Investment Account - Quick Sign Up?

The Mighty Quinn

Are there any investment account options where I can sign up online, without the need to arrange phonecalls with people to discuss etc etc.

I'm comfortable with risk, know the story, values may plummet or soar, money may come or go, I accept.

I'm only looking for something to lock away for a decade or more, adding a meagre 200 a month or so, and hope to come out better than 24,000eur which is what i'd have if I put it in a bank.

I have personal savings, I have a pension in place, this is just another something on the side that I'd like to get set up and going with. All suggestions welcome.

Henry Ford III

Yes. Contact a Broker to do an execution only transaction transaction. Sign an appropriate disclaimer.

Negotiate the costs.

Sorted.

Jim2007

Between directives on MLA and investor protection there really should not be… but perhaps you’ll find someone willing to take the risks upon themselves to take you on.

The thing is that execution only brokers have to make their money somewhere, so you need to ask how are they going to make their money out of you and what will it cost you? You don’t hear about full service brokers going out of business for a reason - it turns out in some cases they provide a cheaper option.

Drip feeding a small amount like 200 a month might not be the best approach. For example, execution only broker offering low or free transactions often make up for it by receiving an execution commission which results in you not getting the best execution price. If that happens every month it will add up. Likewise additional holding fees, charges for tax queries etc add up.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, take out a spreadsheet and do the comparisons because on 200 a month fees will have a big impact on returns.

dotsman

Sounds like you are looking for degiro. Very cheap & simple fees/commissions, excellent options and no phone calls. KYC/AML is done via uploading docs. With regards trading abilities, if you want to go beyond trading basic shares, there are a number of very quick online tests they ask you to take which will unlock more complex trading options (assuming you pass the tests!).

All the Irish brokers should be avoided at all costs. The fees you will pay are laughable at the best of times, but on small amounts like 200 - you'd be better off just burning the money.

For me, the only issue with the 200 per month is that many shares won't fit nicely with that amount. In some cases, the share prices exceed 200, but even when under 200, what do you do if the share price is 130 - just buy 1? I'd recommend just putting the 200 per month into a savings account and transferring the balance to degiro on an annual basis.

athlone573

There are a number of execution only brokers including for example, Revolut, Interactive Brokers, deGiro, TD Waterhouse

(I am not sure that all the above are still active in the Irish market)

If you sign up and buy UCITS ETF's you can get broad market exposure at very little cost.

Its up to you whether you feel the additional service from a broker such as Davys or Goodbodys is worth it but the fee difference may be significant.

In any case you will need to go through a Know Your Customer process where you verify your identity and ability to take risk, this shouldn't be very onerous.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118372995#Comment_118372995

He is not talking about trading though and basing a decision on the cost of trade might not work out to be cheapest option. You need to compare the total cost of ownership of a purchase in month on and held for 10 years to conclude what is the best option.

athlone573

As devil's advocate what are the options if one wanted advice?

If one knocked on their local bank managers door with the above query or looked up financial advisers in the Golden Pages what might be suggested?