Direct Broking

[nztx]

Sharesies.

Directbroking's rate card is $29.90, and then 0.2% beyond $15k. A $5k, $10k or $15k order is $29.90, a $30k purchase is $59.90)

Sharesies is 0.5% up to $3k, then 0.1% beyond $3k, or $15 for the first $3k then 0.1% on the rest. A $5k order is $17, a $10k order is $22, $15k is $27 and $30k is $42. There's also a monthly/annual fee but at $30/yr its not a biggie. These rates are lower across all price points.

Whether the problems with sharesies are an issue for you depends on your investment approach. They don't yet have Australian shares. The shares aren't transferred into your name (which is how they do the partial share ownership, but you can transfer in freely and its $5/company to transfer out), and someone posted in the past that you can't post multiple orders at different prices for the same stock. I haven't done this, but some do.

Also some posters have noted issues with their "at market" execution, so it may be safest to use limit orders

As far as I'm aware on multiple orders - 2 orders is the max open at any one time for a company, with sharesies

Limit orders - yes market can be a while - pending status for too long is a pain - if it takes too long
usually cancel & slam a limit buy/sell in instead..

Delay in current market prices off NZX is a pain in the b*m at times when the SP has moved against you in the 20 mins..
especially in trying to buy/sell a rapidly moving target

No prob with up to date US SP when you use Yahoo Finance in another window to see what's happening real time
for the Stock's ticker

At times status pending with US can take a while before a 'wake up' occurs for the buy / sell or at times
sharesies platform lag in US trading catches up sometimes minutes sometimes 20 minutes .. in meantime
you're left hanging on whether the sell or buy has been processed & at what price

As with any platform - it is what it is - and in comparison represents fairly good value for let's say
' you do your trading yourself'' with few broker frilly add-ons, research yourself /no Prof. advice,
fancy Broker walk in Office / premises etc that inflate brokerage upwards to Main Street rates ..