short after that.

 

I find quite often if you totally ignore all this press one, press two, stuff and just hang on they answer anyway, I think its just to give you the run around and keep you waiting longer.
Equally when they want you to put numbers of accounts in, its just rubbish designed to hold you up and hope you just hang up.

 

Charges. Argh! The sap suckers of investments' life blood. I decided to go for a low-cost ISA in a very large and well-known Investment Tust for that reason. Small charges.

And another thing - when I first got a mortgage, I was horrified to find out (a week afterwards!) that the repayment vehicle, an investment plan, sold to me by some chap in the back office of the estate agent's shop, gave most of the first three years' payments in commission, meaning that my investment was delayed at exactly the wrong time for building up a sum to pay off the mortgage.

So I cancelled the investment plan, and took out another, as above.

The estate agent owner (you know, the one acting for the seller, NOT the buyer) actually came around to my house to see about it, in an attempt to extort money. I told him, politely, where to get off.

 

Looking at the pictures of the animals at the side of the road, afterwards, it seems they were not cows.

 

When I looked at the nationwide offering, I found that there were only a few funds to choose from and they were quite generic. I was also put off by the crazy fixed price per trade that was about 25 quid from memory. So with the fixed price per trade (fixed price every time you buy or sell) I'd have had to move very significant sums to make it worthwhile. Then there was the service charges, which were quite high, also eating into any growth. It made it very unattractive. Factoring in costs against fund performance benchmarks it was hardly any better than just sticking it in a normal savings account, but with the added risk that it could go down as well as up. In my case, I'd have been better off just increasing my pension contributions, given that the nationwide ISA terms meant it was only worth bothering with if you could whack a lump sum in and leave it for a very long time.

With Vanguard I have no trading fees at all, and no 'spread' (difference between buying and selling price). Just the tiny percentage annual fees. With some of the funds, the dividends more than cover the fees so in effect I get the full benefit of the net value growth of the assets.

All that said, I must be careful to point out that I'm not a financial expert, and what seems to work for me might not be the right option for someone else.

 

I dont have trading fees as its not a that kind of investment, I did have an online share account where you paid trading fees but I got rid of that.
This is a stocks and shares ISA where you can put more money in, if you want to, but that is not something I do, my income is not big enough for that to be viable.

The actual investment is run by a company called Aegon but done via the Nationwide, the one I had before, during the good times, before doom and gloom became the norm, was via Legal and General.

 

I took out a fixed term deposit (2 years) account around 6 months ago. At the time it was paying around 3%. Now fixed term accounts are paying around 5.5%. I’ve decided to close that account, losing 90 days interest at my cost, so that I can reinvest into the new rate.
I do feel for mortgage holders that are struggling ( I really do), but I remember struggling too, having to cope with rates that peaked at 18%. For years, deposit accounts have attracted rates at 0.1%, a pittance, next to nothing. Regarding savings rates, have they ever exceeded the rate of inflation?

 

I think it must be very rare that saving rates have been inflation beating, but stocks and shares can be.

 

It does remind you of the old one armed bandits you used to get in pubs and clubs.