Bestinvest Reviews

This is a very decent site My suggestions to improve would include easier ways to identify certain funds e g say a mixed bond equity site Still think Bestinvest are tardy at identifying dogs or indeed funds which justify a much better rating I use Money Observer magazine for many of my picks their recommendations have been very good advice That said funds picked by MO quite often are recognised as good funds much later by BestInvest

On the positive side Bestinvest offers both shares and funds and charges are reasonable But it feels there is severe underfunding of the IT platform - there is no App no ability to allocate company contributions automatically the website looks very dated - when compared to platforms such as IG It wouldn t be my first choice to recommend a friend for sure

I see BestInvest as a good value platform but in the past people at BestInvest has made errors in my account and when I tried to move some accounts to BestInvest the person on the end of the phone did not know about associated fees

Frequent issues regarding transactions have left me disheartened and I preferred the old website where you had a spread of ratings together with suggested alternatives Fund rating changes are not updated often enough on the website and when I queried this I was told to look in the magazine

I like Best Invest but their platform is sooo fragile constantly slow Their publications are good attractive BUT should you decide to print a hard copy you will empty your printer due to the attractive but pointless dog pictures WHERES THE PRINT FRIENDLY OPTION

I could get this service more cheaply elsewhere but I would not have the same wide choice of funds Their service worked very well when I was investing for growth but since I switched to income there have been a few hiccoughs when my income payments coincide with their monthly charges I stopped using their advisory service because the advice offered was not based on my expressed wishes but that seems to be true of any financial adviser now

Took advantage of recent SIPP transfer offer to save on outrageous annual management charges but transfer took a very long time and there was generally poor communication I converted my SIPP to cash to speed up the transfer as I thought since the invention of computers internet and things I would only be out of the market for a day or two but it took almost 2 months from start to finish When I did finally have cash in my new SIPP I planned to get it reinvested with regular daily fund purchases over a period of a few months rather than a huge single lump sum purchase but then found it took up to 4 days from a placing a purchase request until I could place another in the same fund it looks like they still move transaction documentation around by post I have found a workaround by investing in different funds and alternating and since I contacted BI about this problem it does seem to have improved A consolation is that cash in a SIPP earns a reasonable return unlike my previous well-known SIPP provider The free online consultation with Alicja Lejszo was pleasant and helpful and she seemed to have researched the specific queries I had prior to the meeting and had clear answers on which I have been able to act If it hadn t been for the apparent improvement in the speed of transactions after I contacted them the online consultation the cost saving on SIPP management fees and the reasonable interest rate on cash in SIPP I would have rated them as 1 so they are moving in the right direction and I will stick with them for now

I found the app not user friendly I found it difficult to find the usual information about my account It s all very flashy but not user friendly not happy I wish I hadn t opened the app It makes it almost impossible for me to view my account Not happy

your company is very slow at getting my funds moved from other pension provider get a move on

This is a platform for inexperienced amateurs They have no European equities at all The range of US equities is very small and are not priced correctly They do not offer stop losses which is about as basic as it gets and say they can t facilitate this due to the Custodian they use They should either change Custodian or get them to implement the required functionality The website and app are dark purple on light purple and the app is virtually unusable because the font is miniscule and the contrast is low with no way to change either so only the youngest of eyes can read it The prices of UK equities are always 34 minutes or more out of date Web access is fragile and you need to regularly clear browser data The cost of a SIPP is way too high If it didn t take so long to switch platforms I d move to ii or another provider Research pages if they exist at all are out of date and poorly populated The direction of travel with Bestinvest is obvious they have decided to target inexperienced amateur investor with a platform less functional than most others The only redeeming feature of BestInvest is their customer service You can always speak to a real human they normally answer the phone quick enough and they are very responsive to issues So in summary if you are completely new to investing have good eyesight and aren t that worried about the cost of service Bestinvest is OK but Freetrade is cheaper if you want something functionally a lot better and cheaper use ii