Sunday 4 March 2012

Do you know how much you are paying for your ISA investments?

(SPONSORED POST)
We (rplan) did some research and found that 89% of people had no idea how much they were paying for their ISA investments (and that's excluding the 30% who thought it was free.) 
In reality, you are most likely paying two sets of charges: when you buy the investment (the initial charge), and then on an ongoing basis (usually calculated annually.)
Why is this important? The charges can have quite an impact on your investment. 
ISA charges can seriously affect your investment
For instance, the initial charge can be up to 5% of your investment; the ongoing charge is usually around 1.5% for funds, and less for passive funds or ETFs. Over 10 years, these charges add up.
We found that the difference between the most expensive and a cheaper option could be up to £6,300 if you invest the full ISA amount each year. That's a big difference.
This is why we created a tool to see how much you could save on your investments by switching service provider. 
The tool is available here - it is free and easy to use. 
Simply enter how much you have invested currently and your current provider, and see how much you could save.
The charges you pay go to the fund manager (you are paying them for performance) and to the service provider (you are paying them for service.) Your service provider could be a financial adviser (IFA or bank), a broker, or an online service. In the case of a financial adviser, you are paying for the quality and frequency of the advice; in the case of a broker or online service, for their tools and customer service.
The key to understanding whether you are getting good value for money is understanding how much you are paying. Armed with that knowledge, you can then decide whether you are truly spending with power; and the savings could be significant.


Blog post by rplan.co.uk

1 comment:

  1. Well I have to hold my hands up and say I was totally ignorant about this. I guess I thought there would be an initial charge but had never dreamed there would be ongoing charges! Just shows that we don't know what we don't know - and I'm grateful to rplan for drawing attention to it.

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