"Avoid self trade"

Avoid self trade - the FSA should look into them. the customer service people don't understand basics of shares or trading. Thier IT dept incompetent. very diff to specify to sell to raise a specific amount - have to convert to number of shares. Why have it on the website as an option?
The don't answer calls or respond to clients concerns or questions.They are only trained to answer questions as long as fits into basis training. USELESS - they were better before they became Equinti. I believe they should be shut down as share trading platform - as soon as very active the platform ceases....and diff to trade. no confidence in them at all. 9 out of 10 issues raised are not attended to. mediocre performance all around

"Horrible Trade Platform"

I am afraid I have to agree with most -ve reviews.
I am with Selftrade for many years and have to say that previous trading platform (software) was good. The new platform, recently introduced is rubbish:
- it does not allow to sell fractions of Unit Trust holdings; you are told to call them!
- opening of ISA account does not work and you are told to call them and bring with you an error message (would you believe this???)
- opening SIPP account does not work either and I have spend weeks sorting it because Selftrade Staff did not know how to do it!

Clearly their IT (and not only) department is totally incompetent.
It is time to seriously consider moving on to another broker/platform.
They probably answer to these comments using automated reply; what a scam!

"Halifax Selftrade scam to relieve small investors of their shares whilst they are at rock bottom prices"

I'm not sure if the troubles I experienced were down to Selftrade or Halifax.
Halifax had been managing my parents tiny shareholding since Halifax went public. No real problem. In view of the massive share price drop after the crash and Lloyd's purchase of Halifax we allowed the tiny amount of dividend to be spent on purchasing new shares.

The problems began when Selftrade took over from Halifax the management of the shares . Personally I found Selftrade obstructive and uncooperative at a difficult time.

My view, for what it's worth, is that the whole affair was a scam to get small shareholders to give up their shares whilst they were at their lowest price. After a year, Selftrade sent out a letter to all those whose shares they'd taken over, announcing that £12 would be taken from the account to pay for the management of these 'electronic' shares. We sold the shares and were charged £6 for Selftrade's services.

When I have time, I'll be taking it up with the financial services Ombudsman.

"Was OK, but now going downhill at the speed of light !!"

After Equiniti took over all seems to be going downhill. Simple process of corporate action before used to be click a button, now you have to send them an email. Helpdesk takes aeons to reply back with incomplete answers. You are not updated about corporate votes and any other company activities and advise investors to tell them what needs to be done. They seem more on providing the least amount of service for the money they charge.

"Not the best place to if you want to trade a lot"

Good bits -
price improvements
Dividends and accounts accurate most of the time
Bad Bits -
Upgrade to the system has slowed the whole trading process - first screen takes ages to load, you have to click multiple times to get to a quote - previous system was much faster
They seem to work on behalf of MMs rather than clients. They show your limit orders to them, and leave orders with them so MMs can take your trade after they have offset them. I have even seen MMs pull bids/offers after I put in a limit order at the price quoted as online trade quote not available
Dealing charge is quite high
On IPOs, your account takes ages to be credited
Service is not at all personal and I trade a lot in their account. Even IG which charge significantly less give me a personalised service.
Only with them as I need to spread my risks across brokers

Have given them loads of feedback but they don't seem to care.

"Selftrade - you cannot do worse than trade here, they are trying to bleed it for every penny because Equiniti is probably Carillion 2...."

Selftrade, which is owned by Equiniti Group PLC, is not a place to trade or to which you should entrust your money; Equiniti senior management are inept/inexperienced/don't care - yet authorised by the FCA who must need their heads examined! I hear that they spent millions unnecessarily turning the platform purple and making it worse; more worrying still, I also hear that they carry a >300% capital loading imposed by the FCA - why?...because the FCA even officially have no confidence in them. So why should you? This is a broken business masquerading as leading edge and customer focused...both of which are clearly gross misrepresentations. I also understand from an ex-employee, who left mid-last year, that they provide the platform for Saga - unbelievably bad decision by Saga who must be very worried about their reputation now.

"Entirely happy with Selftrade for more than a decade"

I have been with Selftrade continuously since 2003 when they were Comdirect. During that time I have opened an account for my company, wife, infant daughter and have recommended to friends.

The website works. Dividends always turn up on the right day. Limit orders trigger or not as expected. Email notifications come through pretty well. I have had no nasty surprises with website functionality other than minor grumbles about trying to find things or having to click through more pages than I might wish.

As long as you stick to basic routine of buying and selling shares and collecting dividends Selftrade will not let you down. I try not to push the system with non-routine requests and never phone them, always using secure email instead. Sure it might be a couple of days before I get a response but that is OK. I don't expect better than that for a business with thousands of customers.

Compared to my experience at iii, Selftrade deserve a gold medal for reliability.

"No way to withdraw my money!"

After moving house and updating my address with Selftrade I am now unable to withdraw money from an ISA account. I filled in the contact form on the Selftrade site but no answer. Tried to call but the Selftrade automated message told me there was a fault and the call would be ended. So I am now in the position that I can’t actually get to any of my money that Selftrade is holding onto. Why is absolutely everything so difficult to achieve on this platform? Rubbish.

"After two months Selftrade still unable to rectify software faults"

This is an update on two previous reviews. I have been waiting fore Selftrade to rectify a software fault which results in the account summary feature on my account showing an adverse daily account value change and an realised loss on the account , notwithstanding that neither statement is correct. Despite having claimed to make numerous attempts to fix the fault since 13 November 2017, the Selftrade product team have been unable to do so. I am now seeking to move my accounts but Selftrade would like to levy a charge and consequently I will be complaining to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

"Where’s my father’s money?"

absolutely shocking! Acting on behalf of my father who is 82 and doesn’t own a computer i asked that he be contacted the good old fashion way by post! after approximately a year of no correspondence i again contacted seilf trade who then contacted my father by post. his shares had dropped and continued to drop significantly so he decided to sell. he was advised the shares were sold and the money would be in his bank 29 December 2017. he still hasn’t received his money despite lengthy phone calls (45 minutes). i wonder whether he will get a good rate of interest from the date of sale up to the time the money is actually in his account! disgraceful.

I have emailed my contact details at 2.15 and now await a call.