New Vodafone Share Dealing Service - Sell 152 Shares or Buy More?

[Sue Ellen]

Can anybody answer my question re the CREST account / selling vodafone shares problem I mentioned above (on 1-3-16)?

Might be best to give them a call. I used the landline UK number because such calls are free on our house phone. 0818 numbers are expensive www.saynoto1890.com Why they give a landline number for the UK (01-2163100) and only 353 (0) 818 300 999 for Ireland is a mystery.

 

[Sue Ellen]

I have got no letter about this, they do not give the detail on their website. I have share in respect of myself 139, wife 139 and three children (68x3). Just want to get rid of them, I think share certificates are now gone?

Well worth your while to search for mislaid share certs. Appears that an extra deduction of €61.60 per shareholder for indemnity,will apply.Cant believe they would deduct an extra €308 fee from 5 seperate small shareholdings. Also, the commission fee is 0.35c per share, subject to max of €42 up to 1000 shares.

I wasn't sure either about whether or not share certs were held by Computershare but had a vague recollection that when we sold Verizon shares they confirmed that they would hold certs.

Rang them to-day and they do have our certs so hopefully no €61.60 charge. I didn't see any mention of this charge on their documenation so just wondering where this info came from?

 

[freewheeler]

On Vodaphone share dealing form received last month . On back of page. See " Important- Missing Share Certificates. Please note that if your missing share certificate(s) total 51 shares or more, an idemnity fee of €61.60 incl vat will be deducted from your sale proceeds." So, say you owned 200 shares sold at about £2 each, but lost the share certificate, you would receive st£400 converted to euro, but after deduction of €61.60 idemnity fee + transaction sales fee €42 .

 

[Sue Ellen]

Ah, just had a look at our share dealing forms and nothing on back of them other than info on ShareGift which applies to UK taxpayers only. The guy I spoke to in the Call Centre mentioned that our reference number indicated that they held our certs.

 

[haroldsxxx]

I decided to add some Vodafone shares thinking this was a cheap way to do so. That's the way it has been publicised. I sent a cheque for 5k euro in the week of Feb 15-19, it was cashed on Feb 26 according to my bank a/c. Yesterday, March 11 I checked on computershare to see if there was indication of a transaction as I have received nothing by post.

There was a trade completed. The trade date was 8 March, more than ten days after the cheque was cashed. The cost of transaction was more than I expected. I knew there was a 42 euro fee. I knew there would be a 0.5% stamp duty fee. What I hadn't realised was that there would be a 72.91 euro 'currency conversion commission'. This is nearly 1.5% of the gross amount of the shares purchased.

Reading the terms and conditions of the sale, I now see that they mention currency conversion costs of 'up to 1.5%'. Should of course have checked this before. But how can Vodafone have a cheap share dealing service, largely aimed at consolidating holdings of their Irish shareholders, and add 1.5% for currency conversion costs. I could understand 0.25% but 1.5% is excessive.

What order of currency conversion costs do other Irish brokers charge for purchases of UK shares?

What makes it even more annoying is that in the delay between Feb 26 and March 8, there was a shift in the sterling euro rate from 1.268 to 1.291, which cost me another c. 2% on the deal.

Conclusion: this is not a cheap service for Irish shareholders given the excessive currency conversion costs. It is not an efficient service taking weeks to complete with the trade taking place at some arbitrary date weeks after you give Computershare your money.

If you have a broker, use the broker - that way, you know the price you are getting, the currency conversion rate and the currency commission rate.

 

[losttheplot]

I only had a small amount but had forgotten my log on details for Compushare. The only contact method seems to be phone and I probably would have spent the value of the shares on phone credit while being on hold. My original Eircom holding was 300 euro. I received a cheque for about 100 euro. I don't really know if I'm up or down.

If you really want to buy more shares it would probably be cheaper to set up an account on Degiro and buy them this way. I think this deal is only useful to get rid of a small amount of shares.

 

[llgon]

I decided to add some Vodafone shares thinking this was a cheap way to do so. That's the way it has been publicised. I sent a cheque for 5k euro in the week of Feb 15-19, it was cashed on Feb 26 according to my bank a/c. Yesterday, March 11 I checked on computershare to see if there was indication of a transaction as I have received nothing by post.

There was a trade completed. The trade date was 8 March, more than ten days after the cheque was cashed. The cost of transaction was more than I expected. I knew there was a 42 euro fee. I knew there would be a 0.5% stamp duty fee. What I hadn't realised was that there would be a 72.91 euro 'currency conversion commission'. This is nearly 1.5% of the gross amount of the shares purchased.

Reading the terms and conditions of the sale, I now see that they mention currency conversion costs of 'up to 1.5%'. Should of course have checked this before. But how can Vodafone have a cheap share dealing service, largely aimed at consolidating holdings of their Irish shareholders, and add 1.5% for currency conversion costs. I could understand 0.25% but 1.5% is excessive.

What order of currency conversion costs do other Irish brokers charge for purchases of UK shares?

What makes it even more annoying is that in the delay between Feb 26 and March 8, there was a shift in the sterling euro rate from 1.268 to 1.291, which cost me another c. 2% on the deal.

Conclusion: this is not a cheap service for Irish shareholders given the excessive currency conversion costs. It is not an efficient service taking weeks to complete with the trade taking place at some arbitrary date weeks after you give Computershare your money.

If you have a broker, use the broker - that way, you know the price you are getting, the currency conversion rate and the currency commission rate.

Your experience is very informative. Having posed the question originally I decided to wait until closer to the May deadline to make a decision on what I would do. Having read your post I am now a lot more likely to sell rather than buy more. 1.5% currency conversion cost does seem excessive to me and I would be very annoyed as well with the delay. Thanks for the information. I wonder if many have used the share purchase option.

 

[CarPark]

As a general guide, you should not let slightly reduced transaction costs to determine your decision on whether or not to buy a particular share. If owning Vodafone shares fits into your overall portfolio and financial plan, then by all means use this offer to buy the shares.

Also, as a general guide, it's not a good idea to have a small holding in shares.

Vodafone shares are around £2 each, so a holding of 152 shares is around £300. I don't see any point in having a holding of this size, so if you can sell them for €30, go for it.

Brendan

Can anybody explain (to a total novice) why it is not a good idea to hold a small number of shares? I have 426 Vodafone shares, which corresponds to roughly €920 worth. Is that worth keeping or still too low to be bothered with?

 

[Raskolnikov]

Can anybody explain (to a total novice) why it is not a good idea to hold a small number of shares? I have 426 Vodafone shares, which corresponds to roughly €920 worth. Is that worth keeping or still too low to be bothered with?

Because share dealing costs will take a far too large percentage of your capital.

e.g. you invest €200, a dealer might charge a fee of €20 to buy, leaving you with €180 worth of shares. Even if you made a 20% gain on the shares, by the time you come to sell, you will have to pay another €20 - leaving you with your original €200. In this example, your shares went up by 20%, but you end up making nothing.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Another question, maybe someone can help.

To minimize costs, would it be possible for family members who all own Vodafone shares to transfer their shares to the one person for free? That might go some way to minimizing costs?