Mafedi asks: Which online stockbroker gives good rates on registration and trading?
Maya replies: We have compiled a list of stockbrokers and their fees. Don’t just look at price. Take into account service and whether they offer additional services which will help you make better trading decision.
- What does their platform offer? Does it include SMS price alerts and stop losses?
- Do they have research and trading ideas? Do they send out a regular trading newsletter?
- Do they have workshops and training sessions?
Understanding costs:
- Any online broker will charge a minimum commission per trade, whether you are buying or selling shares. This varies from R70 to R210, excluding VAT.
- All accounts carry an administrative fee which is charged monthly or quarterly. Some brokers waive this fee if you make a certain number of trades each month or year.
- The fees listed below are only the brokerage fees and do not include the mandatory costs of trading: Strate levy (usually about R12.45, including VAT), insider protection levy of 0.0002% and Uncertificated Securities Tax of 0.25%.
- The amounts below do not include VAT so you need to add on 1.14%
- These costs can make investing expensive for small amounts. For example, if you wanted to place R5 000 into 10 different shares, the broking fees would probably come to R1 000 (20% of your investment). In this case you would be better off investing in unit trusts or exchange traded funds.
AngloRand:
Minimum fee is R210
Over R25 000 there is a flat rate of 0.75% for standard members.
Annual admin fee is R677.60
BJMDirect
Minimum fee is R100
R0 to R50 000 = 1.25%
R50 001 to R100 000 = 1%;
R100 001 to R500 000 = 0.75%;
R500 001 to R1m = > 0.56%
Above R1-million = 0.35%.
Monthly admin fee is R50 a month
BOE Private Clients
Minimum fee is R70
Sliding scale R0 to R250 000 = 0.7%
R250 001 to R750 000 = 0.5%
R750 001 to R1m = 0.45%
above R1-million = 0.35%.
Quarterly admin fee R134
FNB Share investor
Minimum fee R80
Brokerage fee a flat 0.6% of trade
Monthly admin fee R45
PSG online
Minimum fee is R98
0 to R25 000 = 0.9%
R25 000 to R100 000 = 0.85%
R100 000 to R250 000 = 0.75%
R250 000 to R1 million = 0.5%
Monthly admin fee of R40
Sanlam iTrade
Minimum fee R140
R0 to R50 000 = 0,7%
R50 000 to R500 000 = 0,5%
R500 000 to R1m = 0,4%
R1-million and over is 0,35%.
Monthly admin fee R50
Standard Bank
Minimum fee of R70
Flat brokerage fee of 0.6%
Monthly admin fee of R50 (free if you do three trades or more a month)
For smaller trades:
Standard Bank’s Auto Share Invest (ASI), allows you to invest with a R500 monthly debit order. Every month you invest R500 or more and on 25th of each month Standard Online will buy the shares you have chosen from their range of selected shares, which includes the 40 largest companies listed on the JSE. The costs are around R25, which works out to 5% on a R500 investment. This means that the share price must first increase by 5% before you are making money.
FNB’s share builder gives you access to 22 of the most popular companies on the JSE. You do not have to be an FNB client to access the services. Because there are a limited number of shares available it makes it easier to choose. FNB provides detailed, easy to understand information on each share.
You can invest for R500 but given the minimum and annual fees you would want to invest R3 000 to R5 000 per share. There is an upfront fee of 2% which includes all your costs but with a minimum fee of R50, so you will pay R50 for any trade up to R3 000. There is a monthly management fee of R17. Once you are comfortable investing you can migrate to FNB’s Share Investor Platform which allows you to invest in the full range of shares.
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