I'm thinking of getting into share trading, and have heard about SelfWealth (https://www.selfwealth.com.au/) which is a online broker that charges $9.50 per trade, regardless of how much you trade.
Has anyone used them? Is it a legit service? Are there any hidden fees/anything else I should know about?
As I plan to invest in ETFs, I don't anticipate trading often - but just want to know the shares are safe and secure.
Thanks mate, gives me an idea of what to expect (i.e. pretty much zero customer service in exchange for lower trading fees)
I'm currently using it to invest in ETF's. It offers very good trade prices and I have no issues with it.
Thanks buddy, appreciate the reply and the knowledge that it is going well for you. I'm slowly being convinced it is all good (maybe I'm just a little too paranoid!).
SelfWealth is is legit. Check out the links from Canstar and AFR. Apparently it was started by an ex-Commbank employee who was told his idea wasn't good so he left and started SW.
I have been using SW for the past few months and I'm overall very happy with the experience with a few caveats. I have used Commsec and Nabtrade (and still do for international transactions) so I am able to make a bit of a comparison.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Conclusion
Don't forget to use an Ozbargain referral link for an extra 5 free trades on top of the regular 5 that you get for signing up. That's 10 x $9.50 = $95 of free money right there. You can buy one unit of All-World ex US with some spare change with that ;)
Cheers, and thanks for the detailed answer plus advice.
Just one more question (for you or anyone else), from their FAQ they say "The SelfWealth TRADING Cash Account is a Trust Account held in SelfWealth’s name as bare trustee for you; monies are held by ANZ. SelfWealth is not entitled to withdraw any amounts from your cash balance in the Trust Account, except in accordance with a direction from you. Each SelfWealth Cash Account is reported individually to APRA by ANZ, the Trust account is governed by ASIC and cannot be used for corporate purposes. SelfWealth retain all interest earnt on the Trust account."
Does this mean that the money in my cash account would be considered an asset of theirs? if they go bankrupt will I get 100% of these funds back? Why is the account in their name?
Also, I'll be happy to use your referral link (pm it to me)! Thanks for the advice.
Regarding the cash account, I won't pretend to even understand what they're saying there but I would just not keep any excess cash in their account for two reasons:
Regarding the shares, they are CHESS sponsored and you will own them so there's no risk of losing them if SW go bankrupt from what I understand.
This is all just my layman's understanding though.
I've been using CMC markets for a while but tried out Selfwealth recently just for the joy of it :P
One reason I wanted to do it was the fact that transferring cash to CMC take 1-2business days. I thought as I have a transaction account with ANZ, my BSB transfers to SelfWealth account would be immediate. Sometimes this is beneficial as you can quickly buy stocks.
However, seems they don't operate that way. Transfers from my ANZ transaction account still takes 1-2 business days.
Hopefully, this may change next week when NPP is live.
Where do you get Ozbargain referral links for the 5 free trades?
I haven't used it myself, but you can click on the "Deals and Coupons" link after the main post, in other words this link. Then it takes you to a page with the referral link.
Did you try what netslicer said?
Also remember that you have 30 days to use your free trades
They have market depth now!
They also pay interest on money in cash account.
I find customer service very responsive too.
PM for further info.
Not sure what your motive is, but I have logged into my Selfwealth account to confirm that they do not have market depth working nor do they pay interest.
Please check the accuracy of your posts before deceiving others.
He is either a shill/sock puppet or wants to solicit referrals.
They started to offer market depth for an additional fee.
Not sure about interest though.
And one of the worst features is now you can't prepurchasd trades anymore and they won't let you deduct the commission from the proceeds when you're selling shares. Very annoying to have to transfer money just to sell something when sometimes time is if the essence.
Despite their flaws, I am still in favour of using them just because it's so cheap. I don't really trade so the annoyances seem to be OK for long-term investing.
Hi Hogg, SelfWealth here.
Market depth and live pricing were added in under the Premium offering ($20 / month) as there's a cost associated with providing that data, charged to us by the ASX. Unfortunately, we can't offer it for free as well as maintain the $9.50 flat-fee brokerage. Stop loss orders are coming soon and that's going to be free, as there's no charge to us for that.
Interest is provided on the cash account, at the following rate (correct as at the time of this post):
Less than $10,000 no interest paid
$10,000 to $100,000 — 0.5% interest per annum
Greater than $100,000 — 0.75% interest per annum
We're in the midst of changing the sale brokerage so that it comes out of the sale, rather than requiring money in your cash account. Thanks for your patience on this!
Hi Forrester, market depth has been available for a few weeks now and we introduced interest on cash accounts from the start of July. Market depth is only available to Premium subscribers, as it's not a free service for us to provide, unfortunately.
Please get in touch with [email protected] if you have any questions!
Hi SW,
Can you bring back the ability to pre-purchase trades with a credit card or at least allow the trading commission to be deducted from the sale proceeds?
The latter is how every other broker does it. It's very inconvenient to have to wait for funds to be deposited before a sell trade can be made.
@Hogg: Hi Hogg, as mentioned in our reply to your other comment, the team are working on that now — brokerage to come from sale proceeds that is. Thanks!
@SelfWealth: My apologies SW, I did not see that reply.
Don't get me wrong though, I am still very much in favour of SW and hope you all do really well.
I will wholeheartedly support anyone who brings some competition to the big 4.
Your $9.50 trumps everything despite the minor annoying stuff.
@Hogg: Hi Hogg, can I PM you?
I just join the investment boat, and open the SelfWealth account.
Do you join any forum or discussion about investment, trading? I am reading Technical analysis but it is better to learn from experienced investors. Thanks in advance.
I have been using it for last month or so and been quite happy with it. I just buy ETF and LIC for long-term so low fee is a great plus point of self wealth for me
Same. I only buy for the long-term so low fees are the most important.
I just wanted to make sure people go into it know that there are some annoying flaws though.
Anyone know if I transfer shares from Igmarkets to Selfwealth, will I be charged for the transfers?
I guess it comes down to who/what is Issuer or Broker sponsored, whatever that means.
I just wonder what it costs, as some Ozbonites have probably done it due to new IG fees.
Sharemarket is starting to look interesting again.
There is typically no fees associated with broker to broker transfers of shares, at least we won't charge you. If you want to move all your holdings to your SelfWealth account, it's best to do that when applying for a trading account, as it's a lot easier than doing it later. We've had a lot of people move across due to the IG fees.
I’m happy - $9.50 per trade and CHESS sponsored.
As someone who buys a LIC or ETF one or twice per month I’m very happy with SelfWealth.
It's definitely legit, but i have had some big delays in the processing of market orders where the platform had issues sending them to market (on more than one occasion). I'm not sure if this is selfwealth, or FP (their broker).Also, most of the orders i placed through selfwealth were filled in Chi-x at a price that wasn't even recorded by ASX. I never had these issues with CommSec, so i switched back.
I'll consider coming back to selfwealth when they implement international share trading.
I've never had that happen to me before.
Are you placing Market Orders? I usually only place limit orders so either the order fills at the price I wanted or it doesn't.
Yeah, I trade breakouts so generally market orders. Fairly liquid stocks the majority of the time too, so liquidity is rarely an issue.
This is quite some time ago, so could be something that's been ironed out since.
I see. I think maybe SelfWealth just isn't built for trading where timing is really important.
I still see SW as basically a no frills cheap solution for buy and hold.
Something like IB is way better for trading.
I like the performance reporting of myself against the market. Brokerage is nice and low. I'm still in the premium 90-day trial period, so I'm not sure which features I'll lose after that. The main weakness is waiting 2 days for money to arrive to be able to buy with. IG is instant and Commsec lets you buy in advance.
Try using BPAY to transfer money in, it can be quicker (next day) if you do it in the morning.
Anyone else that comes to this thread (it ranks high on Google) there's some old information in here. Updates:
1) Market depth is now available
2) Live pricing is now available on the stock analysis page and order page, 20 min delay everywhere else
Try using BPAY to transfer money in, it's sometimes quicker than a bank transfer.
Course of Sales would be a good feature to match with Market Depth (Course of Sales feels missing now). Course of Sales lets you know exactly how the recent sales looked, so you know if your buy/sell is likely to get hit (or if there's a bot manipulating the last traded price with tiny trades for example).
A little link next to the Refresh | See All on the Market Depth page could work, or another tab next to the Market Depth tab.
Are you able to setup a quicker way to transfer into the selfwealth account? E.g: payID. It’s really a pain to wait for 2-3 days to get the funds in.
I read a reply from them elsewhere that they're working with ANZ to implement a quicker type of transfer. That was months ago though, so it seems to be taking a while.
I know my IG account accepts instant debit card transfers with no fee. That is nice, but I'm patiently waiting for SelfWealth to introduce a quicker option too.
Will SelfWealth be introducing margin and/or options soon?
It would be really nice to have a competitor to NAB' Equity Builder.
SelfWealth TRADING offers a competitive price to other full-service and online brokers, charging a flat fee of $9.50 irrespective of the size of the trade. In order to access SelfWealth TRADING, a customer must be a SelfWealth INTELLIGENCE member
Does anyone know whether this still applies?
I saw on Reddit some are able to access trading without paying for intelligence
I can confirm that I am currently a Selfwealth customer and am trading without being a paying Intelligence member. Let me know if you have any other questions.
What do you guys use for live data app/track shares prices while buying on Self wealth? Self wealth app is pretty rudimentary, and I heard IG and Comm Sec get mentioned alot.
Still recommended as of 2021, have been using it to purchase my shares and am still happy with the service provided.
Have you read these reviews yet? https://www.productreview.com.au/p/selfwealth.html