Originally Posted by
Trigger
The apps are fine but the zero commission is made up in the spread.
I've used Hargreaves Lansdowne for years now and find them perfect for what I need. Not the cheapest but probably not the most expensive either depending on what you want.
It's all about how much you intend to invest though and for how long as the fees per trade on HL will start to stack up if trading regularly. This is where the free commission apps are great for regular trading, maybe even while learning and getting to grips with it.
Personally I don't touch individual stocks anymore, had some wins but some losses and found it stressful.
I now just have different index funds that track various markets. No fees to buy the funds on HL but there are maintenance costs which vary on fund.
For instance there's a fund run by legal and general which I invest into monthly which tracks the American market. At present because of the size of the tech firms the bulk of the fund is made up of the top US tech firms. But you could probably find one made up purely of tech. There are thousands on there. Vanguard is also decent for funds but perhaps easier to start with as they have less options, I think they only run their own funds, may be wrong. But again you can get one that tracks the ftse or snp500.
Just putting it out there as another option if you weren't sure on individual stocks. You may know all this already.