Working and affordable alternative to easy equities?

I would be very interested in this.

Preferably something with no monthly/annual fees nor minimum brokerage. I don't mind delayed pricing.

Even if its just ETFs and Unit Trusts that's cool.
 
Hey guys, so I managed to find something, I know I few guys on here use/have used it.

ETFSA: etfsa.co.za

The platform is limited to ETFs and ETNs only, so no individual shares/FSRs like EE.

Fees: http://www.etfsa.co.za/fees.htm
1. Annual: varies from 0.4% - 0.7% based on your investment (calculated daily and deducted on a quarterly basis)
2. Trading: brokerage 0.08% (less than EE 0.25%) + Nominal JSE/Strate and Investor Protection fees + VAT

It looks promising. Hopefully some guys that use the platform can comment about the service, etc.

Going through the big guys (PSG, FNB, SB, etc) websites now to find something low cost and comparable to EE, but not coming up with much.
 
Another good option for ETFs only is ABSA Stockbrokers via the EFT Only account.

No monthly or annual fees which is awesome.

Brokerage is 0.2%, minimum of R20 which does seem too bad. Then there's the mandatory statutory/other costs.

At the moment it seems like ABSA SBs are gonna be the best for me next year, but will first have to see what selection of ETFs they offer. Will save up and buy ETFs in +-R10k lumpsums. No monthly/annual fees means it will work out cheaper than ETFSA.

For individual stocks, there's the Smart Account.

But this has a R66 monthly fee and 0.4% brokerage, minimum R120.

There's a nice comparison table of all their different products on their website.
 
Computershare is the next most affordable platform, although it's not so tech savvy.
 
To be honest, EE has the lowest costs in South Africa out of all brokerages.

They don't charge annual fees (unlike ETFSA mentioned above) and their brokerage fees have no minimum (unlike ABSA and you can't compare the platforms as EE gives you the ability to buy all listed products).

What exactly do you mean by more affordable?
 
pwstraton said:
To be honest, EE has the lowest costs in South Africa out of all brokerages.

They don't charge annual fees (unlike ETFSA mentioned above) and their brokerage fees have no minimum (unlike ABSA and you can't compare the platforms as EE gives you the ability to buy all listed products).

What exactly do you mean by more affordable?
Click to expand...

+1
 
pwstraton said:
To be honest, EE has the lowest costs in South Africa out of all brokerages.

They don't charge annual fees (unlike ETFSA mentioned above) and their brokerage fees have no minimum (unlike ABSA and you can't compare the platforms as EE gives you the ability to buy all listed products).

What exactly do you mean by more affordable?
Click to expand...

Yup.
I've been through 4 platforms and have finally consolidated to EE - took almost 6 months.
Regardless of some growing pains, EE rates right up there when it comes to cost, simplicity and flexibility to access most/all JSE-listed counters - NOT only ETF & UTs.
The ease of the auto-included TFSA-wrapper makes it even more attractive plus simple, online FICA goes a long way to ease the pain.
For larger trades of liquidity-constrained counters, a simple call to their call-desk resolves within minutes (at no extra cost) and in my experience the spreads have been decent.
All other communication I've had with them has been very professional and swiftly followed-up with phone calls and emails.
Let's hope they can keep this up with more people joining.

Important to note that EE is clearly marketed and intended as an INVESTMENT platform, not for day-trading (or even weekly/monthly for that matter!). You buy, hold and (try to) forget.
Some folks recently had some issues with trade-restrictions on a specific share, and although I appreciate some of their sentiments, if you're a long term investor, this should really not be an issue.

If one wants to day-trade, then pay the fee and do so on a proper platform with no or little delay.
 
Pegasus said:
There is one on the way, but its the same platform as EE.

I've got accounts at EE and Satrix,
I'm happy with EE so far, SATRIX however have a kark platform otherwise they're ok.

SatrixNOW should be pretty good, but they're only handling SATRIX products, so I may as well just use EE.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100% with the pathetic Satrix platform part - been with them virtually from the start and the competition has by now outpaced them by far. Probably why they need EE to administrate...
I fail to understand why anyone would want to pay inflated annual fees on the Satrix platform for 'Satrix NOW' while one can access all Satrix products via any broker (free via EE), without added annual admin fees and ridiculous debit order fees etc.

Add to that the absolute mess they made when moving my Satrix counters from Satrix (AOS Partners) to EE, and I have very little good things left to say of them. They used to be a solid offering, but if ones looks here (http://www.etfsa.co.za/ETF_factsheet.htm), there's better, lower-cost options out there. This goes for ETFSA as well, even though the fact-sheet is on their website, all these ETFs can be purchased directly from any broker platform.
 
Anyone found another platform yet?

The cheapest for individual shares I can find right now is FNB Share Investor.

Monthly fee: R49
Brokerage: 0.6%, minimum of R80
 
Thor187 said:
It's not cheaper than EE
Click to expand...

Yip, significantly more expensive than EE.

The point of this thread though was to find a reasonably priced alternative to EE.

Waiting for the EE rep to just clarify some things about the safety of our EE investments. At the moment, not feeling too happy that their name is on the share certificate and I'm just the nominated beneficiary.

I've got a few grand in EE at the moment, and I wouldn't be that upset if most of it was lost, knowing the risks involved. But if it were a few hundred k, then it's another story altogether.
 
Shalin_ZN said:
Yip, significantly more expensive than EE.

The point of this thread though was to find a reasonably priced alternative to EE.

Waiting for the EE rep to just clarify some things about the safety of our EE investments. At the moment, not feeling too happy that their name is on the share certificate and I'm just the nominated beneficiary.

I've got a few grand in EE at the moment, and I wouldn't be that upset if most of it was lost, knowing the risks involved. But if it were a few hundred k, then it's another story altogether.
Click to expand...

Oooh sorry I realised now after actually reading the thread title, okey yea +1

Share saver is pretty good, Simon brown uses it
 
acp said:
Important to note that EE is clearly marketed and intended as an INVESTMENT platform, not for day-trading (or even weekly/monthly for that matter!). You buy, hold and (try to) forget.
Some folks recently had some issues with trade-restrictions on a specific share, and although I appreciate some of their sentiments, if you're a long term investor, this should really not be an issue.

If one wants to day-trade, then pay the fee and do so on a proper platform with no or little delay.
Click to expand...



I'm amazed people still trade shares when futures are so much easier if you wish to just profit from price movements.
 
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