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New online investment platform launches

Henry Brennan
Written By:
Henry Brennan
Posted:
Updated:
10/02/2014

A new online investment platform, Strawberry Invest, has launched today, promising customers a “lower cost and more straightforward” solution to its rivals.

The Do-It-Yourself broker will charge an annual platform fee of 0.40% on the first £50,000.

It will then charge 0.35% to portfolios valued at between £50,001 and £250,000, and  0.20% to portfolios between £250,001 and £1m.

An annual platform charge of 0.10% applies to portfolios valued at more than £1m.

Share trades cost £12.50 and fund trades are free.

Strawberry Invest managing director James Priday said: “With the right information, accessible online technology, and a more interactive form of saving, i.e. investing, people will put more money away for their future. The key is to make saving both simple and interesting.

“We are certainly not advocating dispensing with the services of a financial adviser, especially those with fairly complex financial affairs, but believe that people with simpler affairs should have the tools and information to manage their own savings and investments.”

Investments can be held within a general investment account (GIA), Stocks & Shares ISA (ISA) and a self-invested personal pension (SIPP).

An account can be opened with a lump sum of £1,000 or regular contributions of £100 monthly for the first year. Subsequent contributions must be a minimum of £100.

For ETFs, Investment Trusts and share dealing, investors will be charged £12.50 per trade.

Big name platforms Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity and Barclays have all revealed new pricing structures for their DIY propositions within recent weeks.

Hargreaves announced it would be introducing a 0.45% annual platform charge for sub-£250k clients on its Vantage service

Fidelity revealed an annual charge of 0.35% for clients with total assets up to £250,000 on its personal investing platform.

Barclays Stockbrokers introduced a 0.35% fee to all clients with up to £500,000 in assets, waiving the fee for users with larger pots.