Easy Equities good or bad?

Eti1 said:
I have received the transfer forms. Time to leave
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Me too. Both forms from EE and FNB are almost identical. Filled them out to the best of my ability, and mailed them (EE and FNB) on the same email. I got a call from FNB about an hour later just to confirm, and that they will liaise with EE and get the transfer done.

No timelines communicated though, so we'll see how long it takes
 
Eagerly transferred from FNB to EE somewhere during 2015...
Can honestly not say that this was the right or good decision.

EE took on about half of my shares at incorrect values at the time. I had to manually correspond on reams of emails with Computershare and it was a struggle to get this resolved.
To date my tax position reflects incorrectly (with more than 3 zeros) on the EE side, so in case I would be selling anything, there could be tax issues. EE shows no history that I actually purchased these shares long before transferring to them - go figure.

I'm a conservative investor (not trader) so mostly buy and hold on both direct picks and TFSA for me hence the reason for going with EE. Not selling is the only reason I've not had tax problems yet...

The holdings that I've accumulated over the last 10+ years are now all with EE (plus full TFSA since 2015/16). It is a substantial position (for me at least) and looking at forums and comms from EE on a regular basis about bugs with anything from spreads and timing delays, interest calcs, divis not paid or calculated correctly to name a few, I'm often concerned.

EE might be creative and cost effective, but you pay for what you get in the long run. I just don't think the platform is all there yet.
At the same time, for reasons mentioned many times on this thread, they should not be compared to the likes of FNB, Standard etc., but they should get the basics right - ALL THE TIME, and they are not.

Transferring is work and I simply don't have the time or patience to go through this again right now, but if I were still with FNB knowing what I know today, I would not have transferred.

A less important but very frustrating bugbear for me: EE's daily interest/fees/VAT calculations on cash accounts reflecting on the transaction report is a nightmare if you are a 22Seven user. They completely clutter up transaction history and one constantly has to filter out EE noise or simply disconnect the accounts, which defeats the object... I preferred the monthly reporting for interest movements, but they could not get that right either (as an option) so they pushed it all onto the report.

Just my 2 cents. :)
 
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The reason for my transfer is that I have some funds in a FNB tax free cash deposit, which is generating a fixed interest rate of around 7%. I already have an EE TFSA and a TFSA lends itself to shares (ETFs).

But yeah, I am quite aware of the easyequities faults. I might transfer to ABSA one day if I'm brave enough to do all that admin
 
Finally done with the process of transferring from FNB TFSA to EE TFSA. Took about a week. The transfer will occur 1 month from now, according to FNB
 
jman said:
Finally done with the process of transferring from FNB TFSA to EE TFSA. Took about a week. The transfer will occur 1 month from now, according to FNB
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Hi @jman
I just got of a call from someone at FNB who was trying to help me with the admin. He says they currently only do Cash transfers, which means I have to sell the current units I have on FNB, and then they will then transfer the cash after it has clears to Easy Equities. Was this the case with you?
I was under the impression that you can transfer the units directly?
 
kokzn said:
Hi @jman
I just got of a call from someone at FNB who was trying to help me with the admin. He says they currently only do Cash transfers, which means I have to sell the current units I have on FNB, and then they will then transfer the cash after it has clears to Easy Equities. Was this the case with you?
I was under the impression that you can transfer the units directly?
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I wouldn't do that. TFSA's have a lifetime limit of ~R500k and if you cash out then your lifetime limit is not topped up.
 
yeldoom said:
I wouldn't do that. TFSA's have a lifetime limit of ~R500k and if you cash out then your lifetime limit is not topped up.
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I don't think it will affect limits. The cash portion will not be withdrawn, but transferred from provider to provider.
 
yeldoom said:
I wouldn't do that. TFSA's have a lifetime limit of ~R500k and if you cash out then your lifetime limit is not topped up.
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They mean sell the shares and transfer the TFSA as cash to the other provider. It won't affect your limits because they are doing a TFSA transfer. It's not the same as you cashing out your TFSA.

Selling everything in a TFSA and doing a cash transfer makes the most sense. Every TFSA out there can accept cash and then do something with it, but if you had a TFSA with shares in it and transfer it to Allan Gray who uses unit trusts it just won't be compatible. Same goes if you were to transfer your EE ETFs to FNB: even though both support ETFs, EE supports fractional shares which FNB doesn't.

@jman, when they sold the units, who paid for the transaction costs?
 
Hamster said:
They mean sell the shares and transfer the TFSA as cash to the other provider. It won't affect your limits because they are doing a TFSA transfer. It's not the same as you cashing out your TFSA.

Selling everything in a TFSA and doing a cash transfer makes the most sense. Every TFSA out there can accept cash and then do something with it, but if you had a TFSA with shares in it and transfer it to Allan Gray who uses unit trusts it just won't be compatible. Same goes if you were to transfer your EE ETFs to FNB: even though both support ETFs, EE supports fractional shares which FNB doesn't.

@jman, when they sold the units, who paid for the transaction costs?
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My FNB TFSA was already cash based, so it was a simple transfer.

Oh, and they are required to do the transfer in 7 days, by law. I didn't know this but they called me a day or so ago to explain they made a boo-boo, and will amend the transfer instruction to 7 days
 
Just a heads up for anyone who wants to make use of EE USD accounts....

When you apply for a USD account, it will be opened and you can buy shares immediately when your USD account is funded.

But, when you want to withdraw funds you are going to have a problem.

A friend just informed me you also need to add your banking information to the USD account. Apparently, most South African bank accounts cannot be verified and Easy Equities force clients to open Global Forex accounts, which costs thousands of Rands before you can get your money paid back to you. If you refuse, you will not get any payments withdrawn to you.
 
JustPlainLucas said:
Just a heads up for anyone who wants to make use of EE USD accounts....

When you apply for a USD account, it will be opened and you can buy shares immediately when your USD account is funded.

But, when you want to withdraw funds you are going to have a problem.

A friend just informed me you also need to add your banking information to the USD account. Apparently, most South African bank accounts cannot be verified and Easy Equities force clients to open Global Forex accounts, which costs thousands of Rands before you can get your money paid back to you. If you refuse, you will not get any payments withdrawn to you.
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Just open a Number 26 bank account for free.
 
backstreetboy said:
Just open a Number 26 bank account for free.
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Availability
N26 accepts customers with residency address in all Eurozone countries except Cyprus and Malta, for its basic current account and Debit Mastercard product[1]:

Austria
Belgium
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxemburg
Netherlands
Portugal
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
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Don't see South Africa there.
 
JustPlainLucas said:
Who are they? Have you linked it to your EE USD account successfully?
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Never mind, you cannot open one in South Africa. Again, this means that any money put into Easy Equities USD account may be lost if you do not spend tens of thousands of Rands in opening a global forex account with one of the major banks.

I just think EE should have informed traders of this before opening USD accounts and accepting money.
 
JustPlainLucas said:
Never mind, you cannot open one in South Africa. Again, this means that any money put into Easy Equities USD account may be lost if you do not spend tens of thousands of Rands in opening a global forex account with one of the major banks.

I just think EE should have informed traders of this before opening USD accounts and accepting money.
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This just sounds like BS. Your "friend" is lying to you.
 
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