CoreShares Investment Platform

[Hamster]

https://invest.coreshares.co.za

Signup and FICA

All done within 30 minutes and that includes the time it took me to find a valid proof of residence document. I now have a shiny new Investment and Tax Free account

UI

Very simplistic. Time will only tell but so far it a very nice experience - free of fluff and not PINK!

Costs to Buy
Invest: R1000
Total Cost: R6

Invest: R10,000
Total Cost: R10

Invest R20,000
Total Cost: R20

...that's seriously good!

Costs to Sell
Invest: R1000
Total Cost: R6.84

Invest: R10,000
Total Cost: R11.40

Invest R20,000
Total Cost: R22.80

That would be VAT increasing the costs. So selling is 0.1% brokerage + VAT whereas buying is just 0.1% brokerage.

Investing
You can schedule a monthly debit order of min R250 or invest a lump sum of min R1000. The lump sum can be funded by either EFT or debit order. I used the latter.

Minutes later I got an email stating that the transaction was successful and that it will be completed within 3 to 7 days.

Early Verdict
Platform states that ETFs are traded once daily (I assume this helps keeping the costs down). So for the l that can make do with only CoreShare ETFs this seems hard to beat. For a more active approach I'd still go to ABSA's ETF Only.

EDIT: costs updated in a later post after CoreShares fixed their bug

 

[Eti1]

Hmm, good find. I have been looking for an alternative to EasyEquities. Absa's id verification process is just too much effort, so this is a handy option.

Pity about the platform fee though.

 

[Neo_X]

The CoreShares Online service costs 0.30% ex Vat (per annum)


in the long run that is still a small amount though

 

[SauRoNZA]

Any reason to opt for this instead of buying the same ETF's through Easy Equities?

 

[akescpt]

The CoreShares Online service costs 0.30% ex Vat (per annum)


in the long run that is still a small amount though

0.30% of your total portfolio?

 

[Hamster]

Any reason to opt for this instead of buying the same ETF's through Easy Equities?

Reckon we'll need to run the numbers to see who is cheaper over the long run. On costs per transaction alone CoreShares is cheaper. That 0.30% annual fee might be an issue though unless that what you saved on transaction costs had a big enough compound effect...which it probably will.

Other than that:
* I don't trust the EE platform 100%. There is a thread about it but they misallocated the amount of share I had bought.
* I hate the EE website

So to me it's more a choice between ABSA and CoreShares since I'll be moving my EE stuff when treasury allows.

 

[Hamster]

Costs compared to EasyEquities:

Invest: R1000
Total Cost CS: R6.00
Total Cost EE: R3.14

Invest: R10,000
Total Cost CS: R10.00
Total Cost EE: R31.28

Invest R20,000
Total Cost CS: R20.00
Total Cost EE: R62.54

So CoreShares becomes much cheaper (relatively speaking since EE is already very cheap) very quickly. Worth to not though that if you still have EasyMoney the EE costs are reduced by R1.99, R19.94 and R39.87. But once that EasyMoney "subsidy" money runs out EE is more expensive.

So given the data above. If I was to invest R20k into each and it grew by 7% for the year I would have:

EasyEquites
Invest R20,000. After costs R19937.46 is invested.
After 7% growth: R21333.08
After 8% growth: R23019.62

CoreShares
Invest R20,000. After costs R19980.00 is invested.
After 7% growth:R21378.60. 0.3% (R64.14) platform cost later and I have R21314.46
After 8% growth:R23088.89. 0.3% (R69.27) platform cost later and I have R23019.62

Even! (by chance ). 9% and CoreShares would start winning. I'm sure it is way more complicated than that though and we're not factoring in selling costs on EE which would make CoreShares the clear winner IMO.

 

[backstreetboy]

Still happy with Easy Equities.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Still happy with Easy Equities.

Yeah same here.

They just give me more options and that's worth the slight difference in cost.

Especially when they offer international options soon.

 

[gjm]

I like the Coreshares interface more than Easy Equities.

They also have a quite comprehensive list of ETFs:
CSEW40 Coreshares Equally Weighted Top 40 ETF
CGREEN Coreshares Green ETF
CTOP50 Coreshares Top 50 ETF
DIVTRX Coreshares DivTrax ETF
LVLTRX CoreShares LowVolTrax ETF
PREFTX CoreShares PrefTrax ETF
CSP500 Coreshares S&P 500 ETF
PTXSPY CoreShares PropTrax SAPY ETF
PTXTEN CoreShares PropTrax Ten ETF
GLPROP Coreshares S&P Global Property ETF

 

[gjm]

The CoreShares Online service costs 0.30% ex Vat (per annum)


in the long run that is still a small amount though

The annual platform fee is R342 for every R100 000 invested.

If I am correct Easy Equities charges brokerage of 0.25%+VAT and Coreshares charges 0.1%+VAT.
Using Easy Equities the higher brokerage of 0.15%+VAT will be recouped within 6 months when you compare it to Coreshares' 0.3%+VAT platform fee. This will be the case for buying and selling.
This means that if you plan to keep the ETFs for longer than a year Easy Equities will work out cheaper.

 

[Eti1]

Costs to Buy
Invest: R1000
Total Cost: R6

Invest: R10,000
Total Cost: R10

Invest R20,000
Total Cost: R20

...that's seriously good!

Costs to Sell
Invest: R1000
Total Cost: R6.84

Invest: R10,000
Total Cost: R11.40

Invest R20,000
Total Cost: R22.80

How come trades under R10K don't have brokerage of 0.1%? Is there a sliding scale, or am I missing something obvious?

 

[Eti1]

The annual platform fee is R342 for every R100 000 invested.

If I am correct Easy Equities charges brokerage of 0.25%+VAT and Coreshares charges 0.1%+VAT.
Using Easy Equities the higher brokerage of 0.15%+VAT will be recouped within 6 months when you compare it to Coreshares' 0.3%+VAT platform fee. This will be the case for buying and selling.
This means that if you plan to keep the ETFs for longer than a year Easy Equities will work out cheaper.

Yeah, until EasyEquities changes their fee structure.

 

[Hamster]

How come trades under R10K don't have brokerage of 0.1%? Is there a sliding scale, or am I missing something obvious?

No idea... that's the values the site spit out. Maybe a minimum charge?

 

[Eti1]

No idea... that's the values the site spit out. Maybe a minimum charge?

I asked, and they got back to me with this:

"Thank you**for*your enquiry.

The following trading cost are applicable when trading through CoreShares Online platform:

-*Brokerage: 0.10%

-*STRATE settlement fee 0.005459% (Min R10.92, Max R54.59)

-*STT charge of 0.25% (applicable only when buying)

-*VAT is paid on brokerage at 14%​"

So now we just need someone to make a small trade to confirm.

 

[Eti1]

Was playing around some more, and I see there is a R5.00 STRATE fee for trades under R5000. That can't be right, can it?

Edit: I see they mentioned the STRATE minimums above. WTF, does easy equities do this? Is this even legal?

 

[Hamster]

That explains the R6 instead of R1. Have you asked them?

 

[Hamster]

Ok, so for R1 to R1,000 there is the minimum STRATE of R5, then R10,000 it is R0 but R100,000 it is R50

WTF is going on here :wtf:

EDIT: Basically, no STRATE between R5000 and R50,000. R50,001 is R50

 

[Hamster]

So I raised it with them and the callcenter guy reckons it is a bug. He is waiting for some feedback and hopefully we'll get it.

 

[Eti1]

:wtf: indeed. Not a great first impression.