Hello again. You know what they say; platform pricing changes are like buses. You wait ages for one to come along and then!
Actually, no-one says that. It’s a rubbish analogy. And the buses around here are pretty good.
Anyway. Yes, only a week ago we were digesting the pricing changes made by Ascentric, and now Transact has come along and given us more to think about with a tweak of its own. Some corners of the trade press got in a bit of a fankle trying to articulate the complexity of the charges so let’s have a bash at laying it out:
- Previously, Transact charged 0.325% for the first £600k, 0.2% for the next £600k and 0.075% for the balance above.
- That was unless your portfolio was lower than £300k, in which case the first £60k was charged at 0.5%.
- This £300k threshold is changing to £180k on 1st April.
That wasn’t so bad, right? The net effect of this is that mid-market portfolios will be seeing a bit of an annual saving. Specifically, £105 per year for everyone between £180k and £299k. Because maths.
Also reducing – on 1st March – are dealing costs:
- The buy commission on fund dealing is halving to 0.05% for portfolio values up to £1 million. Portfolios above this will see no charge as the tranche for free trading is reducing from £2m to £1m
- Equity trading costs are reducing too. Deals will now cost £3.75, £1 and 50p for standard, phased and regular transactions respectively. (Down from £7.50, £1.25 and 75p)
So, how do these changes affect our heatmaps? Usual house rules apply. We assume ongoing platform and wrapper charges only, investment in funds and the cost of 10 switches for those who unbundle and charge explicitly.
Remember too that our blogs show a subset of providers and portfolio levels. Subscribers to our annual Advised Platform Guide will get the full whack in our next round of updates.
SIPP first:
And ISA/GIA:
Given that the change to core pricing is a tweak at a very specific tranche as opposed to a wholesale change, it’s no surprise that this has a minimal effect on our tables. Just the one cell of each in fact, with 5 basis points coming off both tables at the £200k mark.
So, it’s not the most exciting change for our heatmaps but we know that Transact will be just fine with that. Transact unapologetically holds a premium price position, differentiating on high quality service (we do hear many good things, particularly about the quality of the people) and holding no truck with racing to the bottom of pricing tables. What it does do from time to time though, like here, is apply some of its profit into reducing customer charges.
Transact, unlike many of its peers, has a clear narrative and knows exactly what it does for its price. More power to it.
A bus in Leith. Probably on time too.
