NO need to apologise. I just wanted to accentuate how good Sharesies is. When I used to buy FNZ and other Smartshares through Direct Broking it would cost me the $30 min plus brokerage. Now its free. There is no peer in NZ at present.
Printable View
If you want to do any significant amount of trading, forget Sharesies, totally not up to the job.
That I will agree with. Their order execution is a lot to be desired. But for a buy/hold proponent and building a portfolio it is great. They also give you a tax summary at year end with all I/C's, RWT paid, Gross Div amounts etc. Something Computershare and Link charge you for.
Sharesies is more direct so you have to fill out the W8BEN declaration form every 2+ years. There is no tax obligation other than tax withholding that the US takes on interest / dividend income. The full NZ brokerage firms already hand the tax with-holding on the client's behalf and would prepare separate tax slips.
Both Hatch and Sharesie from what I recall do not do full tax filing for the client. Just the bare minimum W8BEN. It's entirely up to the account holder to monitor their portfolio content if FIF applies or not. (when it goes over $50K NZD in value, etc.)
Sharesies is doing away with their annual subscription fee from 29 April 2021, but will start charging brokerage on NZ ETFs which are currently brokerage-free.
Should be good news for most Sharesies investors I think, especially smaller ones. Maybe not for those who only invest in NZ ETFs though.
Only if you call $6000 heavily invested. I was thinking of leaving sharesies for a while but the convenience and no ETF fees were keeping me there. Now I have to sell my ETF's and move them elsewhere which is probably going to be a first step in leaving.
This is calculated move to make more money in future as the balances of those small investors slowly rise. Love the excited email they sent though.
I am now using Sharesies differently than I was initially. I have transferred my two largest holdings (companies) out of Sharesies now, as I am not intending to add to either of them, other than by way of DRP. So no need for me to keep them in Sharesies. The 4 holdings I still have there are ones I intend to add to until they reach a certain level. I will then move those out too. Sharesies is still the only affordable way for me to buy companies or ETFs, so is now more or less just a “tool” I use for that purpose.
EDIT: Just did a “dummy” transfer without confirming it - my ETF shows up on the list of holdings “available to transfer” - so you should be able to do this if you want. You will need a CSN and FIN if you don’t already have one. Easiest way is to just sign up with ASB securities and they will sort it for you.
Is it just me or does the Sharesies app feel like a slot machine with all the fancy lights and visuals.
When I was on ASB Securities a few years ago in my last foray into share investing, I always bought in minimum lots of $3000 to save on commission somewhat, but now I can put $50 here, $100 there. To me (an issue I'm trying bloody hard to work through mentally) is when ever I open up Sharesies, due to the lower cost commitment of a position and the glittering lights, I'm just not treating it seriously enough.
Anyone in the same boat?
It’s just you ;)
I actually find it pretty good. I don’t see it as you do. User friendly, easy navigation, can easily find what I’m looking for, and works well on mobile devices. They have improved it a lot since it first launched, and seem to tweak it now and then, so it will no doubt evolve over time.
Having said that, I am less happy with Sharesies than I was initially. Still no DRP, which is now inexcusable. It was the number one feature users asked for, yet everything else has been implemented ahead of it.
I now only use Sharesies for buy orders until I have a decent number of shares in a holding. Then I transfer them out. Sharesies is still the best way for me to buy and accumulate with smaller orders, but their lack of response to the DRP request is no longer something I can afford to ignore.
I am a long term investor so rarely sell. I accumulate in Sharesies, over time, then when a particular holding gets to a certain value level I pay $5 to transfer the holding out to whichever share registry they use. For example, I recently transferred out my OCA and KFL holdings. I am not currently planning to buy any more, so they are now registered with Computershare, with DRP enabled. Computershare keeps me updated re dividends/DRP and any upcoming warrants issues etc.
Advantage of that is they now sit under my CSN, which my Sharesies holdings do not. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the process will be if I ever want to sell some - I do have an ASB Securities account which I haven’t used for years, but I’m sure if I ever want to sell some, I will be able to do it via them. Someone else will no doubt be able to elaborate on that.
Sharesies has been awesome for me as they have made it possible for me to get back into investing, after many years of being unable to, due to unaffordable brokerage fees. But, as I said, there are now some frustrations that I am no longer willing to simply put up with. So I now use Sharesies as one of several “tools” rather than as my number one platform.
JAK
I suggest checking with ASB that you still have a valid account now before any thing is assumed.
A trust account we had at Craigs IP couldn't be transacted on until we updated all the personal ID & money laundering stuff.
That took ages
In the end I transferred them in an off market transaction in computershare to my personal account that was still operating.
Frustrating if a SP is dropping like a rock
I can still log into it so pretty sure it’s still valid/active. Have emailed them to get clarification though.
As I said, I have no plans to sell any time in the foreseeable future, and even less likely to do so on a dropping SP. my holdings are all ticking along nicely and I am more than happy holding for the long term.