Who to invest with? Bestinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown or Charles Stanley Direct?

A question about : Who to invest with? Bestinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown or Charles Stanley Direct?

Hi,

I recently received a smallish inheritance after my aunt passed away, so I'm thinking about investing a bit of the inheritance in a stocks and shares ISA.

I've been doing a bit of research around the best way to do it and what to actually invest in, but was wondering whether you could give me a bit of a steer on which company I should invest through.

Through my research the companies that appear to be spoken about the most are Bestinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown and Charles Stanley Direct.

Bestinvest currently have a competition on their website to win Ј15,240, an iPad mini or John Lewis Vouchers, so they are currently standing out the most for me, which I know is silly considering the many different factors I need to consider, but everyone seems to be pretty much offering the same service, however I've also seen them in the press a lot lately.

Does anyone invest with any of these companies? If so what do you think I should be thinking about when deciding which company to go for?

Thanks,

Elea

Best answers:

• Check their charges if they all offer the investments you want.
  Do you think the service one offers over the other is worth paying almost double for?
• Monevator have just updated their broker guide https://monevator.com/find-the-best-online-broker/
  I wouldn't be lured by a competition for an iPad mini. Choose the best platform and you can buy many iPads yourself.
• But the cheapest platform may be far from the best.
  Do some searches here by using the name of each potential provider.
• Charles Stanley are doing me fine at the moment. No complaints re service and use of website. They were cheap at time I joined them. 0.25% annual charge and seem to offer all funds etc (managed to find everything I have looked for anyway)
• I use TD Direct, no charges, no annual fees, only dealing charges -been with them for 20+years - suits my needs
  Cheers fj
• Elea - im thinking of investing in a self-select ISA and currently I know very little about how to do this. Therefore I went to Youtube and looked it up. Perhaps this might help you find out abit more about companies and types of investment strategies.
  Lastly - if you don't know what to do with the money, give it to Greece (boy do they need a helping hand)